The Problem of Scale

Nearly every day I see posts about how other countries do things so much better than the United States. Whether it’s education, the environment, law enforcement, or just about anything else it seems that there is a country out there that does it better than the US.

I started wondering why that was the case. Why do we do so many things wrong? Why is it so hard to change?

One word: scale.

The United States of America has a problem of scale. We have too much of it. There is too much diversity. There is too much land. There are too many people. There are too many states. There is just too much.

People have heralded the free university education provided by Germany. Did you know that Germany is basically the size of Michigan if you include the Great Lakes and bits of Indiana and Ohio? Germany is also largely homogeneous ethnically. Did you know that a city in Michigan has been offering its residents a free college education for much longer than Germany? Do you know why a city could do that before a country? Scale. Do you know why Germany could pull off something like this before the US? Scale.

A speed boat is easier to turn than a cruise liner. Do you know why? Scale.

I think this issue of scale applies for the Church as well. When our communities become too big we lose the ability to change easily. Why? Scale. There is power in staying nimble and intentionally just the right size. It’s better to have many smaller communities of faith than one large one. When we have neighborhood level faith communities we can easily change and adapt to the needs of the people.

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