Everything must change
I have just finished reading Brian Mclaren's book Evrything must change I have not read any of his books before or heard that much about him up until reading this book.I have also never written a review of a book but thought I would give it a go.
Firstly I would say that I do recommend reading this book,I choose carefully what books I read nowadays but this one is worth a read.I guess the title explains where the book is heading and that is that Jesus called and is calling those who follow him to bring about change in this world.That change is the coming of the kingdom of God.
The book begins with a look at the what I would call the BIG questions about where the world is heading and what is to be done about them.
1 what are the biggerst problems in the world?
2 what would jesus have us do about them?
He then goes on to outline the big global problems ie the gap between rich and poor the capitalist system the security issue as well as a few more.This is then all brought together into what he calls the "suisidal system"This he says is the system that we now live in.This system he says cannot be sustained and will only lead to more and bigger problems.There is a good attention to detail along the way to support his arguments.
He draws out what happens to us when we live in this system and gives good examples of the different narratives we end up living in as a result of this system.The three main narritives being
1 Violence
2 Whitdrawal
3 Theocapatilist.
The book then moves on to what he calls the reframing of Jesus.This was perhaps the most helpfull part of the book for me.He places alot of the story of Jesus in the context of Empire and the Empire being the Suicidal system of the day.He then goes on to look at how Jesus came to challenge (sorry) replace the narritives of violence,withdrawal and the theocapatlist empire.
It was here I found the most challenging in terms of my own narritive or story as I prefer to call it.Was it the purpose of Jesus just to help us to live in this worlds story or to demonstrate a whole new story.Its seems to me we have the possiblity of a whole new story and that the gospels shout it out loud and clear.He talks clearly about the churchs need to move aways from the focus it has now of the blessing up of people (my words you can see why I dont write books)and to a place where we show people that there is another story the can live in.People dont need a duel narritive they need a new one.
The books ends with th idea of one person living this new story leading to a community which leads to a globl impact.I felt a little dissapointed at the end that there was not some clear plan but then I realised that thats the last thing we need seeing that Jesus already gave us on.
I will finish with the best quote from the book.At a meeting in Rwanda with some local leaders he was looking at some of these issues and talking about the way Africa had been effected by the system brought to them by the colonialists.And one local said "when the missionaries came we had the land and they had the bible.They said let us pray and we closed our eyes.When we opened them they had the land and we had the bible"