I really like Brian McLaren. I’ve read every book he has written. I’ve heard him speak countless times. I want, more than anything to be the “new kind of Christian” that he has written about and that he brilliantly summarizes in his new book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope: A new kind of Christian is

not an angry and reactionary fundamentalist, not a stuffy traditionalist, not a blasé nominalist, not a wishy-washy liberal, not a New Agey religious hipster, not a crusading religious imperialist, and not an overly enthused Bible-waving fanatic—but something fresh and authentic and challenging and adventurous. (2-3)

That being said, I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I was let down. Although I truly appreciate McLaren’s attempt to deal with global issues, I think his analysis is simplistic and his prescriptions are lofty and naive. Even worse, I believe the way he connects his vision to Jesus’ life and teaching is strained and unconvincing. Quite frankly, if Jesus’ message had primarily been about global and political issues, he (and his followers) would have confronted Rome and its powers. Instead, Jesus’ primary confrontation was with the local religious leaders who carried little political weight.

That is not to say that McLaren’s insights are completely useless. The church could certainly benefit from thinking about how its message is heard in the world and how it can better support, promote, and empower a good and just society.

Four Deep Dysfunctions

Let’s face it: seeking to diagnose and solve global problems is a huge undertaking. It demands analysis that is done on the widest scale possible. So, even if one finds McLaren’s presentation simplistic (as I do), one has to give him credit for even trying. (And, to be fair to Brian, he admits that his analysis is highly condensed.)

McLaren identifies “four deep dysfunctions, the fourth of which is the lynchpin or leverage point through which we can reverse the first three” (5). The four deep dysfunctions are:

1. The prosperity crisis: Environmental breakdown caused by our unsustainable global economy.

2. The equity crisis: The growing gap between the ultra-rich and the extremely poor.

3. The security crisis: The danger of cataclysmic war arising from the intensifying resentment and fear among various groups at opposite ends of the economic spectrum.

4. The spirituality crisis: The failure of the world’s religions, especially its two largest religions, to provide a framing story capable of healing or reducing the three previous crises. McLaren defines framing story as “a story that gives people direction, values, vision, and inspiration by providing a framework for their lives.”

Put simply, global poverty, environmental destruction, and increasing violence are “symptoms of a deeper disease, a disease of ideology” (51).

A New Framing Story

McLaren invites us to embrace a new ideology – a new framing story – rooted in Jesus’ kingdom vision. He believes that the “real” Jesus has been domesticated, watered-down, and ignored by Western Christians. His book, in a nutshell, is a search for a better framing story rooted in “the real Jesus.” He believes that Jesus’ framing story will guide us to respect environmental limits, work for the common good, and seek peaceful reconciliation among competing factions.

McLaren’s interest in solving global crises came about through long years of wrestling with “two preoccupying questions”:

1. What are the biggest problems in the world? “By biggest, I mean problems that cause the most suffering in the present, that pose the greatest threat to our future, that cause most of the other problems, that lie at the root of what’s wrong with the world—and therefore at the root of what must be done to set the world on a better course” (11).

2. What does Jesus have to say about these global problems?

After a brief reflection on these questions, he combines them into one question: “What could change if we applied the message of Jesus—the good news of the kingdom of God—to the world’s greatest problems?” (23)

Brian is disinterested in a message about Jesus, but is confident that we need to restore “the core message of Jesus that focused on personal, social, and global transformation in this life” (22). He argues that the “conventional view” of Jesus “relegates Jesus to practical irrelevance in relation to human social problems in history,” offering “relatively little hope for history” (83). He calls us to kingdom living that “is a new way of life that changes everything” (23).

The Danger of Losing Jesus in Jesus’ Message

I completely support Brian’s concern that we reclaim the message of Jesus’ kingdom, but I shy away from believing that it is primarily about global politics. If this were the case, Jesus would have taken on Caesar. Furthermore, it is impossible to separate the message about Jesus from the message of Jesus, for Jesus’ message is not just about justice, but about Jesus’ identity: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15); “You believe in God. Believe also in me” (John 14:1); “I and the Father are one” (John 10:32). If we are not careful, an overemphasis on principles and polity can eclipse the person of Christ. And if Jesus is lost in the message, the message is no longer Jesus’.

This is nowhere more evident than in the way Brian reinterprets Jesus’ parables to be primarily about social-political issues. In the book, he repeatedly argues for a political interpretation of Jesus’ parables. But is the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) really about economic inquity and fair trade? If so, what is the significance of the mysterious conclusion, “The last shall be first, and the first last”? And could any responsible business really work off of these principles? Just like many Christian teachers who see “financial principles” in every parable that includes money (and miss the main meaning about grace and salvation), so Brian seems to see his global solutions in every parable, without concern for what they might mean in regard to God’s gracious response to human sin. In short, saving grace is lost while political solutions are found.

I give Brian credit. Our faith must inform the whole of our lives, including politics. And our faith must compel us to hope for the best, to strive for the impossible, to seek the good of the marginalized and justice for all. Likewise, we must condemn hostile Christian visions of the future that revel in destruction and violence. But our engagement in the political process must be done wisely, without selling the farm in the process.

Though I appreciate the dreamer in Brian, his calls to a “divine peace insurgency,” “God’s unterror movement,” and “a new global love economy” in “God’s sacred ecosystem” seem naïve – more like a flower-child of the 60s than a serious theologian, politician, or economist. This sounds right and feels right (Who doesn’t want peace, love, and a healthy environment?), but doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of convincing anyone of the seriousness of Jesus’ message.

Living the Future Now

If anyone can imagine the world to be different than the way it is, it should be Christians. We look forward to no less than a new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). We anticipate the restoration and renewal of all things, and the complete triumph of good over evil, justice over injustice, love over hate, and life over death.

Jesus did have a global vision, but it was eschatological in orientation. He did not picture the complete conquering of crises – whether local or global – until the great day of the Lord. Until then, he practically guaranteed that there would be wars, rumors of war, violence, injustice, and suffering. This is not due to any personal glee in suffering, but to the practical realities of sinful people in a fallen world. Political solutions will never ultimately and adequately deal with the real problems of a fallen world. If redemptive history has any meaning, it has already proven to us that law cannot ever accomplish what grace can only achieve.

This fact should not discount our efforts for justice in the present. We are to live and act in accordance with the glorious vision of the end as recounted in the prophets, Jesus’ teaching, and the apostolic witness. God’s people have always been an eschatological people – a people of promise who live in light of God’s promised end. Our actions are not in vain because they align with the way things ultimately will be (see 1 Corinthians 15:58).

If Brian’s book does anything, it invites us to reconsider how we will live out our Christian faith in a global context. It encourages us to engage in and with the world’s systems to make this world a better place for all.

We must strive for this with fervent faithfulness. But we should never place our complete trust in political systems and solutions. They are bound to fail us. In the words of theologian Alan Lewis: “The Church may and must engage in politics and encourage social progress; but it trusts in neither, looking ahead to what God alone can and shall do, terminating the present order and making all things new.”[1]

Everything must change. According to God’s promise, everything will change. But this will ultimately only come about when the One who does not change – the One who is always faithful, just, true, and good – saves us from the sinful systems that take as much as they give. We believe this promise to be true, and therefore, in hope, we act as if it is already true, with no illusion that our actions will ever make it true, but with confidence that God’s power and grace can bring God’s promise to full fruition.

Brian does not deny this, but he never explicitly states this, so this aspect of Jesus’ kingdom message is lost in the shuffle.

Quotes excerpted from Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope by Brian D. McLaren
© Richard J. Vincent, 2007