The Tipping Point for a New Normal
The words that changed D.L. Moody’s life were spoken to him by a man passionate about leaving a mark on the world. He said, “Moody, the world has yet to see what God can do with one person fully committed to Him.” Jesus left a mark on the world. He did it through the cross, but he also did it by investing his life in 12 disciples who then left a mark that changed the world.
Malcolm Gladwell’s, book The Tipping Point is a study of how organizations change, how people are influenced to change. Or in other words, how we leave a mark on the world around us. He asks the question, “How does a system reach the tipping point whereby people and culture are transformed? Gladwell documents that it takes no more than six children in a school to begin wearing a certain brand of sport shoe to reach the tipping
point whereby in just a few days a hundred children will begin wearing that same brand.
Don’t get obsessed by the number, but what if Jesus and Gladwell are right? What if a small group of people fully committed can bring an organization or a city to a tipping point of change? Then the question in our city is which 6% will have the highest quality of commitment to their cause? Who will be willing to dream and ask and risk, to encounter Jesus? If 6% of the people in a city — or a church for that matter — become 100% committed to making Jesus the tipping point in our region, what would happen?
Which begs the even more profound question — what if 100% commitment to Christ were normal for every follower of Jesus? Wouldn’t that lead to a greater-than, new normal?