Blogging through a book: Everything Must Change (Part 1)

October 11th, 2007 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (1) |

This is part one of a series where I blog through my reading of Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope. The entire series is listed below ↴

Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Conclusions

In this first section of the book, McLaren delivers the rhetorical device that will shape (I presume) the rest of the book. He asks, “What do the life and teachings of Jesus have to say about the most critical global problems in the world today” (12)?

In response to this question, McLaren makes a two-fold point: (1) Christians (and followers of the other “big” world religions) have failed to address the world’s most pressing crises because (2) the church has either focused all of its energy and attention on ideological debates (playing the “blame game”), or the church has become too “specialized” — or both.

You only have to have a passing familiarity with Jesus and his message to know there was a special place in his heart for the poor and oppressed. Why, then, has the church been so unsuccessful in addressing the issues of povery and oppression?

“We seemed polarized by our ideological diagnoses of the causes and cures of poverty, and even worse, we were paralyzed by our polarization, and so the poor continued to suffer - trapped by their poverty and our polarizing, paralyzing arguments about poverty” (16).

We’re too caught up in pointing fingers and debating who/what our fingers should be pointed at that we have failed to make any substantive progress.

The other main problem addressed in this section is the problem of specialization. “The Christian religion,” McLaren says, “appears to be a failed religion… [because] it has specialized in dealing with ’spiritual needs’ to the exclusion of physical and social needs” (33). Additionally, he suggests that this is one of the primary reasons that young people are leaving the church in droves.

Throughout this section, McLaren talks about his experiences and conversations with leaders from Africa and their discussions about colonialism/postcolonialism and implications for the church. He uses these experiences to emphasize one his most common arguments:

“The time had come… to center our lives on the essential message of Jesus, the message of the kingdom of God - not just a message about Jesus that focused on the afterlife, but rather the core message of Jesus that focused on personal, social, and global transformation in this life” (22).

This is one of McLaren’s favorite messages; you’ll find similar declarations in The Secret Message of Jesus and A Generous Orthodoxy. It’s a message he obviously thinks bears repeating, and I would agree.

Overall, this section did what the opening part of a book should do; it outlined the thesis of the book, provided some background information, and served as a review to those already familiar with McLaren’s previous works. I’m looking forward to seeing how McLaren tackles these issues.

If you’re following along with this book blogging, what are your impressions so far? If you’ve already read or are currently reading the book, how do you feel about my summary of this section?