Jesus Christ - Everything must change: Jesus, global crises, and a revolution of hope

by Brian D. McLaren, 2007

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAYS NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McLaren, Brian D., 1956

Everything must change : Jesus, global crises, and a revolution of hope / Brian D. McLaren.

p. cm.

Summary: What do the life and teaching of Jesus have to say about the most critical global problems in our world today?Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-0-8499-0183-6 (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-0-7852-8936-4 (IE)

1. ChristianityPhilosophy. 2. Christian life. 3. Church and social problemsBiblical teaching. 4. Jesus ChristTeachings. 5. Jesus ChristBiography. I. Title.

BR100.M34 2007

261dc22

2007025312

Printed in the United States of America

07 08 09 10 11 QW 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Thanks to several friends who read and commented on an early draft of this manuscript: Mark Buckingham, Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, and Keith Kranker. Their insights regarding economics, theology, and politics helped me avoid several mistakes and also allowed me to risk making other mistakes less naively and more knowledgeably. Special thanks to my editors, Greg Daniel, Brian Hampton, and Bryan Norman; and my agent, Kathryn Helmers, for helping break a bucking bronco of untamed ideas into a herd of chapters people will want to saddle up and take for a ride.

Thanks to Dr. Leonard Sweet for providing the term suicidemachine, which is so important in these pages, and thanks for so much insight and inspiration through the years. Thanks to Jim Wallis and the Sojourners/Call to Renewal community; to Tony, Peggy, and Bart Campolo and the Red-Letter Christians; to Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt and the people of emergentvillage.com; to Claude Nikondeha and the people of amahoro-africa.org; to Tomas Yaccino and Rene Padilla and the people of lareddelcamino.net, and to Matthew and Lisa Dyer, Melanie Griffin, Chris and Elaine Hill, Bill and Shobha Duncan, and the people of crcc.orgpeople with whom I am able to think and dream and believe.

Thanks especially to all the people I met in my travels whose lives and words teach and inspire me, especially friends in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Your influence is strong in these pages.

If youre like some people (including my wife and a few friends who have been nervous about this book since they heard what I was writing about), you may already feel a little skeptical and suspicious, having only read the title and subtitle of this book.

Youve surmised that the statement everything must change is hyperbole. Whatever your reaction to the subtitles mention of Jesus and revolution of hope, youve judged global crises to be totally depressing and overwhelming. Youve determined that people who talk about global crises arent life-of-the-party types; instead, they score high in the categories of being boring, humorless, and guiltinducing.

If were going to get anywhere, I have to convince youand fastof at least four things. First, that Im not another blah-blah-blah person ranting about how bad the world is and how guilty you should feel for taking up space in it. Second, that I can help you understand some highly complex material and make it not only accessible but maybe even interesting and inspiring. Third, that when youre done with this book, youll not only better understand the world and your place in it, but youll also know how you can make a difference. (Youll also be able to engage in dialogue and further research through the books websitewww.everythingmustchange.com.) And fourth, I must convince you that making a difference is not another dreary duty for an already overburdened person, but rather that making a difference is downright joyfulfulfilling, rewarding, good.

You also may be wondering who I am and why Im writing on the subjects of Jesus, global crises, and hope. Im not an economist, politician, or certified expert on anything really. But I am a normal person like you who cares and wants to do the right thing. I started my career as a college English teacher and then became a pastor for twenty-four years. In the mid-1990s, while I was a pastor, I started writing books, a few of which have been best sellers. I serve on a number of nonprofit boards and travel extensively as a public speaker and networker. Ive been on national news shows as a spokesperson for the emerging church and progressive evangelical Christianity and other such oxymorons (some would say), and you can Google my name and find websites and blogs from fundamentalist groups who consider me the son of Satan or on the wrong side of both the culture war and truth war.

More personally, Im a rather ordinary person. I care about my young adult kids and the kids they may someday have. I care about my friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens and our common future on this beautiful, imperiled planet. I care about the billions of people Ive never met and never will meet, including people who might be called my nations enemies. I also care about our fellow creaturesbrown trout and blue herons, raccoons and gopher tortoises, red dragonflies and royal palms, barrel cactus and woodland ferns. I care about all of these for a lot of reasons, especially because I am a committed follower of Christ, and people with this commitment, it seems to me, cant help but care about all these things.

As a follower of God in the way of Jesus, Ive been involved in a profoundly interesting and enjoyable conversation for the last ten years or so. Its a conversation about what it means to be a new kind of Christiannot an angry and reactionary fundamentalist, not a stuffy traditionalist, not a blas nominalist, not a wishy-washy liberal, not a New Agey religious hipster, not a crusading religious imperialist, and not an overly enthused Bible-waving fanaticbut something fresh and authentic and challenging and adventurous. Around the world, millions of people have gotten involved in this conversation, and more are getting involved each day. (One reason we keep calling it a conversation is that we cant find a short way of describing it yet.)

The couple hundred thousand people who have read my previous books seem to find in them some hope and resonance with things theyve already been thinking and feeling, including a suspicion that the religious status quo is broken and a desire to translate their faith into a way of life that makes a positive difference in the world. They share my belief that the versions of Christianity we inherited are largely flattened, watered down, tamed... offering us a ticket to heaven after death, but not challenging us to address the issues that threaten life on earth. Together weve begun to seek a fresh understanding of what Christianity is for, what a church can be and do, and most exciting, were finding out that a lot of what we need most is already hidden in a trunk in our attic. Which is good news.