I recently picked up Everything Must Change, Brian D. McLaren’s newest book. Initially, my response to chapters 1-5 was not positive. I thought McLaren fallaciously created a strawman by broadly characterizing evangelical church as a place where authentic praxis is sacrificed for punched tickets to Heaven. Recent events have, however, softened my stance on this particular issue. First of all, I’m not sure that McLaren is actually painting evangelical church as broadly as I initially read him. Yes, he does bluntly point towards an existing ecclesial trend in evangelical church that is rooted in the idea that our trip to Heaven is all that matters. Yes, his charge can easily be construed as an indictment of the entire Evangelical expression. No, he never said that all of Evangelical church – every single congregation – reflects this trend. I read that into his work, admittedly. That said, I do think McLaren could have been much more clear regarding this particular point. Secondly, in spite of the existence or non-existence of this Evangelical focus on getting into Heaven, I put down the first five chapters and walked away thinking, “I have never been in a church that actually celebrates ‘going to heaven’ as their ecclesiastic priority.” Well, that was until I really started looking for it.
I will not cite specific examples, because I honestly don’t want to offend anyone. Too, I have not approached anyone personally to discuss my thoughts and feelings concerning these matters. A personal discussion regarding such things with the parties involved should proceed a complaint laden blog post. I also don’t want to involve myself in unnecessary battles. There are many fights to fight in this day, and I’ll happily choose to engage those that I must engage. I’ll simply say this: a large discussion concerning church growth should be characterized by conversation about Heaven and global awareness and spiritual activism. The environment, economics, global conflict, poverty, aids, etc., are all deeply theological issues that any church – growing or otherwise – should be tackling. None of these things were part of the large discussion I attended. Salvation, and getting people to heaven, was discussed in plenty.
So, Brian McLaren, I get what you are saying now. Well said. Mea Culpa!
McLaren, beyond chapters 1-5 of Everything Must Change, raises some of the most important and challenging questions for the Christian Church in America today. His characterization of our societal system as a Suicide Machine is most interesting, if not prophetically frightening. Do I agree with everything McLaren says and writes? No! I do think, however, that he does the most important thing a writer can do: he forces us to think about much larger issues, whether we are in 100% agreement with him or not.
Christianity is about personal redemption and transformation. Jesus of Nazareth epitomized, practiced, and preached both in his life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Christianity is about spiritual activism too. Jesus of Nazareth toppled as many social, religious, and political norms as he did interior sins of the deeply personal and individual sort. A Christianity that celebrates the social aspect of Jesus’ teaching at the expense of the interior misses the point; a Christianity that celebrates the interior aspect of Jesus’ teaching at the expense of the social misses the point too. A holistic faith celebrates and practices both. McLaren’s Everything must Change is a clarion call to holistic faith. It’s a deep challenge.
I’m spending a lot more time with Everything Must change. It is, like I said, a very challenging read. I’ll write and commentate on more in a series of posts as I make way back through the pages. It’s filled with great and wonderful and strange thoughts. These thoughts deserve attention and careful reading. I’ll be doing so throughout the holidays. Stay tuned!
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