Many are the Christians who will state that which I heard on a “conservative” Christian podcast today; “The change we need has to start from the bottom up.”
I do not agree with this. At least I do not agree that the change we need has to start solely from the bottom up. The premise behind the idea is that change has to come as from the hoi polloi before it can take hold among the leadership so that the leadership implements the change from the top down that is already existent from the bottom up.
It is my conviction rather that change in a Biblical direction has to be both bottom up and top down at the same time. Indeed, change in any direction has to be both bottom up, top down, and inside out simultaneously. It really isn’t the case that one can divide this all out and say it has to start as a grass roots movement alone before it can take hold among the intelligentsia and the elite. Throughout history there have been numerous occasions where the change was top down and bottom up simultaneously. Often God ordains that the man, the movement, and the moment rise together.
Think of Cromwell overthrowing King Charles II. That was not solely a bottom up movement. Think of Charlemagne Christianizing his Kingdom. Think of Alfred the Great and his book of doom. In all these case one can easily argue that top down and bottom up occurred simultaneously.
If Christian leadership waits for bottom up alone before it presses the Crown Rights of King Jesus in the halls of power those rights will never be pressed. Change has to come bottom up, down down and inside out concurrently. If we wait for any one to lead without the others I suspect the end result will be defeat.
