Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope

This is not a quick and easy read. At least it wasn’t for me. But this is potentially one of the most important books you may ever read. The is one of 4 or 5 books I would like to see in everyone’s library.More importantly, I’d like to see it in the hands of every “young” person between 18 and 30. I totally believe the future of the world as we know it depends on the issues addressed in this book.“Everything Must Change” is written by a Christian, predominately to a Christian audience (although many fundamentalists doubt this target audience is “Christian” to begin with). But, the issues and principles here apply to every human on the face of the planet. And they effect every human and non-human on the face of the planet.Some issues covered are:* The Prosperity Crisis – Environmental breakdown caused by our unsustainable global economy. One that does not respect environmental limits, while creating great wealth for about one third of the world’s population.* The Equity Crisis – There’s a growing gap between the ultra-rich and the extremely poor, most of whom are growing in envy, resentment and hate of the rich. The rich become fearful and angry as they seek to protect their wealth.* The Security Crisis – The danger of war arising from resentment between the groups at opposite ends of the economic spectrum.* The Spirituality Crisis – This is the failure of the world’s religions (especially Christianity and Islam) to provide a framing story that could bring healing or at least reduction to, the previous three crises.This is another book that will help readers see how we’ve misconstrued so many of Jesus’ teachings. Brian helps us to hear Jesus’ words more in alignment with how his first listeners heard them. We see that we have a “framing story” that desperately needs changed. So we revisit “the essential message of Jesus.” In doing so, we re-examine metaphors like “The Kingdom of God.” We consider our human situation in connection with the message and purpose of JesusIn one section, Mr. Mclaren likens our past religious attempts at understanding to those of someone piecing together a puzzle. We’re trying to fit it all together according to the picture on the lid. The problem is, we have the wrong lid!In chapter 4, a young man from Khayelitsha, South Africa, delivers a very weighty message to a group of pastors and evangelists from America. It is a message every pastor and evangelist needs to hear. If you’re a “missionary,” please read this chapter. Even if you don’t want to buy the book, borrow it from the library. Borrow it from me. Just read this chapter.It seems many people shy away from politics and religion. As Brian states, “A lot of us are very happy to go through life knowing as little as possible about economics, politics, and ecology.” The thing is, these are both the problem, and part of the solution. For me personally, my politics are intrinsically tied to my faith in Christ. Yes, we pray. But then we help bring God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven” by taking action: Action that can help bring about equality, justice, and environmental responsibility. I believe a proper look at the teachings of Jesus will reveal that very thing.This was my 9th Brian McLaren book. My “Comrades” and I are getting ready, as a group, to read Brian’s latest, “We Make The Road By Walking.”If you’re someone who cares about the future of your children, your children’s children, and so on; I would suggest you read “Everything Must Change” and seriously consider the message it contains.Quotes:- Not only am I often unsatisfied with conventional answers, but even worst, I’ve consistently been unsatisfied with conventional questions.- Part of what it means to be “a new kind of Christian” is to discover or rediscover what the essential message of Jesus is about.- Many of our religious institutions have taught us to see no horizon for the message of Jesus beyond the soul of the individual.– The way of the kingdom of God calls people to a higher concern than self- or national interest: namely, concern for the common good.- We can no longer deal with global problems as discrete unrelated issues.- Jesus bursts on the scene with this scandalous message: The time has come! Rethink everything! A radically new kind of empire is available.- Theocapitalists have tended to see the rich as morally good and the poor as morally culpable for their own poverty.– Many of our current eschatologies, intoxicated by dubious interpretations of John’s Apocalypse, are not only ignorant and wrong, but dangerous and immoral.- We don’t have a violent “Second Coming” Jesus who finishes what the gentle “First Coming” Jesus failed to do, but we have a poetic description of the way the gentle First Coming Jesus powerfully overcomes through his nonviolent “weakness”, a prince of peace whose word of reconciliation is truly mightier than Caesar’s sword.

This is an excellent book to help, step by step, look at our world as we presently experience it and shows us a better way by which all people can be successful and fulfilled. It is a book for everyone who can read because it is filled with down to earth examples of problems and solutions for our lives today. It is a book built on "stories" - how the world is presently full of disfunction and the "stories" we share that makes it this way - and how we can make it function more profitibly for the planet and all who life on it by following God's "story" as portrayed in Jesus. It is, however, an inclusive book by sharing non-christian prophets and stories.Since change is the essential constant of life, this is a book that can envision for most people how we can and need to change our would for the better.

I've been waiting for a book about this. I've asked my pastors: For which party should a Jesus-follower vote? What stance should a Jesus-follower have on war and peace? How far should Jesus-followers go toward feeding the poor and caring for the outcasts? Are Jesus-followers really supposed to be loyal to the economy at the expense of caring for the Earth? And I've been looking for a Christian leader to say something intelligent on the subject, something not firmly entrenched in conventional Christian dogma.Here it is.Three dominant social systems are at work in our world society: The Security System (The attempt to keep us all safe through dominating all enemy powers), The Prosperity System (The pursuit of riches at the expense of everyone who doesn't have them), and The Equity System (The attempt to redistribute wealth to make things fair). People throughout history have tried to fix the world's problems by adjusting any combination of these, without success. The problem is that all 3 systems are symptoms of the same Framing Story, and until an alternative Story is provided, our world is doomed to destroy itself. Blame that on The Fall (Genesis 3).EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE asks 2 overarching questions:1) What Are the Biggest Problems in the World?2) What Does Jesus Have to Say About These Global Problems?McLaren looks at the ministry of Jesus as it relates to the dominant powers of his day, namely the Roman governmental machine. The machine was oppressive, and so were its rulers, the Caesars. Then Jesus steps onto the scene proclaiming a different Framing Story, that a new Kingdom is here, forgiveness is available to all by following him, love is the new economy, and this new kingdom offers hope for a healed world. The problem, as McLaren sees it, is that "our conventional view has accidentally put Jesus in the very framing story Jesus originally sought to subvert" (83).If you're looking for a cakewalk read, don't pick up EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE. This book will make you think. In good ways, it will challenge what you think you know about Jesus. Because when it comes down to it, if the Good News of Jesus isn't big enough to fix the enormous global problems we face today (both spiritually and physically), then the News might not be Good enough. Luckily Jesus' wisdom and truth speaks not just about salvation for our personal souls, but also for our very broken systems of the world. Shalom.--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

Perfekt: Service und Ware bestens!Ein starkes Buch, wenn auch nicht Jedermann's Geschmack - voller Anregungen und Impulse! - Manche harte Nuss zu knacken und keine gute Nachricht für wohlstandsverwöhnte und gutsituierte, satte Mitteleuropäer. Gerne wieder.

I agree with this book's author! I am very pleased to see that there are some Christians who care about making the world we are living in a better place. Like Brian McLaren, I don't approve of Christians who don't care about how bad the world we are living in is, as long as they go to Heaven when they die. I find it very ironic that George W. Bush has shown no evidence of caring about the rich getting richer only at the expense of the poor getting poorer, or any other quality of life issues when he is a Christian (or at least claims to be). It is even more ironic that North America's conservative Christians have generally been among the strongest supporters of right-wing governments when right-wing governments, although more strongly against sex-related sins than left-wing ones, have not shown any evidence of caring about greed-related sins, and have, in fact, even been promoting them. Personally, I used to be a strong supporter of conservative governments myself, but in recent years, I have been having second thoughts about them.

McLaren has moved somewhat from earlier work which is invitational in approach, to this much more challenging review of the state of the world which draw one into a deeper interpretation of the message of Jesus.I was frustratedly asking 'Yes, but how?' though most of the book, and somewhat like Jesus, Brian leaves us not with an answer, but rather with a whole host of questions to consider.I think his approach to describing the context of Jesus' world very helpful, and his relating that ancient world to our contemporary situation is insightful and seems well researched.What we are left with is the possibility of collectively living life in a way which at first seems impossible. He isn't rewriting Christian Doctrine, in my view, he is reclaiming it, and setting it out as genuinely good news for the world today.This is not really a book for first time McLaren readers. Read 'The Secret Message of Jesus' first, but then this is a must read. Highly recommended.

This book will help you to understand the Church of Jesus, it is not an institution or a building, but a community of people who aspire to follow Jesus. As Christians we should allow the teachings of Jesus to transform our minds, becoming 'one' with Jesus, God's perfect human being, in all areas of our lives.

Did not meet expectation