Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change tour

Posted by Helen on: 04.06.2008 /

I spent Friday evening and Saturday at Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change tour. (You can see other four photos I took here.)

A few months ago I decided to come when I found out the Chicago tour stop was going to be just a mile from my house. I also signed up as a volunteer.

My volunteer role turned out to be driving Jo (event manager) and Linnea (co-presenter with Brian) from the airports they arrived at to the host church. This was fun because it gave me an opportunity to meet each of them and chat with them one on one during the drive. Also because I got a cool printed purple volunteer name tag. Only volunteers had printed ones. I’m not sure Brian had a name tag at all but I think people figured out who he was.

As usual when I attend events my favorite part was being with interesting people. I was surprised people traveled from a number of surrounding states to be there, although I probably shouldn’t have been. There were also some (very) local people - none of whom I had met except Sue, who I knew from Bible Study Fellowship days. I was pleased to see Sue there and we sat together Friday night.

Actually there was someone else local I knew staffing the one.org table, Tasha: we both used to attend the same church. I enjoyed catching up with her.

I very much enjoyed meeting Kathy and I appreciated her compassion and sensitivity as I shared parts of my story with her.

I met a number of other neat people too (I don’t remember every name, sorry) - Nathan, Michael, Ken and Laura, Art, Gordon, Richard…

It was fun to see a number of cohort people there - Mike and Julie, Rebecca, Sarah and Ryan, Nick and Nanette.

Jason who I enjoyed meeting at Brian’s October talk was there and came over to say hi. Check out his notes on the event.

Two of the host church volunteers said they’d read my dialog in the local newspaper when they saw my nametag and said they find it interesting, which I was pleased to hear.

Brian’s talk Friday evening was similar to his talk I went to in October. I was struck again by what he said; my main thought was, wow, it sure is easy for me to not to care enough about this except when it’s right in my face. Because even though I’d heard it just a few months ago, it hit me all over again how serious the problems are which Brian was talking about.

Early Friday morning Brian talked to the cohorts. He has a great way with words. “Organized religion is not the problem - but when it organizes to do stupid things”. He talked about how the struggle for church leaders is to create safe space then defend it. “We help people understand what they’re reacting against”.

I liked his Saturday talk Which Jesus? and wish I had written down what some of the slides said. He talked about the different ways Christians see Jesus - cute baby Jesus, warrior Jesus and many more. Then he used the Caesarea Philippi passage and Colossians 1 to talk about how Jesus makes peace not by shedding the blood of others (the domination method) but by letting his own be shed.

Rebecca was asked to share for a few minutes and what she said was very powerful you can read about it on her blog.

Thomas Nelson was there, making a companion DVD to go with Brian’s book. (They haven’t been at other tour stops - for whatever reason this was the one they chose to film at) They filmed during the event sessions and filmed interviews with volunteers who signed up to share their reactions about what Brian is saying.

There was a lot of worship and praying. A lot from my point of view which probably means, more than none, but maybe not to the Christians there who comprised most of the attendees. The songs were all written to go with the event and the words were words I’d never sung in church. The team for this event rightly understands that new worship songs and prayers are needed to express concern about global crises and repentance for not caring and not doing enough. As Brian said, Christians haven’t articulated the communal sin of wasting resources and not sharing with those in great need.

I didn’t sing or pray or read what everyone read out loud together. I just don’t do that. I felt conspicuous but no-one said anything to me about my non-participation. I agree with the importance of addressing global crises but to me this was a very Christian way of approaching it and I felt somewhat alienated by the approach. I’d rather be presented with the information and discuss it with each other, but without the worship part. However, I wouldn’t necessarily expect Christians not to approach an issue in a Christian way. I was curious to read the words as other people sang and prayed and was glad that new words have been carefully chosen that tie into what Brian is saying.

There was a cohorts lunch in which John commented to Rebecca about the e-mail discussion concerning closing in prayer - or not - at the city cohort meetings. (Rebecca facilitates them) John felt strongly that it’s important to pray. I listened and didn’t say anything because it would have taken the meeting off-track to prolong the discussion about that issue. Which I didn’t want to do.

I appreciated Rebecca’s comments to John about the issue. I’m not always able to attend the city meetings but I’ve never felt unwelcome or misunderstood in a way that would cause me not to want to go. I would probably feel differently about a group facilitated by someone like John who didn’t seem open to more inclusive closing options than prayer. It’s not just the prayer - it’s being with people who care more about doing what they think is important than respecting where group members are at. John talked about how they (his church?) pray for local officials and how they like being prayed for, as if that’s true of everyone. Well, it isn’t, but again I didn’t say anything. John is a great guy and I wish him well in his ministry. I don’t think he realized the person who raised the closing prayer issue was right there in the room when he was commenting on it to Rebecca.

It was emphasized at this event that cohorts help people who think “I’m crazy” to find out they aren’t alone in their craziness. I’m sure the event did that too by bringing together 300 Christians who all wanted to do something about global crises, whether that was a focus in their own Christian communities or not. I think people really did feel safe there because when Linnea asked people to share their stream-of-consciousness poems they’d written at the event, a number of people volunteered. There was no heckling from people who disagree with Brian - I’m sure that helped. Our handouts included rules of respectful engagement but it didn’t seem like anyone came with an intent to behave other than respectfully.

It was neat to see that there seemed to be Christians from every denomination when Brian asked for a show of hands from each, as the event got underway Friday night. And a number of non-denominational Christians. I would have liked to see some Christians I recognized from my former church although I’m expect they officially disapproved of the event because of Brian’s failure to affirm conservative Christian belief. I was pleased that there were some people from Oak Park Vineyard (whose doctrine is similar to my former church). They apparently are in a small group at their church studying Brian’s book.

One of the powerful things Brian did near the end was have us look at each other’s T-shirt labels and see where they were made. The one person with a T-shirt made in the USA was cheered. As Brian predicted, many poor countries were represented.

This was news to me: an Everything Must Change website has been set up where people can share ways they’re getting involved to address global crises. I was pleased to hear that.

I was glad to be at the event. It seemed like it went well and Brian made his case clearly and articulately, as usual. Going from hearing and caring at an event like this to changing the way we live is a big step. Will I take it? I do know I’m thinking a lot more about the way I use resources than I was before the event.

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Semi-Related Posts

• Deep Shift: Everything Must Change Tour
• My newspaper article about Brian McLaren’s tour
• May 19 up/rooted meeting about Everything Must Change
• The Born Again Church Tour
• Simple faith
• Brian McLaren on Evangelicals, the Religious Right
• Why I am a…

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