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Product Description

How do the life and teachings of Jesus address the most critical global problems in our world today?

In Everything Must Change, you will accompany Brian around the world on a search for answers. Along the way you'll experience intrigue, alarm, challenge, insight, and hope. You'll get a fresh and provocative vision of Jesus and his teachings. And you'll see how his core message can infuse us with purpose and passion to address the economic, environmental, military, political, and social dysfunctions that have overtaken our world.

Jesus' message is more than a ticket to heaven or a formula for personal prosperity. It is an invitation to personal and global transformation. It is a radical challenge to the underlying stories that drive our suicidal systems-social, economic, and political. It invites us to imagine what would happen

-if people of faith moved beyond political polarization and a few hot-button issues to the deeper questions nobody is asking.

-if the world's leading nations spent less on weapons and more on peace-making, poverty-alleviation, and creation-care.

-if a renewed understanding of Jesus and his message sparked a profound spiritual awakening in a global movement of faith, hope, and love.

-if we believed that God's will really could be done on earth and not just in heaven.

If you are hungry for a fresh vision of what it means to be a person of faith, Everything Must Change applies the good news of Jesus to a world in need, igniting a revolution of hope that can change everything. Beginning with you. Beginning now.

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Customer Reviews:

• One-sided and exegetically questionable
  One of my biggest frustrations with a lot of what is written by the Christian community is the stark one-sided approach that most of the writers take. In particular I'm talking about the writings of the "Emerging" of "Emergent" authors (yes I know there's a difference but I challenge you to define it) and the conservative, evangelical authors. Scot McKnight said it well on his blog when discussing the concept of gospel, "Too many today want to be faithful to Jesus' use of the word "gospel" and ignore Paul; too many also want to be faithful to Paul but ignore what Jesus said."
  This is my fundamental issue with McLaren in Everything Must Change. His premise is that the spiritual aspects that evangelical Christianity tends to focus on are not biblical. Now, I'm committed to communicating my presuppositions on this blog so you should know that my theology is very evangelical and I have spent my entire adult life working in evangelical churches. That said, I feel that McLaren is doing some exegetical gymnastics in his argument that the focus of Christianity is solely in changing what he call the "suicide machine." The difficulty comes from the framing questions that he is asking. Questions that Scripture never intends to answer.
  For more check out my blog bryonharvey.wordpress.com...more info
• A needed call to action
  This excellent book builds on one of my favorites from last year, "The Secret Message of Jesus", but really challenges the church to take the message of Jesus and live it in reality. His two questions - 1. What are the biggest problems in the world? 2. What does Jesus have to say about these global problems? - have stuck with me in a powerful way since reading the book. I hope to continue to ruminate on these questions and more importantly, to act on what I see as the implications of these questions....more info
• My Kingdom is Not of This World
  To be honest, the book was an easy read and well-constructed.
  
  What I got out of reading it was how disappointing it was to find the writer's focus so earth-bound and missing Jesus' whole message. After all, the Lord Jesus declared, "I Am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Without repentance of sin and faith submission to King Jesus, there is zero access to the Father's Kingdom of Heaven, to escape the eternal punitive judgment of God on the ungodly. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
  
  Jesus Himself said, "My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight for Me. But now My Kingdom is from elsewhere." (John 18:36)
  
  Since people have such differing opinions about the writer's truth quotient (for real or pseudo-preacher), check out how Jesus' disciples and apostles carried out the Mission of their Master.
  
  If you can find any correlation between what Peter & John, Stephen, Philip, Barnabas, Paul, Lydia, Luke, Apollos said/did in Book of Acts to bring in global revolution, and what this writer claims is Jesus' secret kingdom manifesto to engage global crises, I couldn't find it.
  
  The Biblical Key to confirm whether this social justice prophet's agenda is a subchristian plot would be Acts of the Apostles, authored by the Holy Spirit's eyewitness agent, Dr. Luke.
  
  Faith Undone: The emerging church - a new reformation or an end-time deception....more info
• McLaren Offers Hope, NOT HERESY...
  While some of the lengthier reviews found below will perhaps do a more thorough job of summarizing the content of Brian McLaren's latest book "Everything Must Change," my intent is to offer a few of the insights and impressions of someone who has experienced both sides of the conservative/emergent debate and has the scars to prove it.
  
  As a pastor and philosophy professor I have encountered my share of anti-Christian or heretical ideas. I have studied Nietzche, wrestled with Darwin, and most recently read and re-read the latest anti-theistic polemics from Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great), and Sam Harris (The End of Faith).
  
  All of these writers and thinkers have elaborated on a host of ideas that call into question everything that even the most nominal Christian could hold dear. Their effectiveness is for another review, although I can say for myself that despite their prodigious gifts I am left unconvinced that God is dead, destructive, or a delusion.
  
  I preface my comments with these references to truly anti-Christian thinkers as a ways of putting into context what Brian McLaren seems to mean when he says that "everything must change." Despite the hyperbole and swooning pyrotechnics of those who have branded McLaren to be a sort of postmodern Pied Piper who is leading the next generation off the cliff of heresy, the actual book and writer behind it say nothing of the sort. Not even close.
  
  While all of Brian's theological conclusions might not jive with your own, my guess is that the majority of readers who take the text on its own merits will find that the a great number of the ideas espoused are not so strange or horrifying, but rather are practical and commonsense suggestions for a global church in an apocalyptic age (in the original sense of the term, not necessarily the "Left Behind" version).
  
  In "Everything Must Change," McLaren has presented a clear and thoughtful summary of the thinking spurring much of the energy behind the newest movements of the church, broadly termed Emergent. While some of the voices are new and the language is often non-traditional, this emerging movement (of which McLaren is the undisputed Papa Bear) is reinvigorating the sincere, Christ-centered faith of many of the disenchanted and disillusioned wounded from the evangelical and fundamentalist movements.
  
  It is uneccesary to critique those preceding articulations of the Gospel here; suffice to say, the language and focus of the modern church was insufficient in reaching many in the emerging generations. McLaren has created an elegantly detailed work that offers hope to many passionate people who desire to put their faith in a God with bigger plans for the world than simply providing their ticket to heaven.
  
  For these passionate followers, both new and "experienced," the doors to the church must be thrown open to the world. This is the power of change that McLaren describes - a church that is a light and source hope for the masses in ways we might have been missing for far too long.
  
  I hope you will consider reading it for yourself.
  
  - S.
  
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• Real Time
  This book is so well written and addresses present issues as they are that you will be amazed at the insightfulness and surprised at the hope....more info
• Emerging Church Economics
  There are too many errors in this book for unsophisticated readers. McLaren's book has value only to readers who recognize the mistakes but are willing to learn about a position that springs from ideology and a theological framework. For me, the emerging church movement is enough to consider by itself without flawed economics intertwined.
  
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• Everything Must Change is Lethal Toxin
  McLaren can be considered the chief spokesman of the emerging church movement.
  
  He has outlined emerging church theology and how he sees his theology helping the world.
  
  McLaren proposes and propagates a social gospel with an emphasis on solving the world's social problems such as hunger, disease, poverty, education etc. and ultimately creating a utopian kingdom here on Earth now. He believes God needs man's help to accomplish this. Though hunger, disease, poverty, and education are noble endeavors, he supersedes the primary objective of Christianity and the Church, which is the spreading of the Good News of eternal salvation through Christ's death, burial and resurrection.
  
  In order to convince his audience that the kingdom is on Earth now, we just have to fix things, he seeks to further negate the literal interpretation of biblical prophecy through a very provocative statement "This is why I believe that many of our current eschatologies, intoxicated by dubious interpretations of John's Apocalypse are not only ignorant and wrong, but dangerous and immoral"
  
  The current eschatology that he refers to is the literal interpretation of the Bible, which has Jesus Christ returning to establish His "true Kingdom" at a time when the world is in utter chaos - a complete contradiction of what McLaren puts forward. Even worse McLaren bluntly states that this interpretation is not only ignorant and wrong but also immoral and dangerous.
  
  This kind of theology also has long range repercussions for Jews. It significantly endangers Israel with its replacement theology emphasis. God clearly states he has a prophetic plan for Israel - if this plan/obligation cannot be met how can Christians trust that our plan for salvation will be met?
  
  Sadly McLaren is spreading his theology through some very influencial groups and corrupting many - he would do well to heed the following verses:
  
  Revelation 22:7 (KJV)
  7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
  Revelation 22:18-19 (KJV)
  18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
  19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
  
  
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• The Whole More Than The Sum Of It's Parts!
  There will always be, in this sinful world we live in, a need for a "Good Samaritan" to show us how to think and act in reference to those individuals, local communities and nations most find inconvenient and bothersome-----because they offer US nothing immediate------and, in point of fact, need us! The ironic thing, about the Gospel, is that Jesus' singular act of atonement was not for Himself-----but for the "uttermost parts of the earth"(Ps. 2:8)----for community----for the world! McLaren's book serves to open up the World and the Church(two opposites biblically) for a much needed analysis with this powerful theme-----; how can we as The Church be more effective in bearing the testimony of Christ to our community----our world? McLaren's book reminds us of what Jesus did and said-----"Take up your cross daily and follow me"! This, in my opinion, the American Church has not done effectively. Too much of a "come to us" mentality------and not enough outreach! Too much of a repent, get born again and tithe mentality-----and not enough "do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God!"(Micah 6:8). The American Church needs to empty itself of worldliness(assimilation of the world's values regarding prosperity, security and equity) and adopt The Full Gospel of Christ(and I'm not talking primarily of spiritual gifts)-----which is to humbly and sacrificially love others! Thanks Brian!...more info
• Everything HAS Changed (once you've read the book)!
  Don't even think about picking this book up in time to have read it before Christmas. As if shopping for your three teenagers wasn't difficult enough for a single mom on a government salary. Given the timing of publication, I feel as tho' Brian was obligated to include an appendix with alternative gift ideas for teens, as well as guidelines for the inevitable discussions when you have to tell your little one you're not going to gadgetize her at Christmas. Even if you are able to convey to her the covert curriculum behind the peer and advertising campaign, there's still heartache in her eyes. If Jesus hadn't intervened to grant us sweeping gratitude for the promise we have in him and for our family and friends, this book really would have been a grave disservice to our holiday.
  Once you begin to grasp it, the concept of a covert curriculum is like an earworm - every advertisement that comes across your radar, every front page headline, every soundbite from a presidential candidate is ruined. You can't just enjoy them anymore. Reading this book is like instantly becoming a movie critic. You don't get to sit back and let the movies wash across your consciousness anymore because you're looking for the flaws.
  Don't even get me started on the resulting surreal shopping moments when you find yourself practicing your parents' idiosyncratic and lifelong practice of inspecting the country of origin of the goods prior to purchase.
  This book wakes something that will not go back to sleep. Who knew we could be so ravenous for truth and clarity?
  ...more info
• Useful & challenging even with its shortcomings
  As I read through Everything Must Change, I'm struck by something impossible to avoid. No, it's not the epistemologic issues. And yes, the ecclectic, synchretistic theology does bother me (as it should). But what I find most striking is his desire to revive the positive of Christianity (and Islam, etc.). He wants the positive results, the positive message, everything that not only reinforces good feelings but also motivates us to good works for the benefit of others.
  
  As I read it, I couldn't help but reflect on some 19th c. theology that I read recently in The Golden Dawn, or Light on the Great Future. What McLaren is asking for is not at all unlike the pre-WWI, pre-Moody, postmillennial wishes for a better world, a successful place for all, a Christianity where everything is done, if not right, as best we can possibly do it. But I think this is naive. The postivists of two centuries ago rode the wave of modernity. Today's postmodern wants to maintian the Positive without the Modern. I won't hold my breath. I see McLaren's outlook as the ultimate in post-postive positivism. You can't resurrect a dead horse.
  
  One thing that McLaren implicitly requests is that Christianity become an initiator of positive change. Some of what he asks for is doable and practical. Some of it we already do, but could do more of and more often. But other matters would require a degree of political ascent, and that's what got us into 1500 years of problems as it was. So, while I appreciate some of his sentiments, I actually don't think he is going far enough with his framework. There is a degree of separation from modernity that will help us. I wish he would consider some additional steps and then evaluate them for more consistency.
  
  Despite his dependence on that unstated theonomy necessary to implement this type of social change, he does confront the Christian with dependence on the current world system. The section on theocapitalism is especially worth the time to read. Nevertheless one cannot help but see that his views are tainted by an overly-optimistic outlook. The secularists, and many of us within evangelicalism, have had quite enough of misused politics. McLaren is proposing another politic, and I don't know that the world is ready for such an alternative. His (apparently) postmillennial outlook is consumed with social justice with a good deal of need for a mechanism to implement it.
  
  I like some of his core principles but am disturbed by his responsiveness first to needs and complaints instead of first responding to Scripture.
  
  Do I recommend this book? Yes. I find his arguments weak but his critique of the church, though it has errors, to be clearly-stated and useful. There is always something to learn from our critics. Brian McLaren's work makes a useful mirror for us to reflect upon, but not to gaze upon....more info
• Everything Must Change
  Catchy title to begin with! Whether you like McLaren or not, you must agree that the status quo simply won't work.And he goes on from that introduction to paint a hopeful scenario for our groaning world....more info
• A book to buy, not to check out.
  I have to confess that I'm not done reading it yet. I checked it out from the local library, and realized after 5 chapters that I had to own it, so as to pass it on to other people, as opposed to just giving it a quick read.
  
  The ironic part is that I was writing a sermon, where I was saying a lot of the same things, when I started reading the book. While I tend to feel odd in those moments when I realize someone else has "said it first," it showed me that McLaren is onto something that is becoming increasingly obvious to the rest of us and needs to be increasingly voiced before it is too late. My faith has already been picked apart by politicians, pie in the sky evangelists, a self-induced complacency, an unjustified sense of superiority, and money-grubbing thieves. It's high time more of us got together to reclaim faith and make it relevant again.
  
  I tend to struggle with Brian's books, but I read them in order to be able to share with my students and stay a part of the emergent conversation. So far as I can tell, this is easily his best work since Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel and it has me looking forward to hearing more from him....more info
• Disappointed
  I purchased this book and read it cover to cover and must say that I wish that I had waited until it came to our library system. First of all, if I see the words "framing" and "story" used together again in a sentence, I will probably go mad. Although the author is obviously intelligent and this book is written more as a psuedo-textbook than a regular work (it even has discussion questions at the end of each chapter) it is very ambiguous in some places. It is as if the author forgets that he is writing to a general audience (or does he) and addresses the text to other educated elites like himself. Through the book it seems like he wants to destroy the old notions of Christianity, as he incessantly berates those who disagree with his ideas of what Christianity should be, and rebuild Christianity in the new "Emerging Church" image.
  That said, I do agree with some of his ideas. All in all I gave this book one star because it was a very tiring read and I really didn't learn anything new about Christianity in general. The author needs to seek counseling for the white guilt he has acquired, most likely, in college. I wish that I could return this book to where I purchased it for my money back. ...more info
• Very intriguing read
  This book was very well written. It has short chapters and great questions for each. It is a wonderful look at what being a real follower of Jesus should be about....more info
• Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope
  Excellent Book. I would highly recommend it to anybody who wants to look honestly at what is happening in our churches, our country, and the world....more info
• Jesus Right, not Jesus Lite
  In "Everything Must Change", Brian McLaren eloquently expresses what I've felt about Jesus' message, and the manipulation of that message, since middle school. With historical research, political savvy, and personal experience, McLaren thoroughly documents the ways in which Christianity could lead the way out of war, hunger, poverty, and environmental decay. And how instead power uses biblical interpretation and wedge issues like contraception as "weapons of mass distraction". McLaren is part of a wave, with links (which he acknowledges) to David C. Korten's "The Great Turning -- From Empire to Earth Community". Also see "This Present Paradise", an article by Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker in the Summer 2008 issue of "UU World" magazine. The only frustrating thing about McLaren's book is its lack of an index....more info
• Do You Have Ears To Hear and Eyes to See?
  I've started to realize that I need to sit with a book before I can begin to reflect and review it. Books that are worth reviewing are typically engaging and charged, eloquent and moving and this book finds its place within that rubric.
  
  Everything Must Change. Is that just an audacious title to sell a book as this author has been accused of before? No. This title has a story. Perhaps this title is a story? In Brain D. McLaren's most recent book Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope we encounter the cumulative effect, the culmination of books that came before. As I worked my way through this audacious book Brian, in my mind, has now taken his place with those theologians of the academy. Except he isn't writing for research or to sell lectures (not that all or any professors do)--it's about capturing a vision. Perhaps being captured by a Vision? In this post, I will work my way through and review this fine book.
  
  Let me say as further preface I am an acquaintance of Brian's, a friend of Emergent Village, and align myself within the emerging church conversation. I am part of a church which embodies the church emerging and I reflect on his book as someone who has already come to many of the same conclusions before encountering this book. Namely that Jesus' mission was and is fundamentally concerned about this world and it came as a direct confrontation of domination systems of this world.
  
  Ironically, advent is the perfect time to review a book of this stock. In God's sending of Jesus into the world, through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, God was saying in effect; everything must change, everything is changing, and everything will be changed. The preface sets out to inform the reader that four tasks are at hand. He is setting out to convince us that he is no another ranting author about how bad the world is and thus our guilt, and that we will traverse complex material with the promise of it to be engaging, and third by the end we will have a bigger understanding of the world and our place in it and how we can make a difference. Finally, perhaps most important, is that we are convinced making a difference matters and is not just another task--it's where real joy and happiness is found. At this point the book paints big promises with a big vision that coincides with its big title!
  
  The overall arc of this book is that we are in desperate need of a new (or perhaps recovered) framing story. We learn of "four deep dysfunctions" of the current dominant framing story in the world. (1) environmental breakdown - prosperity crisis, (2) expanding gap between wealthy and poor - equity crisis, (3) danger of cataclysmic war - security crisis, (4) failure of world religions - spirituality crisis (p.5). And so the current framing story which is the force through which people find meaning and direction is currently framed, in Brian's purview, by these four crises. We are warned that this is an invitation to seeing the world in a new way and thus correspondingly encounter and hear Jesus in new ways. From the outset Brian is extremely clear that because we don't live in a black in white world and these issues are extremely complex more thinking and questioning and responding is needed and so several resources are included in the back to dig behind his writing.
  
  The whole book is preoccupied with two guiding questions. (1) What are the biggest problems in the world? (2) What does Jesus have to say about these global problems? These questions are very telling. At the outset this book is imploring us to realize that Jesus' gospel must be good news for this world or its not good news. How do we go about approaching answers to these questions? Amahoro. Brian tells of a recent trip he took to Burundi with his daughter. On there way to be greeted by villagers he was told to kiss the village mother on each cheek until he heard the word amahoro whispered in his ear. What does it mean? It means peace. When its whispered by a welcoming party it is an acknowledgement that there is peace flowing through them!
  
  In my own experiences in various African cultures I have encountered a similar experience. Africans don't see the world through the eyes of individualism but through communal struggle and identity. In South Africa the term ubuntu has deep roots. It was the very term that assisted in ushering peace and reconciliation. The term means my well being is bound up in your well being. This book begins by showing us that these two big questions need to be engaged by learning and hearing the gospel from global settings. Not just, or primarily from empirical American lenses.
  
  The narrative continues and Brian tells of a powerful story about a meeting with pastors while in Burundi. This group of big leaders went back and forth discussing Jesus' primary message of the gospel of the Kingdom of God (euangellion, basileia tou theou). The African leaders arrived at the realization that what was primary to Jesus' message had been periphery at best in their understanding of what the Gospel is! And then the powerful story shifts. Brian left during a break and walked outside, only to see a young girl sitting at a table with her head in her hands. She had been overhearing the pastor's conversation and when Brian asked what's wrong she replied, "everything must change." That is if the church is to take Jesus seriously and truly believe the gospel of the Kingdom of God--everything must change!
  
  The thrust of the book goes on to explore the four aspects of the framing story which dominates the globe, which Brian calls, shockingly and startlingly a--suicide machine. He visualizes this machine of destruction as three interlocking systems which form a suicidal system. Any American would readily recognize these three: prosperity, equity, and security. These are the gospel of the world around us. That if we don't keep these, we loose, or worse, they win. Briefly, the prosperity system is that which seeks dole out happiness through individuals being able to fulfill an insatiable desire for "good tastes, for pleasant and interesting sights and sounds, for enjoyable tactile, intellectual, and emotional experiences."(p.55) This results in a mentality of hoarding because more is better and happier. Those who hoard and need more then create a big need to secure it all. It's like the story of a friend of mine who is a fundraiser and walked into a billionaires home that had the most elaborate security system and he was cold and distant and non-conversant. The man lived his life in suspicion of everyone. We're not all billionaires, but the danger is that we are part of a system that keeps us moving on the illusion that we are all moving closer. Except that guy isn't happy, he's afraid and in need of security. Security is required in this system and is comprised of all sorts of subsystems which capture the imaginations of the society attempting to secure itself. Finally, equity is the aspect of the system which attempts to share the cost of security across the societal spectrum. But who gets to drive the BMW's and have a house in Beverly Hills? The guy who just fought in Iraq? Don't we see our Vietnam vets in homeless shelters and begging on street corners? So whom were they securing? These are the sorts of questions that result from seeing the suicide machine.
  
  After chronicling the suicide machine, Brian reintroduces us to Jesus, who was born in a time and place in which the "known world" was ruled by a system called the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome) amongst a people who were dominated by its "rule of peace." Essentially we are exposed to the ways in which the Kingdom of Rome has always been the dominant global story--the wallpaper just changes. But Jesus ushered in a counter-kingdom. He brought a new framing story. The Kingdom of God. The Peace of Christ. So in the midst of the Roman Empire where the chant was Caesar is Lord we find out Jesus is Lord. Which framing story will we trust? Pax Romana or Pax Christi? Brian's sections on Jesus are worth the price of the book. He does superb exegetical and exposition of just how scandalous, revolutionary, and hope-filled Jesus' teachings in the gospels actually are and that their purpose was aimed at calling a people to live into the Peace of Christ.
  
  This book is a must read. You don't have to agree with Brian on everything, just that everything needs to change. In fact, he recognizes that it's going to take the collective and Spirit endowed creative imagination of God's people to take up Christ's call to be faithful to his peace in the midst of a global crisis.
  
  A note to Brian's critics, like Jesus' teachings, this book demands that you have ears to hear and eyes to see--because everything must change.
  ...more info