What Does It Really Mean to “Change the World”?

Quick Answer Summary: Real change rarely starts with fame or power. It begins when families, churches, and communities choose to live differently. The way to “change the world” is to be faithful in the small, unseen things.

When something horrific happens on a national stage, it’s easy to feel fired up and desperate to “change the world” right now. On a recent episode of the BeUnbound Podcast, David and I argue that real, lasting change rarely starts with fame, fortune, or power. It starts when ordinary people do ordinary things differently—when families, churches, and communities choose to build a different culture, raise “ring-bearers” like in The Lord of the Rings, and trust that God is weaving all of it into His plan to redeem all things.

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A few days after the Charlie Kirk assassination, I found myself on a string of very early-morning flights, half-awake. Every time I woke up a bit and started listening to what was going on around me, I heard the same name over and over again: Charlie Kirk. I don’t know that in my lifetime I’ve ever experienced a cultural moment where one person’s name was literally on the lips of everyone around me, no matter where I was seated.

No matter what your position is, this assassination was a watershed moment. It joined a short, grim list of major political assassinations in American history. And because of that, it’s been shaping conversations—especially for the young adults we work with at Unbound.

Our students have been processing hard. Some respected Kirk deeply, others didn’t know much about him, some disagreed with him. But they all recognized the sheer, unfiltered evil of what happened. And that recognition has sparked something: grief, questions, and a strong desire to do something that matters.

A Generation with the Engine Redlining

At Unbound—especially in our Ascend program—students usually come to us looking for three things:

1. Help figuring out what’s next.
   
2. Marketable skills so they can actually do something.
   
3. A community to walk with them while they do it.
   

Recently though, the order has shifted. There are fewer “What’s next?” questions and a lot more “Can you give me a community?” and “Can you give me skills so I can do something now?” questions.

It’s like this: the engine used to get stuck idling. Now it’s flirting with the red line. There’s plenty of fuel and a ton of motivation—but the clutch hasn’t dropped yet. There’s energy without clear direction. And that’s where a lot of young adults are living right now:

“I want to make a difference. I want to change things. I just don’t know what that actually looks like.”

That tension is worth pausing over, because moments like this don’t just generate motivation; they reveal what we think “changing the world” actually means.

Why Activism Alone Isn’t Enough

In a moment like this, you’ll hear two loud responses:

“Get out there and do something now.” Join the cause. Show up. Protest. Vote. Get involved with the organization that’s fighting the thing you’re fired up about.

“Slow down.” Take time. Let the people “in charge” sort it out. Reflect before you act.

There is wisdom behind both instincts. Political engagement and activism do matter. As Christians, participating in public life—including politics—can be an important way we live out our faith.

But here’s the subtle danger: if you absorb the message that the only way to change the world is through fame, fortune, or power, you will feel stuck until you have them.

At Unbound, we talk a lot about this. If your definition of success is only fame, fortune, or power, you have two problems:

1. Those goals, by themselves, are empty even if you reach them.
   
2. They’re also very hard to obtain—which means you may spend your entire life waiting to start, because you feel like you can’t do anything until you’re “important enough.”
   

Our argument is not “Don’t pursue big things.” Our argument is:

Real change happens when ordinary people do ordinary things extraordinarily well.

To be “extraordinary at ordinary” is to pursue immediate, comprehensive excellence in the everyday pieces of life. And from a Christian perspective, those seemingly small things—done faithfully and consistently—have an impact far beyond anything we can see.

What Did Prohibition Teach Us About Culture Change?

To get at this idea, I reached for an example that’s a little contrarian: Prohibition.

We tend to think of Prohibition as a failed, foolish experiment that created organized crime and got repealed. That narrative isn’t entirely wrong—but it’s not the whole story either. Before Prohibition, America had a massive alcohol abuse problem. Widespread abuse drove domestic violence, child abuse, abandonment, and extreme urban violence.

Prohibition didn’t appear out of thin air. It was the result of grassroots movements and political activism responding to real, devastating damage. Laws were passed. Then, yes, there was crime, violence, and eventually repeal.

But something else happened. Prohibition added a social stigma to heavy drinking. Even after the laws were repealed, that stigma persisted. Alcohol abuse dropped significantly, and with it, some of the worst forms of domestic and social harm.

What changed things in a lasting way? Not just political action, but millions of small, ordinary decisions:

The alcoholic who decided, through a long, hard battle, “This stops with me.”

The families who said, “This isn’t acceptable in our home.”

The communities who said, “We don’t see this as normal or okay anymore.”

The churches who told their members, “We expect something different.”

Those micro-decisions stacked up into macro-change.

So yes—laws mattered. Activism mattered. But the deep, long-term shift came from ordinary people changing what they accepted as normal. That’s the pattern we ought to pay attention to.

How Does Ordinary Faithfulness Build Civilizations?

If you listen to the full podcast episode on this topic (which you can find at the end of this article) you’ll hear David point out that what those people were really doing was creating a new culture. They were deciding that certain behaviors would no longer be acceptable, desirable, or even interesting in their communities.

And that’s what we have to think about now.

When we look at the kinds of evil we want to see driven out of our world, the question isn’t just:

“What’s the one big thing that will fix this?”

That’s what pundits and media voices gravitate toward—a single lever that promises an instant solution. But the reality is slower and more uncomfortable:

It looks like deciding how your family is going to live.

It looks like real conversations with neighbors and church members about lifestyle and expectations.

It looks like small acts of faithfulness that don’t trend, don’t go viral, and don’t feel dramatic—but quietly change what’s “normal” over time.

That’s not glamorous. It doesn’t feel like “changing the world” in the way we imagine it. But in terms of what actually endures? That’s where the real work lives.

You Don’t Get to Decide If You’re the Hero

There’s another layer to this that’s both uncomfortable and deeply reassuring from a Christian standpoint:

You and I do not get to decide whether we’re “the main character.”

God chose Moses. Moses did not decide to lead Israel out of Egypt.

God chose Joseph. Joseph did not choose to be betrayed, enslaved, and then used to save his family. 

God chose Elijah. Elijah did not sign up to be a prophet. 

God chose Mary to bear the Son of God.

God chose Peter to be a foundational rock for the church.

God chose John to see and record the Revelation.

Between those names are countless people whose stories we’ll never hear—some listed in genealogies, but most will remain unknown. They built the families, cultures, and communities that formed Moses, Joseph, Elijah, Mary, Peter, and John.

Did Peter’s grandfather know his grandson would be used to launch the church? Did Mary’s great-grandmother know her great-granddaughter would say “Yes” to the angel? Of course not.

But they raised children. They kept the faith. They did the “ordinary” work of civilization-building.

Your job—and mine—is to do those civilization-building things that look mundane but are full of significance and risk: forming families, nurturing churches, building communities, doing honest work, living out discipleship. And then, if God calls you into something extraordinary, to be ready to step into the breach.

Whether or not you become the “hero” is not your decision. Your faithfulness is.

What Does it Look Like to be a Ring-Bearer in Today’s World?

To talk about this in terms that fit our modern imagination, I think The Lord of the Rings is actually more helpful than ancient epics for most of us. Tolkien wrote in a world we recognize—Western cultures, landscapes, and characters that feel familiar.

In that story, only someone raised in the Shire can carry the Ring. No Shire, no ring-bearer.

The Shire has to send its best son out into danger, and then it has to be ready to receive him back. 

Apply that:

Your job is to be a Shire-builder.

Your job is to create families, churches, and communities where ring-bearers can be formed.

Your job is to make sure there’s a place where courage, faith, discipline, and hope are normal.

The ring-bearer might be you.

It might be your son or daughter.

It might be a friend, a student, or a member of your church.

That’s God’s call, not yours. But your responsibility is to:

Say, “Yes, Lord, send me,” if He calls you out.

In the meantime, work heart and soul to build the kind of culture that’s always ready to send and support ring-bearers.

And don’t forget: middle-earth isn’t saved by Frodo alone. It takes Sam, the Fellowship, and armies marching toward Mordor to create the diversion that lets the ring-bearer slip through. Some are called to carry the Ring. Others are called to carry the load, run the interference, or hold the line. All of it matters.

Your Life Is Part of the Redemption of All Things

Every person you see is made in the image of God—and the God who orchestrated creation and history has a specific plan for how He will use that person, and for how He will use you.

God is orchestrating the redemption of all things. You and I are promised that we will participate in that work in a God-ordained way. We may get glimpses of what our small acts accomplished. Or we may never see, in this life, what our ordinary faithfulness set in motion.

But if you are:

Being faithful where God has placed you,

Having real conversations,

Being Christlike in your home, your church, your neighborhood, and your work,

then you are participating in that redemption. You are “changing the world,” even if it doesn’t look like the headlines you imagined.

How We Train Shire-Builders at Unbound

We’re never shy about talking about what we do at Unbound, but I’ll be especially direct here:

None of this is new for us. We’ve dedicated our lives, our time, our energy, and in many cases our fortunes to training and equipping young adults to thrive. And when we say “thrive,” we mean exactly this kind of impact work—learning to be extraordinary at ordinary, to do the civilization-building work that shapes families, churches, communities, and, eventually, cultures.

We’ve been sold out for this for a long time. And I’ll say it plainly: we’re extremely good at it.

We add real value to the students who come through our programs.

We connect them to people and communities that are deeply powerful in their lives.

We help them figure out what’s next.

We give them skills so they can do the work God’s calling them to do.

And it doesn’t stop when they “graduate.”

In the last few weeks alone, I’ve talked with alumni who finished our programs 10, 11, 12, even 15 years ago. They still reach back for guidance, encouragement, and connections—and we’re delighted to help, because we now have an even larger network to plug them into.

I just visited a business this month that now employs multiple Unbound students whose presence is transforming that workplace’s culture. That’s what Shire-building looks like in real time.

So if this moment has you stirred up—if you feel the weight of what’s happening in our world and you’re asking, “What can I do?”—then I want to invite you to more than just feeling inspired.

Come find out how we’re training young adults to build the foundational blocks of civilization. 

Talk to us. 

Walk with us.

Join us. 

We are participating in the redemption of all things, and we would love to work alongside you as we do it.

If this article stirred something in you, I’d encourage you to listen to the full episode that inspired it on the Be Unbound podcast. Hear the whole discussion, the stories we didn’t have room for here, and practical encouragement for living faithfully right where God has placed you.

So until next time—be unbound.