Following the will of God must matter here on earth

A man must not swallow more beliefs than he can digest.

-- Havelock Ellis

Brian McLaren is a former college English teacher who, in 1982, helped form Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative, nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington region, and served as the church's founding pastor. He believes that some versions of Christianity are "offering us a ticket to heaven after death, but not challenging us to address the issues that threaten life on earth." McLaren is the author of a book I am revisiting: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope.

McLaren helps the reader understand some highly complex material and make it not only accessible, but more interesting and inspiring. He engages the reader in a conversation about what it means to be "a new kind of Christian." In other words, not the "angry and reactionary fundamentalist," the "stuffy traditionalist," the "blasé nominalist," the "wishy-washy liberal," the "New Agey religious hipster," a "crusading religious imperialist" nor an "overly enthused Bible-waving fanatic." That's a mouthful, isn't it?

If it isn't any of those things, then just what is this "new kind of Christian"? According to McLaren, it is "something fresh, challenging, authentic and adventurous." It includes people with "a suspicion that the religious status quo is broken" and who have "a desire to translate their faith into a way of life that makes a positive difference in the world."

He addresses two important questions:

1. What are the biggest problems in the world? The problems, he says, that cause the most suffering pose the greatest threat to the future.

2. What does Jesus have to say about these global problems?

There are two examples early in the book that provide context for his perspective and the basis for why McLaren believes "everything must change."

In a leadership meeting with a group of people in Bujumbura, Burundi, East Africa, McLaren was startled to hear a statement made by the group leader, Claude. McLaren listened as Claude explained how most of the people at the conference knew him. He was the son of a preacher who grew up going to church all the time, as much as five times a week. However, in all his time in church, he admitted that he had heard only one sermon.

"That sermon went like this," he continued, speaking to a somewhat confused audience. "You are a sinner and you are going to hell. You need to repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus might come back today, and if he does and you are not ready, you will burn forever in hell."

Most of the group recognized that this was the only sermon that they, too, had ever heard.

Maybe you can identify with Claude. "Sunday after Sunday, year after year, different words, different Bible verses, but the same point," he went on to say.

What he had not heard was a sermon that addressed what he called the "realities": death, distrust between tribes, poverty, suffering, corruption and injustice. You can substitute your own list of issues not being addressed in your church. That's when Claude realized that something was wrong with the way we understand Jesus and the good news. Something was missing. "They told us how to go to heaven," he said. "But they left out an important detail. They didn't tell us how the will of God could be done on earth."

The kingdom of God is a metaphor Jesus used to get across his essential message, a message McLaren believes "was not focused on how to escape this world and its problems by going to heaven after death." It was focused instead on "how God's will could be done on earth ... during this life."

That point was a moment of truth for one young woman, Justine, who attended the leadership meeting. For the first time, she could really grasp what was meant by the kingdom of God. "I see that it's about changing this world, not just escaping it and retreating into our churches," she told McLaren. "If Jesus' message of the kingdom of God is true, then everything must change. Everything must change."

That's the revolution of hope that McLaren is working toward.

■ Nigel Alston is a Dale Carnegie trainer and motivational speaker. He can be reached at nalston1@triad.rr.com.