Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope
by Brian D. McLaren

Hardcover: 256 pages
ISBN: 9780849901836, 0849901839
Thomas Nelson
October 2007

I'm a rather ordinary person. I care about my young adult kids and the kids they may someday have. I care about my friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens and our common future on this beautiful, imperiled planet. I care about the billions of people I've never met and never will meet, including people who might be called my nation's enemies. I also care about our fellow creatures-brown trout and blue herons, raccoons and gopher tortoises, red dragonflies and royal palms, barrel cactus and woodland ferns. I care about all of these for a lot of reasons, especially because I am a committed follower of Christ, and people with this commitment, it seems to me, can't help but care about all these things. - Brian McClaren, quoted from this book

What do the life and teaching of Jesus have to say about the most critical global problems in our world today?

Starred Review. McLaren, a leader in the emerging church, issues a salvo of arguments for radical hope in the face of profound dilemmas. The prolific author and pastor identifies the earth's four deep dysfunctions that have created a suicide machine: crises in prosperity, equity, security and spirituality. What could change, he asks, if we applied the message of Jesus - the good news of the kingdom of God - to the world's greatest problems? Here McLaren builds on the theme of his 2006 book The Secret Message of Jesus - that bringing about the kingdom means transforming the world we live in - to propose that we create a hope insurgency. Using a close reading of the Gospels to challenge conservative evangelicals' emphasis on individual salvation, not to mention end-times theology and, by implication, the prosperity gospel, McLaren argues for establishing a beloved community based on justice, peace, equality and compassion. McLaren's conclusions are not new, but his ability to be clear and persuasive - and get the attention of a segment of America's Christians - are exceptional. While his critics will find yet more material for challenging McLaren's views, his supporters will consider this book a riveting call to a new conversion. - Publishers Weekly

Chapters in this book include:

• Hope Happens
• Two Preoccupying Questions
• The Amahoro Flowing Between Us
• Everything Must Change
• Not What Jesus Intended
• Second Thoughts Had Come to Stay
• Suicidal System
• Simmering on the Back Burner of My Mind
• Three Interlocking Systems
• That Could Never Happen to Us
• The Stories We Tell Ourselves
• Reframing Jesus
• How Much More Ironic
• Switching Jigsaw Lids
• No Junk DNA
• Jamming the Accelerator, Slamming the Brakes
• Or So It Appeared
• Reintroducing Jesus
• Peace Through Domination
• Occupying Regime, Equity Gap, Excrement Factory
• How Different It Would Be
• Which Jesus?
• The Security System
• Joining the Peace Insurgency
• Whose Side Are We On?
• Layers and Layers More
• Joining Warriors Anonymous
• The Prosperity System
• Capitalism as God
• Obligations to Nonexistent Future People
• Quick Bliss Through Footwear,Palate Grease, and Skin Paint
• Collaboration for Co-liberation
• The Equity System
• On the Side of the Rebel Jesus
• Beyond Blame and Shame
• A New Kind of Question
• Organized Religion or Religion Organizing for the Common Good?
• A Revolution of Hope
• The Most Radical Thing We Can Do
• An Unfolding, Emergent, Spiraling Process
• Exposing the Covert Curriculum
• Moving Mountains

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