The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World's Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian

[Excerpted from a longer essay on translating the Greek behind "faith in Jesus Christ" (Rom 3:22) as "the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah":] Among so many excellent, groundbreaking books by McLaren, The Great Spiritual Migration may be his best and most important book yet. It is both more direct and honest about the magnitude of change needed for the church to move forward but also his most inspiringly hopeful writing, in divining the signs of change already underway. Yes, the challenges before Christians are daunting — in line with the precarious situation of humanity as a whole. He holds nothing back on the gravity of this moment in human history, once again using the metaphor of the “suicide machine” for the unsustainability of our culture (as he did in Everything Must Change). Yet McLaren inspires the reader to see the goodness in the world and the signs of resurrection around us to cherish and build upon, that disciples of Jesus might answer the urgent call to participate in the ongoing life-project of the Spirit.McLaren identifies three major pathways of migration, which we can use to round-off our discussion of the importance of correctly translating pisteōs Iēsou Christou as the “faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah” (using the three descriptions from the back book cover):"Spiritually, growing numbers of Christians are moving away from defining themselves by lists of beliefs and toward a way of life defined by love." The translation of pistis as faithfulness rather than belief is huge in this regard. We need to see ourselves less in terms of assenting to certain beliefs — its own form of “works righteousness” — and more in terms of being led by the Spirit to follow in Jesus’ faithful practices of love."Theologically, believers are increasingly rejecting the image of God as a violent Supreme Being and embracing the image of God as the renewing Spirit at work in our world for the common good." When the emphasis is more on our faith as belief, aren’t we more inclined to make God over into our image, i.e., violent? Our increasingly violent history, even since the Reformation, would seem to bear that out.... When the emphasis is on Jesus’ faithful way of living God’s love in the world, on the other hand, don’t we have a better chance of finally being converted to St. John’s proclamation of God as love (1 John 4)? Of God as light, in whom there is no darkness at all (1 John 1)? And then to look for that Spirit of love bringing God’s power of life to places of suffering in this world and desiring to join in?"Missionally, the faithful are identifying less with organized religion and more with organizing religion — spiritual activists dedicated to healing the planet, building peace, overcoming poverty and injustice, and collaborating with other faiths to ensure a better future for all of us." When what saves us is simply our beliefs about Jesus, it is easier to make salvation primarily about what happens to us after we die. Our correct beliefs grant us a ticket to heaven. When what saves us is Jesus’ fully human faithfulness to God’s way of love as the means of redeeming the powers of sin and evil in the world, it is more obvious that the matter of salvation isn’t primarily about going to heaven, but about heaven migrating to earth and empowering human beings to migrate into a new place of peace, shalom.In short, McLaren’s The Great Spiritual Migration is timely for our observance and celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation — that we might get unstuck from our misplaced focus on belief and finally migrate to a way of life in following the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah.

Christianity is presently experiencing an identity crisis which is leading to a mega-shift on many levels. People of faith are again on the move, journeying away from broken religious belief systems based on static traditions, toward a more integrated Spirit-led way of life which engages all mankind and promotes unity rather than division, according to Brian McLaren.This is the first book I've read by author Brian McLaren, but it will likely not be the last. He speaks of hard truth but in soft love - a very Christ-like characteristic. The world today is awash with calls for "negative unity" - which is the affirmation of what we dislike most or feel compelled to protest against. But McLaren's call is toward something more elevating - "positive unity," which seeks to focus on building new models of hope.Standing firmly against such positive unity and hopeful transformation is what Brian calls, "your little inner fundamentalist," which always feels threatened by change which calls into question strong previously held beliefs. "Thank God Christianity has a rich tradition of changing course," writes McLaren.McLaren offers a detailed threefold plan to help facilitate this great spiritual, theological and missional migration patterned after Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, which are symbolic of death, reflection and resurrection ... of letting go, letting be and rising up.I especially like Brian's analogy about what religion can learn from science in Chapter two. Science begins with a mystery, a hypothesis, then after repeated experiments progresses to a tested theory - only after exhaustive testing is it considered a scientific fact. But if any scientific fact is disputed by new evidence, a good scientist must be willing to humbly abandon old facts and conclusions. Science has a deeper love for truth and their testing methods than previously-held facts. Brian McLaren concludes this dynamic call to join him in becoming transforming agents with an uplifting story of a friend, Dieter Zander, who was a multi-talented pastor, speaker and musician who suffered a stroke which stripped him of his ability to speak overnight. "Before the stroke, I was working for God...working, working working," said Dieter, still struggling to talk after years of therapy. "Now, I playing with God...playing, playing, playing. Much better."Deiter's life today consists of working in a grocery store cleaning floors and bathrooms, yet one day he clearly heard God's voice telling him, "Urinal holy. toilet holy, grocery store holy, everything holy." "Instead of playing God, I'm playing with God, at play in God's good world where everything is holy.""To rise to the occasion of this great work we must descend in humility, to see what Dieter now sees; we are but children at play with God, living in a world where everything is holy...to relax in play, in God's limitless grace."Amen! I hardily recommend this book to all who feel called to jump into the next great movement of God with both feet. May we rise up with wings like eagles in this great spiritual migration toward intimacy with our loving Creator which brings healing our hurting culture!

I really enjoy Brian McLaren and his books. He has been on this reconstruction of faith since the beginning. He gives words to my experience. Each of us, doing our part, can change the world for the better. All of us working together, not just Christians, need to save the earth from destruction. He has a lot of solid ideas. The book bogged down a bit for me when he started talking in-depth about how movements happen but for someone else that might be the best part.

If you have more questions than answers about your Christian up-bringing and what it taught you, then this book is for you.If you are a lover of God and realize he is all Love and zero hate and violence, then this book is for you.If you realize that for 1 Cor 13, the "love chapter", should tell us about our blessed Trinity and that those qualities are shown in the life of Jesus, then this book is for you.If you realize that the God of ultimate Love cannot also be the heinous God of eternal conscious torment, then this book is for you.If you sense it's time to move forward...then this book is for you.

If you love God and you seek to follow Jesus’s greatest commandment of love, this book shows you a way to live your faith, even if it may mean challenging your church community.

Superb book in my opinion. Thoughts outside the box. Looking to the original dynamic which Jesus brought to his contemporaries. It looks through religion to the experience of God individually and socially. Very challenging. A view over which it is hard to sit on the fence. Being stuck in safety and rigor mortis is the alternative.

This challenged and disturbed me. I feel a new unsettling around the way we do and are church. McLaren has a gentle approach to a topic that has been discussed since the early church, that is who we are as followers of Christ, how do we do religion without doing harm. How do we live and love like Christ.

This is an excellent read for any person of faith who feels that most of organized Christianity needs to be overhauled. Our questions about our faith are not heretical, and a new support structure needs to be devised to allow the church to grow into the 21st century.

Purchased this for a course I was attending. I have read several Brian McLaren books before so I knew what to expect and I was not disappointed.