Everything Must Change by Brian D. McLaren

Everything Must Change Reviews

• 
  Hannah

  I did a long summary of this in part because I wanted to keep notes for myself on key parts of this, so you can skip down to the stars if you want my opinion without the summary. :)
  
  Hmmm. I think I liked the overall idea of the book, at least in the way that it was framed, with the concept that our society is made up of three interlocking systems that are there to fulfill legitimate and important desires: the prosperity system, the security system, and the equity system. However, these systems have gone awry, mainly because of our dominant framing story (which teaches us that we can have success without limits, environmental or otherwise; that we must compete for "our" good, not work for the common good, thereby creating hatred and mistrust between classes/nations; and that violence can be a way to peace, thereby leading us to arm ourselves more and more while making everyone feel less secure). These systems going haywire are propelling us towards our future, a future of destruction, thus his appellation for this system: the suicide machine. (It works for what he's trying to say, but I just don't like it... let's just call it what it is, I think I'm being an artistic snob, since I can't come up with a legitimate complaint about it.)
  
  McLaren says that Jesus comes to free us from our destructive framing story with a new one, "good news." He re-reads the Jesus story in a way that situates Jesus in his historical context, defying the major groups/ways of dealing with Roman oppression at the time (those who wanted to revolt, those who wanted to become more pious and therefore gain God's good will/freedom again, and then those who joined the Romans and tried to profit from their rule). In contrast to the narratives of all of these groups, Jesus is both claiming to be the ultimate authority instead of Caesar in a way that is not just religious but also political, and calling people to follow him to a new way of dealing with the Roman empire/life in general that is nonviolent, focused on inner motives instead of hypocritical action, loving all instead of just one's "group," and not worrying about wealth/security, but trusting God instead. Ultimately, this new framing story works to create a "beloved community." The kingdom of God is very much intended to be situated in the world, and not drawn away from it, so much so that McLaren talks about the kingdom of heaven appearing here on Earth through the effort of people with God, rejecting the rapture/tribulation/apocalypse idea.
  
  He then goes on to what I felt was the most interesting and compelling part of the book, talking about the different systems in their context today, and how we can change them. The security system was the one most shocking to me. McLaren reframes Jesus' crucifixion as Jesus "us[ing:] the cross to expose Roman violence and religious complicity with it, while pronouncing a sentence of forgiveness on his crucifiers... [the cross:] represents a... display of God's willingness to accept rejection and mistreatment, and then respond with forgiveness, reconciliation, and resurrection. In this kingdom, peace is not made and kept through the shedding of blood of enemies, but the king himself sacrifices his blood to make a new kind of peace, offering amnesty to repentant rebels and open borders to needy immigrants." This is set against our current religious and security context in America, where we all too often allow religion to legitimize war, and where we spent, in 2006, more money than the next 25 nations below us combined on defense, not including on Iraq and Afghanistan! We have enough weapons and missiles to destroy the Earth several times over, but we still must keep them and maintain them because, as a foreign policy planner said in 1948, "We have about 50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population... Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity." UNBELIEVABLE, but at the same time, so incredibly true. McLaren then proposes that the true aim of our security system is to ensure that our interests--economic, political, or otherwise--remain unthreatened through bullying other nations and keeping itself from ever being held accountable globally. We may try to justify the US' military budget by our giving, but "US military expenditures were twenty-one times larger than diplomacy and foreign aid combined, and ... the United States was dead last among the most developed nations in foreign aid as a percentage of GDP. ... a mere ten percent of the US military budget, if reinvested in foreign aid and development, could care for the basic needs of the entire world's poor." Wow. Truly reminiscent of Charlie Wilson's War... are we more interested in "protecting" ourselves from the poor, or feeding, clothing, and educating them so that there is true peace through caring for one another?
  
  At the same time, mind-bogglingly, because keeping up this security system is so expensive, the US (or, particularly, McNamara), came up with the idea that we should sell weapons to other countries to help fund our own security. This quote from McLaren is priceless: "What could be more rational than Americans selling weapons to other nations who will then use the against American soldiers and their allies?" While the US and the other four members of the UN Security Council are the biggest exporters of weapons (86.7% of the market), 80% of the top buyers were countries that the State Department has labeled undemocratic or failing to uphold human rights. The icing on the cake: "the US, GB, and France earned more income from selling weapons to developing countries than they gave those developing countries in aid." We are addicted to war, McLaren says, to the "high" that it gives us of feeling powerful, and even just to the feeling it gives us that something is going on, instead of the "malaise" of peace. To break this addiction, Jesus must "replace the craving for security with another craving, and... fill the potential boredom of peace with something more fulfilling than the addictive white powder of war": fighting against injustice and for the good of each other through courageous non-violence, and filling their lives with the struggle for peace and the struggle to love one another. We must do this through changing the way that we live, defusing even the small acts of violence (name-calling/dehumanizing others, daily conflicts) in order to work for a peace that will be far more fulfilling than war.
  
  The real purpose of the security system, then, is to maintain the inequities of the prosperity system, which gives us identity but also keeps us eternally in the rat race of trying to satisfy the new desires that capitalism is creating for us. McLaren calls this theocapitalism, which has four laws: Progress through Rapid Growth, Serenity through Possession and Consumption, Salvation through Competition Alone, and Freedom to Prosper through Unaccountable Corporations. Very interestingly, when talking about corporations, he references a documentary that talks about how corporations are "externalizing machines" that try to externalize any negative consequences while maximizing profits without costs. An FBI consultant talks about how corporations: "show callous unconcern for others" (ie, their sweatshop workers), can't maintain relationships (if their workers demand more, they move out of the country/to another place), don't care about the safety of others, continually lie and deceive others when it will profit them, don't conform to the "social norms about lawful behaviors," and "demonstrate an incapacity to experience guilt" about these behaviors. These characteristics are the characteristics of a psychopath from the DSM-IV! If we continue living this way, we are ensuring our own unhappiness, inequality, and destruction; rather, we must take into account the resources/waste that we are using/producing, and replace the laws of theocapitalism with Jesus' mindset. The new laws would be Good Deeds for the Common Good (economic, ecological, and social sustainability), Satisfaction through Gratitude and Sharing (exposing the lie that consumption will make you happy, when it is community that studies have shown truly brings satisfaction), Salvation through Seeking Justice (we can't keep perpetuating a system in which there always must be losers, but must create justice), and Prosper by Building Better Communities (the rich and poor joining together to make a better world, rather than being set against one another).
  
  On to the equity system, which is too small and dysfunctional to be able to regulate the security and prosperity systems (because it depends on their funding to survive--so true as someone who works in a non-profit!), and therefore can't really change the rules of the system or challenge it, so it spends its time on less significant and even trivial issues. While the prosperity system drives us to get more faster regardless of the human cost to others, the security system must be eternally pumped up to protect our increasing inequities, making tension skyrocket and providing "the perfect recipe for frequent outbreaks of violence and catastrophic war." The 3 richest people on earth have wealth greater than the combined GDP of the world's 48 poorest countries; the wealthiest 20% have incomes 83 times higher than the poorest 20%; and developing nations are receiving 3% of their GDP in aid, but paying back 6.3% to other nations, thereby losing ground. The US specifically has the worst income gap among industrialized nations, with the richest 1% owning 47% of all assets, and Caucasians having a net worth 5.5 times that of African-Americans. The ratio of the average CEO salary to that of the average American worker is 301:1 (2003).
  
  While we can choose to think that the wealth of the rich is causing the poverty of the poor, it is actually systematic injustice that is causing both, and it is that that we must aim our efforts at. McLaren says that we must repent of our collective sin and work towards social holiness, in which we try to help the poor through generosity, call the rich to use their resources and efforts to do the same, and work to detect and remove injustice to create a functioning equity system. He also proposes a path to doing so similar to what's found in things like the One Campaign, etc: changing trade policies, aid, debt relief, putting limits on pollution/consupmtion, fair wages, justice, community. If we do not work towards these things but continue blindly down our current path, we run the very real risk of revolution (which I feel like is very true--a walk through downtown New Haven feels like the city is simmering with the possibility of it, with the stark difference between Yale and the city's poorer populations).
  
  The main call to action, then, is to stop believing in the dominant framing story, but rather to live through Jesus' alternative vision (and not just say we believe it, but actually unlearn the dominant story's propaganda and become students together of how to live in a new way). This will go beyond current ideological struggles that are enmeshed in the framing story and therefore can't move beyond it (Republican vs. Democrat, for example, or pro-life vs. pro-choice/free market companies using the environment vs. environmental protection, because both are arguing from the same framing story that "individuals can engage in pleasureable or profitable behaviors with undesired consequences and either avoid the consequences or clean them up later.") McLaren calls us to hopefully engage the world, on an individual, community, and social level, to create a beloved community and sacred ecosystem that will be the realization of the "new heaven and new earth" talked about in Revelations, here on our very planet.
  
  ***** I felt that a lot of what McLaren said in this book was very true in terms of analyzing where our world is at, and making some general prescriptions/analyzations of Jesus' words as to where we should go from here to bring about change/the kingdom of heaven on earth. What I'm still left confused about is that, after his deconstruction of "modern American Christianity's" doctrine and setting that against what I guess would be termed a more social doctrine, he doesn't seem to fully explain his new theology, or at least, it's not clear to me what he's keeping and what he's rejecting from the "old model." Is the idea of salvation from sin through grace just out the window in favor of "salvation", ie alleviating the consequences/inequities, from oppressing the poor through social action? Or are the two somehow intertwined still in some way? It very much seems as if McLaren is still expecting that we will be depending on God, trusting God, and receiving power through God in order to effect the kind of changes that he's talking about. I guess I'm just not clear on his theology now, but maybe that's because I haven't read any of his other books, and this was clearly more focused on addressing global crises than developing a systematic theology.
  
  I feel like apologizing for it, but I also must say that there were times when his writing style just alienated me by feeling too patronizing or just flat-out condescending (all of these things that I've learned and figured out are going to be hard for you to understand, but "we'll" figure it out together, okay?), and I also object on personal terms to the overuse of the adjective "idiotic," on the grounds that it annoys me and often didn't really illuminate his point further. There was also a slight overuse of adjectives in general, that made it seem like he was throwing them in just for the sake of using more words.
  
  Getting past that, I felt like he made his arguments well for why our current system isn't working, and how we're truly driving ourselves further and further towards a crisis point. That's something that I think should be pretty clear to most people without reading the book, but I think it's helpful to have things spelled out in a way that shows the gravity of the situation, and this book did that well. Perhaps there was not as much of a "call to action" as there was of describing the problem (which almost always seems to be the case), and the "call to action" was sometimes encouraging but sometimes also felt a little flat. Overall, though, I think it was capable of motivating change, and for me, is making me want to reflect more on how I can work against these dominant assumptions that we're trapped in. The part that I struggle with is that the end of the book seems like a prescription for social action with Jesus thrown in as justification, but I don't think that's intentional. For myself, I'd like my personal/community/social changes to be motivated and directed by my faith, but there's not too much illumination from McLaren about how that's supposed to come about, although that's probably for the best, as it's something that we're each supposed to go about in our own ways as we are guided to.
  
  I'd definitely consider reading more books by McLaren... swallowing the writing style is a little like taking cough medicine: you do it because you know that it will probably help you somehow, so I think I can grin and bear it.
• 
  Robert Irish

  This book is now almost ten years old, and it stands up remarkably well. I think that the review writers who read this back in 2007 are probably feeling a bit sheepish, because McLaren has been proven more right than mere coincidence would allow. The book is a powerful exploration of the systems of global destruction (he calls it the suicide machine). McLaren asks two overarching questions: what are the biggest global problems (and the ones he picks are still poignant today) and what does Jesus have to say about them? He challenges the myths of prosperity (make America great again, anyone?), security (let's build a wall!) and equity. He shows how these create a spiral to destruction. His analysis of the biggest problems is, in short, right on. We've since seen the Occupy movement, the debt crises in Europe, the civil war and terrorist violence from Syria ... the very things that McLaren's analysis would lead us to expect. As for Jesus, he has to do a significant reframing of Jesus to free Him from the cultural baggage of U.S. evangelicalism. This is a move that is consistent with other writers and thinkers about taking Christ-following forward from the moribund church (e.g. Brian Walsh, Jim Wallis, Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne etc). McLaren's Jesus is a radical who challenges the structures of power and challenges people to liver differently -- to live against and apart from the suicide machine. The thing about that suicide machine is it needs our acceptance to continue. As we move outside its force and live differently and advocate differently, the possibility is to bring life instead of death. I know I will be coming back to this book, probably more than once. He anticipated the work of Naomi Klein, whose This Changes Everything has a remarkable similar title and covers very similar ground -- but McLaren offers something more substantive by way of solution. Arguably, this only shows how hopeless the case is in Klein's book since the viable plan is the weakest part of McLaren's book.
• 
  Adam

  I liked what he had to say, although there was not a whole lot of new information but I found it to be poorly written. I'm just not a big fan of McLaren's writing style but I do like his worldview.
• 
  Jennifer Jeffries

  A friend kindly sent this to me, and I'm taking a huge swing out of my current reading themes to some to grips with some global issues I've been ignoring for a long time. . .
• 
  Tim

  I have mixed feelings about this book. Brian has had a great impact on me through his writings and in the very rich time I got to spend as a student of his at Fuller Seminary. I love what Brian is doing in bringing the words and deeds of Jesus to bear on these crucial global questions of consumption, war, and justice. And he frames them so well - the prosperity system, the security system, and the equity system - and has some excellent thoughts on how we move forward on these issues as followers of Jesus.
  But I found his theological rationale to be very disappointing. By dismissing (or at the very least minimizing) what he calls the "conventional view" of the gospel and advocating an "emerging view" of the gospel, I'm afraid Brian exchanges one reductionistic version of the gospel for another. What he adds in the emerging view is great - biblical concepts which the church has indeed embraced throughout history, and which are in need of reemphasis now. The problem is not what he adds, but what he takes away, namely a view of the gospel, atonement, and salvation that deals with personal sin, redemption, and the life to come. What is left is a gospel that is reduced in another direction - dealing only with societal and systemic sin and injustice.
  This is a real shame and utterly unnecessary, as a person does not need to let go of the one to grasp the other. Both views are biblical and need to be embraced, not pitted against one another. What's more, I believe that such a one-sided gospel will ultimately undermine the very work Brian wants to accomplish. Systemic sin cannot be addressed without a corresponding redemption of individuals, or the new systems will quickly become corrupt as well. I appreciate Brian's concern that the pendulum has swung too far in one direction, but the way to correct that is not by swinging all the way to the other side, but rather by embracing as holistic a gospel as we are able.
  I do recommend this book for those wanting to wrestle with how Jesus would call us to minister justice in today's world, but would encourage the reader to also take in others that are more balanced and holistic in their theology. For those wanting a more solid biblical and theological basis to guide and sustain such action, I recommend "The Mission of God" by CJH Wright, "The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard, and "Good News and Good Works" by Ron Sider.
• 
  Ashley

  The first words I uttered upon finishing this book were, "Thank goodness." Not that it was written and offered a fresh viewpoint on a believer's role in the world, but that is was over. I've read other books by McLaren and have appreciated his depth of theological knowledge and his insight into the current cultural war over authentic religion, however this book was painful.
  
  1) Style- The writing oscillates between a collection of well-researched statistics lined up to prove a point and the last paragraph of a resounding sermon complete with layer upon layer of parallel sentences. McLaren does not synthesize the mountains of statistics included to illustrate his arguments in a way that allows the reader to walk away with usable knowledge. He then beats the point to a bloody pulp. Along the way, he invents a variety a mildly annoying terms that make reading more confusing and less enjoyable.
  
  2) Topic- What possessed this author to undertake ALL global crises as a plausible book topic? Entire narratives have been written by experts in each separate field (economics, politics, environment, religion) with only moderate success and yet he believes he can write a digestible tome encompassing ALL of them? For shame. This smacks of arrogance and pride, and is as successful as the blind leading the blind. His main message: the world is screwed up and does not function as God intended. Duh.
  
  There are certainly true statements in Everything Must Change (that being one of them), but overall this was a highly unsatisfying read with little to no functional advice beyond the currently vogue methods of social justice and green living.
• 
  Chad Cantrell

  A great and inspiring read. I really want to give this a 5-star rating, but the call to action that McLaren urges seems slightly undermined by the fact that he doesn't offer a lot of practical ways for us to contribute to his vision. There is a lot here, though, and I do highly recommend it. McLaren recounts his experiences in poverty-stricken villages and cities around the world, offering touching testimonials from people who truly need things to change. He then proceeds to outline the world's fundamental problems, and submits that these issues cannot be overcome unless we change the way we think, rather than just the way we act. My fear, however, is that a lot of this book is wishful thinking, even though I wish that weren't the case. For me, it just seems as though the people who could benefit most from reading it are likely the very ones who are too stubborn to listen to what it has to say.
• 
  Amy

  Not as readable for me as the "New Kind of Christian" trilogy, but lots of challenging stats to wrestle with. It's exciting to think that we're on the cusp of a great revolution in the church...I hope we can come through!
• 
  Tim Cowley

  Brian McLaren's writings first become known to me through "Generous Orthodoxy" and it was, for me, a refreshing read focusing on the strengths of the various Christian church 'brands', as they were, instead of trying to convince the reader what is wrong with everyone else's versions of Christianity.
  
  My own path of church attendance and denominational affiliation boils down to what my parents chose for those first 17 years of my life. We started out as Independent Fundamental Baptists then gradually loosened up, just a bit, through my junior high to high school years. I was definitely leary of charismatics, sure that they were all about experience while lacking actual theological grounding. And the whole lot of Lutherans... they just wanted to be Catholics while still calling themselves Protestant I reckoned.
  
  But being young has the advantage of having plenty of time ahead to change one's views and when I moved out of the house and began to attend a Baptist college (General Association of Regular Baptists: "GARB" for short) my world began to open up. Not thanks to my college, which was heavy on a not-so-subtle condemnation of charismatics and others who didn't fall in line with their particular view on dispensationalism and gifts of the spirit and plenty of other things, but thanks to a church that Naomi and I began to attend that was a watershed experience to me in so many ways.
  
  We were living in Cedarville, Ohio at the time and I often bumped around to many area churches during the first two years of college attendance. After all, it was a requirement and if we showed a lack of attendance to daily chapel and Sunday worship then it would reflect on our behavioral standing. (I can see their point, but I'm not sure how I feel about forcing grown adults to attend services.) The church we started to go to, Fellowship Christian, was open to the "gifts of the spirit" and had such a spirit of cooperation with other area churches regardless of race or denomination. I remember Tom (I think his name was), the pastor overseeing the students like us, who shared with me over lunch one Sunday the name of a book that would convince me that my theology was too close minded. FCC also offered us spiritual fellowship with other believers from schools other than Cedarville, something we really felt like we needed since some measure of diversity can be a healthy thing.
  
  We would go on to get married at that church and then move out to Arizona where we became members at an Evangelical Free Church, only to head to the Philippines under the Vineyard movement (where Naomi was trained as a midwife). That experience continued to open my understanding to supernatural spiritual gifts and we just loved the worship (probably what made the Vineyard church more well known than anything else other than John Wimber's leadership). But we also left convinced that their brand of missiology wasn't what we wanted to emulate nor their choice of leadership styles. Still, we learned a lot and when we came to Africa we found ourselves part of quite a diverse evangelical grouping.
  
  McLaren's "Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope" also resonates with my own experience. Now I know of the controversy surrounding Brian's writings and theology but rather than go there and condemn him for the soundbites I've seen posted on the internet, I prefer to look at what I read for myself. I feel that the Christian movement in America is under a major change in philosophy. It seems to me that much of the younger generation just doesn't get present-day "church" and I can't say I blame them. So much of it seems to only preach salvation while ignoring real world needs like poverty, hunger and the growing disparity between rich and poor. Fortunately, the younger generations seem to have become more aware of the excesses of our time and want to see positive change. Most of the churches I am familiar with also tend to be also completely one-sided politically, convinced that God is Republican, and I see these lines becoming more blurry with younger generations (I'm in my late 30s if that tells you anything). Our culture values big business and doesn't care much about the little guy and this, too, often comes across even in the church culture.
  
  The opening chapters especially made me really try to process what it means to bring the Kingdom of God to this physical, fallen world. The author shares with us various "framing stories" that force us to consider where we fall in line and where our own worldviews differ from what Jesus wants to see happen in the world. Our changes in worldview should affect how we view our government and the ways that it chooses to spend its money (more wars? is torture justifiable? arms sales to friends and enemies just to make a buck?). It should affect how we view the way we use resources in the world. Do we care what we are leaving our children, grandchildren and future generations?
  
  I applaud McLaren for raising these difficult questions. They make us uncomfortable, as they should. If we really begin to follow through with this thought process, we might be forced to change our lifestyle into one that is more in line with the environment, less about collecting collecting collecting and using using using.
  
  Living in Africa these past ten years nearly, I see a lot of poverty every day. And I've seen a lot of foreign aid come in with the intention of changing the lives around me for the better. In most cases, it doesn't work and I believe probably never will until the very worldview in which people see things, their "framing story" if we borrow McLaren's term, is not in line with where it should be. Similarly, our own worldview in America is also messed up in many ways.
  
  These things aren't pretty to think about, but I believe that we must face them anyway. So if you want to be challenged, pick up a copy of "Everything Must Change". Each chapter ends with group discussion questions which I think will be the best way to utilize the potential this book has for positive change.
• 
  Joe Henry

  In this book, McLaren offers an analysis of the human situation: needs for a security system, a prosperity system, and an equity system. He describes our current unchecked (market regulated) capitalistic system as a suicide machine, in which the impetus for unlimited consumption creates greater prosperity for some but at the same time greater inequity and the need for greater security for those who have the goods & services. He presents the way of Jesus as the alternative that can save us.
  
  It is a challenging book with a call to radical obedience. Honestly, I suspect my discipleship will be rather less ambitious and more subdued.
  
  But I have kept thinking about it. Following is the prayer of confession from yesterday's worship service in my congregation:
  
  Forgiving God,
  We confess that we are indeed conformed to this world.
  We conform to this world's frantic pace, too hectic to notice all the blessings you provide.
  We conform to this world's reckless waste, exploiting what you entrust to our care.
  We conform to this world's shallow values, oblivious to the giftedness of people different from us.
  We conform to this world's impatient attitudes, preferring the latest instead of the lasting.
  Forgive our conformity and transform us, O God.
  We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
• 
  Corey

  The Narrow road. Few will want to walk it.
  
  In this book Brian names the problems (societal and individual) and proposes the solution (answer)- the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It’s the truth that people who call themselves Christian don’t want to hear - “to call yourself a Christian means to that the teachings of the Christ should shape your worldview”.
• 
  Gregory

  Great! Profound and thought provoking. I will be rereading parts again to continually reflect upon how I can change my life
• 
  Libraryangel

  So so so much to think and act on.
• 
  Zack Jackson

  While I don't disagree with his main premise, he definitely bit off more than he can chew. This book tries to do too much and ends up not being as effective as it could have been.
• 
  -kevin-

  This is a very difficult emotional book. It hits very hard. The solutions it suggests feel very small, but very important. I will continue to consider and may re-read.
  
• 
  Linda Gaines

  Written in 2007 but still relevant to many world issues for our churches today.
• 
  John Henry

  Brian McLaren may be the most widely known proponent for the Emerging Church in the twenty-first century. A prolific writer articulating the journey out of the modern trappings of the Western Church, McLaren is an associate in Emergent Village. He now travels, speaks, writes, and learns especially from friends in Latin America and Africa, how to change our “inner ecology” (294) and therefore help create a community freed from the dominant framing story through the viral message of Jesus.
  
  This book is framed with McLaren’s two important questions: What are the biggest problems in the world today? and What do the life and teachings of Jesus have to say about these global problems? (45) McLaren’s underlying thesis is that we are beholden to a destructive framing story and that in the gospel of Jesus Christ, “a message purporting to be the best news in the world should be doing better than this.” (34) The biggest problem in the world is a “Suicide Machine,” an invisible killer, feeding off of and destroying all life and corrupting the Earth’s ecosystem.
  
  This book begins with our two questions, considers the “frame” of the conventional gospel story, and reintroduces us to Jesus. The first chapters introduce us to an alternative voice, a health care worker from South Africa, who pointed out the “nonsense” of the conventional gospel, how pastors are preoccupied with divine healing, being born again, and tithing. (27) McLaren relates how this kind of “dissatisfaction” with the current circumstance, coupled with a “shared imagination and hope, combine to form an emerging consensus that is spreading across the Global South,” the new Majority Church, and emerging Christian leaders are realizing that “if their message isn’t good news for the poor…it isn’t the same message that Jesus proclaimed.” (30) By including the voices of the Global South, McLaren broadens the emerging church discussion, showing the “two sided coin,” the “postmodern” side, which is a perspective from the West, and “postcolonial” side, which is the perspective of those formerly dominated by the West. (44) The “way out” of the West’s ugly, excessively confident, dominating, and exploitative narrative and the non-West’s formerly colonized and oppressed people, is face-to-face meeting, dialogue, and community formation around the kingdom message of Jesus.
  
  The second half of this book penetrates deeper, examining in graphic detail the ugliness of the “Suicide Machine” as if he were recruiting members to join a modern insurgency to overthrow, well…everything. While he appears very much like he is presenting an argument for Ideological Pacificism, he steps away from that polarizing position to call for “a new dialogue” (176) replacing our craving for security with a passion for justice through “vibrant, reconciled communities”. (182)
  
  McLaren calls for a “New Global Love Economy” in the image of “God’s sacred ecosystem.” (128-131) He calls us to join the “Divine Peace Insurgency” to rebuild our societal system “as a beloved community.” (151) He presents an economic plan of the kingdom of God with sustainable development and fruitfulness as the goal, not consumption. (207-9) Rather than completely abandon organized religion, he calls for “Organizing Religion” to strengthen families and communities through “celebrating virtue and training people to practice it.” (264) Rather than call for political involvement, which tends to quickly polarize even the least partisan leaders, he calls for a radical believing, “believing the alternative and transforming framing story.” (270) Rather than change the political system (not to mention the business, military, and even religious systems), which tends to attract those who change with the political wind, he repeats what Jim Wallis recommends: “Change the wind.” This book is a call to activism with resurrection faith. This “insurgency,” McLaren argues, will not be defeated, but will “move quietly, at the margins, where all revolutions begin.” (272) This is the Emerging Church, the maturing upward spiral of God’s people with vision (276), those who are disbelieving a “covert curriculum, a curriculum that must be unlearned.” (284)
  
  The implication of this book for the global Church and for my ministry is an invitation to change personally and corporately, to partner with Christians from the West and the global South and East. McLaren is calling for a new ecosystem that nourishes, blesses, and sustains God’s kind of life. For those trapped in the destructive ecosystem of liberalism and conservatism, there is a way out. However, McLaren’s way is frightfully simple; “BELIEVE.” Like Paul the apostle, who ruthlessly examined all his presumptions as a Pharisee, about God, right and wrong, and the Messiah, we need to ruthlessly examine those bonds that tie us to the “Suicide Machine.” Something needs to change and I believe it begins with me.
• 
  Scott Holstad

  I tend to like Brian McLaren books and this one had potential. Unfortunately, I think it ultimately falls short of its goal, which is to educate us to an alternative way of acting with and within the world, in a God-centered fashion according to the principles of Jesus -- his radical teachings being given as framework from which to start from.
  
  McLaren does an interesting comparison between the conventional church and the emerging church early on. In asking why Jesus was important, he writes of the conventional view:
  
  "Jesus came to solve the problem of 'original sin,' meaning that he helps qualified individuals not to be sent to hell for their sin or imperfection. In a sense, Jesus saves these people from God, or more specifically, from the righteous wrath of God, which sinful human beings deserve because they have not perfectly fulfilled God's just expectations, expressed in God's moral laws."
  
  He contrasts this with the emerging view:
  
  "Through his life and teaching, through his suffering, death, and resurrection, he inserted into human history a seed of grace, truth, and hope that can never be defeated." This liberation from the fear of death is "a free gift they receive as an expression of God's grace and love."
  
  Again, a conventional view contrast:
  
  "The conventional view is very familiar to many of us; it is frequently defined as 'orthodoxy' and any departure from it as 'heresy.' ... the purpose of Jesus was to provide a way for at least a few individuals to escape the eternal conscious torment of everlasting damnation."
  
  Wow. I've read McLaren before, so I know his views on the subject, but his view of the emerging church still resonates with me: "God's concern is more holistic or integral, seeing individual and society, soul and body, life and afterlife, humanity and the rest of creation as being inseparably related.... God cares about ALL [my emphasis] people."
  
  McLaren writes that we in the world are trapped in a "suicide machine" devised by and of nearly everything in the world, even seeming polar opposites, such as liberals/conservatives, Democrats/Republicans, etc. He gives an interesting example of how one can compare and contrast the right's obsession with abortion to the left's obsession with global warming, in terms of how such things are sought, presented, dealt with, etc. That was an interesting component of the book.
  
  Where the book fails me, though, is in its solutions to the problems outlined. McLaren asks us to believe 1) we live in a societal system or machine; 2) the system goes suicidal when driven by a destructive framing; 3) Jesus saw these dynamics at work in his day and proposed in word and deed a new alternative; and 4) Jesus' creative and transforming framing story invited people to change the world by disbelieving old framing stories and believing a new one.
  
  OK. I get the part about destructive framings. We're all duped, manipulated, serving the wrong overseers, etc. I get it. What I don't get are McLaren's solutions. He doesn't seem to offer any, at least anything tangible. He writes of a vague personal action, followed by a vague community action, followed by a vague public action, followed by a vague global action. Apparently, if we all act in a manner Jesus taught us to act, big things will change in a big way. Forgive my cynicism, but that sort of hippie idealism isn't "new" or emerging -- it's unrealistic and unlikely. The world just isn't going to change simply because some people start donating more of their time and money to worthy causes. Yin and yang. For every good, there is evil. I don't see a way out. Of course, as an emerging Christian author, McLaren argues for heaven on earth, here and now, as opposed to some obscure future afterlife. That always sounds good to me, but how it's actually accomplished is always a little vague for me at the same time. If we're to experience heaven now, here on earth, what happens to our souls -- assuming they exist -- when we die? I've never had that adequately explained to me by an emerging Christian author, even Rob Bell.
  
  So, pretty decent book, but mid-level material. Not overly thought provoking. Not a huge call to action, in my mind. Good read, stuff to contemplate, maybe some material that's quite valid, but overall, perhaps a futile effort, and that's sad.
• 
  Andrew Fox

  Mclaren certainly made me think. I am not a practitioner in global crisis thinking in my ministry context. Admittedly, he loses me throughout the book by reverting back to a `better world' mentality. This came to light in his comparison of the conventional view and emerging view of the world. "...the conventional view can lead people to celebrating humanity's progress in self-destruction rather than to turn it around." 1 I agree with his method of comparing both views but he does not clearly give his theological view on the fact that the Bible states the world is like a pregnant woman groaning in pain waiting for the coming of Jesus. "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." 2 His references tend to lean towards a contradiction of scripture, but his point is valid, that Christianity should live responsibly.
  
  Overall MaClaren is easy to understand as his thoughts are clearly outlined and not lost in translation. Part three was the most intriguing section of the book as he attempts to reframe Jesus from conventional thinking to emerging. The eleventh chapter clarified his position on Jesus by using the model of `switching a jigsaw lid' 3 He wonderfully describes the history in which Jesus came. Not just the history but the narrative of Jesus message in that history. By comparing the power of Rome to slaves, servants, tenant farmers, women, boarder dwellers, consciptable males and those with no tax breaks, I was able to see the `Good News' of Jesus' message clearer. 4 It left me thinking, `how can I present the message of Jesus in my lifestyle that offers a different narrative than the one people find themselves in?'
  
  I will admit that MaClaren lost me a little when referring to God's sacred ecosystem. 5 I have found in my limited context that very few people think on this level. Maybe this is MaClaren's drive - that we should? The overall diagram built up through the book and concluding in the final chapter made sense, but complicated sense. 6 I am unsure that the purpose of Good News as MaClaren leans to is entirely Biblical. It makes sense that the Good News of Jesus is the `kingdom come' in the present by affecting the prosperity, equity and security systems from the center. But again, this tends to emphasize that we can change the world to be more like God created it in the first place. It's too much like a celebrity move lead by Bono or Bill Gates. Good motives but not Biblically sound. I know my own life has a set number of days to live. 7 But I also know that through bad choices and decisions I can limit or cut short what was intended. 8 Not only can I cut it short but the days will be robbed of blessing. 9 So, I must live the Good News of Jesus to affect my own life, but I am unsure if this applies to creation itself?
  
  I positively see MaClaren's motive that transformation is needed in the life of the believer and the community of faith at large. Just because we know the outcome in the narrative of scripture we should not live irresponsibly. The poor and needy have always been the heart of the Gospel - this is something I can affect.
  
• 
  Tim

  I just finished reading "Everything Must Change" by Brian McLaren. I've enjoyed all of Brian's books as he is a contemplative thinker and not swayed by what is popular, but by what he believes. Cathy and I sat with him once at a publisher's dinner and we both we're affected at how peaceful he was and how gentle his ideas flowed across the table.
  
  McLaren's book is a methodical look at what must change and how it could change starting with people of faith if we all make a choice:
  
  A choice to stop believing that the equity system is about a few getting more and start believing that all should have enough.
  
  A choice to stop believing that prosperity can happen without sustainability and start believing that what we do to our environment and each other matters for our future and to God.
  
  A choice to stop believing that funding security will keep us safe and start believing that making the world a better place to live, for everyone and everything, will eliminate the need for war.
  
  This philosophy though, is not a simple choice between capitalism and socialism, democrat and republican, developed and underdeveloped, rich and poor, good and bad. The yin and yang of the world is broken down in many shades of many colors. Black and white won't do anymore. I thought the book was very good, but more important, it's to the point and relevant. No, I don't agree with everything the author believes, though I do agree with most and I most certainly agree with this book and the solutions presented within.
• 
  Morten

  Det er den første bog, jeg har læst af Brian McLaren, og det har tog mig næsten et halvt år at få den læst færdig.
  For det første, har jeg læst mange bøger sideløbende, for det andet har det været en småirriterende bog.
  
  McLaren bruger de første kapitler på at undskylde, at han er så provokerende - hvilket han overhovedet ikke er på mig. Derefter kommer han med nogle forklaringer på hvordan forskellige systemer i samfundet fungerer, og hvordan de bør ændres. Selvom jeg ikke helt udholdt at sætte mig ind i hans opdelinger og definitioner, følte jeg mig langt hen ad vejen klogere end ham - Ja, det ved jeg! (- til tider efterfulgt af: men så enkelt er det bare ikke - eller - det er prøvet, men det fungerer ikke i praksis) Men nu er det jo også mig, der bor i Skandinavien og ikke ham.
  
  Han prøver at være fritænkende, men deler alligevel alting op i rammer og punkter - præcis som højrefløjsteologerne, som jeg håbede at se mere kontrast til. Det er tydeligt, at han gør meget for sin målgruppe, og det er nok derfor at jeg bliver irriteret. Bogen er ikke skrevet til mig. Jeg forstår allerede hans pointe. Bogen er skrevet til dem, der tror at Rick Warren har fundet de fem formål af ren sandhed, nemlig: Lovprisning, fællesskab, discipelkab, tjeneste og evangelisation - og at resten af verdens problemer ellers må være op til Gud og præsidenten at få styr på.
  
  På trods af min umiddelbare smånegative oplevelse med bogen, er jeg fortsat opsat på at skulle læse "Kristen på en ny måde", som jeg forventer er helt anderledes - i hvert fald genremæssigt!
• 
  Rachel

  "Jesus replies, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."...It's interesting - astonishing, really - that Jesus doesn't simply say, "Nothing will be impossible for me," or "Nothing will be impossible with God." Instead he says, "Nothing will be impossible for you." This is our call to action, our invitation to move mountains and so reshape the social and spiritual landscape of our world. Yes, change is impossible through human effort alone. But faith brings God's creative power into our global crises, so the impossible becomes possible and then inevitable for those who believe. Mountains can be moved and everything can change, beginning with our stories, beginning with faith, beginning with now, beginning with us."
  
  McLaren challenges readers to rethink our westernized conception of Christianity. He stretches us to consider if the systems that we find ourselves in are really what Jesus had in mind when he first asked believers to follow Him. How can we as Christians begin to re-imagine a world free from violence, injustice, inequity, pollution and disregard for our environment? How do the teachings of Jesus invigorate our imaginations to see a different way of doing things?
  
  As McLaren points out, "The Good News is more than a ticket to heaven. It is an invitation to personal change and a radical challenge for global transformation." Christianity is a faith of action and McLaren sheds light on what that action could look like.
• 
  marcus miller

  I'm late getting around to having read this. Published eight years ago it seems the "World's Biggest Problems..." have become worse and more numerous, while the "good news of Jesus" gets lost in a toxic mix of dogma, politics, and the entertainment values which dominate western culture.
  McLaren's identification of the three broad "systems of death" was a helpful way to frame the "world's biggest problems." His efforts to include perspectives from around the world, especially those who are normally marginalized was admirable. At the same time his interpretations of some of the the parables and the actions of Jesus offered some fresh insights which I found helpful.
  This book may give some folks hope for improving the world, or may give some hope that the church might take the lead in addressing world issues through creative and positive ways. On the other hand, those involved in pushing for different expressions of the Christianity may be even more discouraged. Eight years later Christians are as likely to be arguing about how old the earth is, rather than working to preserve the earth we have. Questions of human sexuality and equality offer plenty of drama and passion and we quickly forget "treating others as we want to be treated." Turning the other cheek is seen as a sign of weakness especially when we see "American Christians" celebrating "American Sniper," as we continue to buy into the myth of redemptive violence.
• 
  marcus miller

  I'm late getting around to having read this. Published eight years ago it seems the "World's Biggest Problems..." have become worse and more numerous, while the "good news of Jesus" gets lost in a toxic mix of dogma, politics, and the entertainment values which dominate western culture.
  McLaren's identification of the three broad "systems of death" was a helpful way to frame the "world's biggest problems." His efforts to include perspectives from around the world, especially those who are normally marginalized was admirable. At the same time his interpretations of some of the the parables and the actions of Jesus offered some fresh insights which I found helpful.
  This book may give some folks hope for improving the world, or may give some hope that the church might take the lead in addressing world issues through creative and positive ways. On the other hand, those involved in pushing for different expressions of the Christianity may be even more discouraged. Eight years later Christians are as likely to be arguing about how old the earth is, rather than working to preserve the earth we have. Questions of human sexuality and equality offer plenty of drama and passion and we quickly forget "treating others as we want to be treated." Turning the other cheek is seen as a sign of weakness especially when we see "American Christians" celebrating "American Sniper," as we continue to buy into the myth of redemptive violence.
• 
  Ann

  I don't often just leave books with no intention to go back to them, but when I've had to borrow it from the library twice for multiple renewals each time and I still can't get more than 1/2 way through, it's time to put it down.
  I started reading because I was curious about the author's views and what he thinks Jesus would say about our current situation. What I've found is that I really don't agree with him much at all. He seems to be taking a very wide view on things, when my impression of Jesus is of a man who deals with individuals, not classes, not people groups, not nations, but each person on their own.
  I also didn't care much for the tone of his book, that anyone that believes anything more conservative than him is stuck in some archaic, sad form of Christianity, no matter how many times he said he was dealing in generalities and there were many viewpoints between his own and the one he was countering, I always felt condescended to if I didn't agree with him (which was pretty frequent).
  Overall, I'm not going to miss getting to the end, I don't think. I wanted to know what he had to say so that I could have an answer for it, and I do, even it's just an impression. If I need to, I can come back to it.