Tis agreed. But it's a little more complex than that.
You can say that the 1/3rd or so who survived Titanic were actually rescued "one person at a time"--for that is how people were loaded into the boats. But in reality, there was also a corporate dimension about it. People were saved en masse--both corporately one boat at a time--and also corporately as one major salvation thrust coordinated from the top on down.
Likewise, we only see the "one person at a time" strategy of God played out; but it's more complex than that. He's arranged for manned lifeboats (churches) to be strategically placed next to our culture's sinking ships. He's coordinating the entire major campaign from the top down.
Those sinking ships are our cultures in this world. The icebergs are real corporate sins like abortion, internet porn made available to our children and their parents, greed, etc. These "entities" (cultures) are corporate dimensions. And Jesus treated them as such:
"I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgement than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up the skies? No, you will go down to the depths." (Luke 10:12-15).
We Westerners put the focus on one-by-one personal evangelism and personal repentance. Jesus saw repentance as corporate ("they would have repented long ago"...see also "you and your household" of Acts 16:31).
The word "you" in our culture is individualistic; the word "you" in the original Greek or even today's cultures (like the Japanese culture) is treated as plural (as in you, yourselves).
Just as Abraham negotiated with God if a city would be saved for having X number of righteous people living in it, God looks on us as both individuals and as corporate creatures who either take on attributes of our culture or attempt to redeem aspects of our culture. (We either are part of the cultural problem or seek to be a redemptive part--Ezekiel 9:4-9).
When God at times handed the Israelites over to other nations (e.g.Ps. 106:40-42), he did so on a corporate basis even though there no doubt were righteous men in their midst.
Therefore, we are our brother's keeper in more ways than one. If the Church does not act like what salt's purposes were in Jesus' day--to be a preservative--then it is good for nothing and only fit to be tossed out with the rotten food.
We've all read the history books about cultures that died out. Jim Black wrote a book called NATIONS THAT DIE. It was important indeed for Christians in the Roman culture that died to proclaim the gospel; but there is also a Generational Commission. Our children (and their children, etc) are missionaries we send to a time we'll never see. And so it will be important for me to know that my children and their generations of offspring actually have a vibrant enough culture for them to be salt and light in; I do not desire to be partially responsible for fostering a culture that will one day doom saltless Christ-ones to be tossed out with the rest of that declining culture.
To bring it back to where I started with the Titanic illustration: Too many churches are catering only to the wealthy just as the Titanic's lifeboats neglected those travelling in "steerage." Where are the church lifeboats that target the 40% of women in our nation who've had abortions? Where are the church lifeboats who realize that due to the easy accessibility of porn, that a young teen can become an addict just as easy in a culture of spiritual revival as it can in a culture of red-light districts?
I'll tell you where those church lifeboats are. They're lining up to welcome the first-class passengers.
I think we only disagree on what kind of change God values. Does it make a difference to God that babies are murdered in their mothers' wombs? Of course. Would a law against it be a good thing? Of course. "Thou shall not kill" has never been repealed.
But "Thou shall not kill" was still in force when Jesus walked around. His MAIN FOCUS was not to call "society" back to the law; it was to call people (individually and in large crowds) to return to a love of God which would, of course, reconcile them to the moral law.
This passage struck me as odd:
And so it will be important for me to know that my children and their generations of offspring actually have a vibrant enough culture for them to be salt and light in; I do not desire to be partially responsible for fostering a culture that will one day doom saltless Christ-ones to be tossed out with the rest of that declining culture.
I don't think the ability of the Christian to be salt and light is dependant on the surrounding culture.