Posted by Helen on: 04.23.2008 /
After attending Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change tour at the beginning of April I wrote the following article for the Wednesday Journal (the local newspaper that my dialog with Rev Lueking is in).
Small Steps in the Right Direction
In recent weeks some new questions have pervaded my thinking as I’ve gone about my everyday activities. “Could I use less water to do this? Do I really need to buy this much food-will I use it all?”
It all started when I attended Brian McLaren’s “Everything Must Change” conference in early April. For a day and a half, 300 people gathered at First United Church of Oak Park to hear Brian speak about global crises and reflect on how we can help. Many of the attendees had traveled from other Midwest states to be there.
Brian contends Christians have contributed to and perpetuate global crises partly because of wrong beliefs. He says they have put Jesus in the wrong “framing story.” That story says God authorizes rich, powerful Christians to hold onto wealth and power, ruling and controlling others for their own good. (Which looks the same as ruling and controlling others for selfish reasons, but, of course, Christians wouldn’t behave that way!) Brian believes the framing story Jesus role-modeled and intended his followers to live is one of humility, service, kindness and generosity.
The event was well-organized and seemed to go well. First United was a wonderfully friendly host church: I enjoyed meeting the staff and volunteers on site to help.
Brian identifies himself as an “evangelical Christian” and in many ways this conference felt like an evangelical Christian event. The sessions included worship songs, Bible reading and prayer. A small team of musicians with guitar and violin led the singing as words were projected on a large screen. First United’s huge organ remained unused behind them, a striking backdrop only.
Brian’s talk “Which Jesus?” drew heavily on three Bible passages as he showed violence was inflicted on Jesus, not by him.
The conference also included things which had never been part of any other evangelical Christian event I’d attended: Watching a Sierra Club video about how mountaintop mining is devastating parts of the U.S. landscape, checking each other’s T-shirt labels to see where they were made, singing a song confessing how we’ve wasted the earth’s resources and failed to do enough about world poverty and injustice.
Brian’s team wrote their own songs for the tour. Global crises is such a new focus among evangelical Christians that there were no existing songs to draw upon.
The people who attended already agreed with Brian that Christians need to address global crises. They were there to connect with other Christians who share their concerns and consider what the next action step is. Some are wondering how to get other members of their Christian communities on board.
It’s hard to ignore the seriousness of global crises while attending an event about them. Yet would I do anything differently once it was over? Evidently I did bring what I heard home with me, because those new questions keep popping into my mind, unbidden. And I am making changes because of them. They’re small but at least they’re steps in the right direction.
Comment by: Jason Horton
1 04/23/08 9:09 AM | Comment Link |It seems as if the focus is specifically for Christians? Could the structure and content be easily changed for a Muslim audience or a mixed audience like a school or university? While the majority of Americans claim to be Christian there is a large and (I think) growing proportion who are not.
Comment by: Helen
2 04/23/08 1:01 PM | Comment Link |Jason, someone certainly could take the information Brian shares about our unsustainable consumption and unequal distribution of wealth and adapt it for an audience of people who aren’t Christians.
I respect Brian’s choice to target Christians and present what he’s saying in a way which will be helpful to them in particular.
He doesn’t exclude other people - anyone is welcome to attend his tour and he’s delighted to have people who aren’t Christians join with him in addressing global crises.
Comment by: Jason Horton
3 04/23/08 10:22 PM | Comment Link |OK, he’s targeting Christians but it’s something that is open to everyone. He’s clearly working towards a better future for everyone. Is it fair to say that it’s the wealthy, white, middle class Christian demographic that could be doing so much more to remedy the world’s many problems? Is this simply because the group is so prevalent in America or has this group been focusing it’s energies elsewhere for so long that the big issues have been ignored?
Has the comfortable well off chosen to ignore issues like global warming and focus on other issues? Is that why Brian McLaren’s tour is so important to getting people to refocus? I mean people who are in a position to affect change.
Comment by: Helen
4 04/24/08 6:02 AM | Comment Link |Jason, thanks - those are great questions.
I want to be careful what I say here. As you alluded to, some Christians have been encouraged to focus their energies elsewhere and not on global crises. This doesn’t mean they are more selfish/less generous than other people; it simply means they’re doing what they were taught Jesus wanted them to do.
Since Brian is a Christian, he understands this very well and it makes sense to me that he would want to share his understanding of the priorities he believes Jesus wants Christians to have with other Christians.
I think it’s like this: suppose one of your children has some trait you also have, which is causing him some struggles you also had as a child. You feel particularly drawn to help him, not because he has worse problems than your other children, but because you identify with what he’s going through. Since you went through it too and understand it, it’s likely you’ll know how to help.
Comment by: Rebecca
5 04/24/08 3:46 PM | Comment Link |Helen, I think that metaphor is a great one to answer Jason’s questions.
Comment by: Helen
6 04/24/08 4:28 PM | Comment Link |Thanks Rebecca!
Comment by: Jason Horton
7 04/25/08 9:31 AM | Comment Link |Yes, thanks Helen, good metaphor. I don’t see global crises as a necessarily Christian issue or even that Christians are in the best position to “fix” them. By definition a global crisis is the problem of everyone on the globe. I would say that the better off members of society (the middle classes) are in a better position to make a difference. I’m uncertain if the middle classes happen to be predominantly Christian as well but I suspect so.
The problem I have with it being an initiative that focuses on one faith group is that it may inadvertently cause a rejection of those good ideas by other groups or by Christians if the ideas are picked up by other groups that have different beliefs. I would advise trying to expand the message early on to be a cross faith initiative that includes secular input as well.
Of course, you actually went and I’m only reacting to the ideas that you’ve shared and not the whole thing. I may have the wrong end of the stick.
Comment by: Helen
8 04/25/08 3:03 PM | Comment Link |Jsaon wrote:
I respect your concern, but I don’t think that will happen.
To use another analogy: if you have something to communicate, you’ll be most effective if you share it with people who speak the same language as you.
If other people want to translate it and teach it in other languages, great. And if they want to use your slides, which don’t have words on, no problem.
But it still works best for you to focus on teaching people who speak your own language.
Comment by: Unorthodoxology
9 04/27/08 11:20 PM | Comment Link |I’m not a huge fan of McClaren, but I think what he is doing is actually pretty positive. Yes, his message is exclusively for Christians. Yes, that has the potential to offend.
On the other hand, he is taking a very progressive, universalist message (doing good to others) and making it palatable for people (some evangelicals, for example) for whom such social outreach would have been unthinkable even 15 years ago.
Unfortunately, though I’m sure McClaren would welcome other faiths or secular ideas, I’m not sure some in his audience may be ready to not see Christianity as *the* true way to live.
But, it is a huge step in the right direction, from my perspective.
Comment by: Helen
10 04/30/08 6:30 AM | Comment Link |Thanks for your comment, Unorthodoxology.
By the way I was surprised and pleased to find that Brian McLaren linked here from his blog last week.