Sep
08
2008
Palin And The Power Of The Small Ones
Dick Staub (one of my favorite “culture watchers”) uses Sarah Palin to illustrate what a mistake Christians make when we fall prey to the worldly idea that the biggest things happen through the biggest people. He writes:
I remember a few years ago when George Barna identified the centers of cultural influence, concluding that the church did not rate very high. He shared a plan to work with large churches (also believed to be the center of power) in strategic cities (coinciding with the “world’s list” of strategic places) to recruit the brightest and the best next-generation evangelical leadership prospects to mentor them and help them enter the most powerful educational institutions (Harvard, Stanford, Yale) so they could enter the most powerful positions in the most powerful companies in the most powerful cities I the world.
I remember telling George that of the national book award winners I had interviewed, most were from small out of the way places and most hadn’t attended the best schools. They came out of nowhere, riding on the strength of their talent, internal sense of calling and desire to express who they were in their work, starting where they were in some small, out of the way farming community tucked away in some unknown village in the Midwest.
Read the whole thing here.