The same realities affect our various good works. A certain compassionate effort might produce a short-lived ripple of good will in the city. The same level of effort might cause a resounding, rebounding splash in a smaller community. In real terms, not merely relative, more people can be touched. Word travels fast.
Churches earn collective reputations.
Contagion's of benevolence catch hold more readily. Towns are swayed, politics are affected, schools are influenced, the tenor of life is improved by the smallest organized effort. The church becomes a subculture within the raging bounds of the broader society. Expeditions of good will can set out from the island to calm a few waves and rescue some who are drowning into the safety of the island. In the town, the church cannot and dare not be an island.