Dear President Obama,

I am so thrilled-and relieved-to have you as president. Thanks for taking the risk and running a great campaign, because we need your leadership at this moment in history.

As you take office, please remember that it's not always easy to tell the difference between a symptom and a disease.

That fact became clear to me a few years ago when I left the pastorate where I had served for twenty-four years. My first project was to research a book I had wanted to write for decades. I wanted to understand global crises-what's wrong with the world-so I could have some sense of the best, highest-leverage ways to make a positive difference. I grappled with any number of lists-from the eight Millennium Development Goals, to the UN's fifteen global challenges, to Rischard's twenty global problems, to the top ten problems of the Copenhagen Consensus.

One thing soon became clear: it's hard to distinguish between a cause and an effect, between a surface issue and a deeper problem.

That's why, if I could encourage you with one piece of counsel to maximize your impact, it would be this: go deeper. Seek to understand and deal not just with surface effects and symptoms but with deeper systemic causes and sociopolitical diseases. Our mutual friend Jim Wallis likes to say: "Don't go left. Don't go right. Go deeper." And that says it perfectly.

That leads to the question, "What are those deeper problems?" I believe that four deep, systemic dysfunctions are festering like an undiagnosed disease, creating the symptoms we keep treating without curing.

First is the crisis of the planet. Our affluent lifestyle, combined with a growing global population, makes us suck in more resources than the planet can provide, and we're pumping out more waste than the environment can neutralize. Global climate change, water pollution, the rush toward peak oil, the extinction of species, and the food crisis are all symptoms of this deeper disease. We need to imagine not just a new policy but also a new way of life, a new kind of economy. To begin with, we must move beyond a consumptive, extractive economy to a sustainable economy. But even better: we must go beyond sustainability to envision a regenerative economy-a way of life that leaves an even more beautiful, healthy, and productive planet for our children and grandchildren than the one we inherited.

Second is the crisis of poverty. Only about one-third of our planet shares in the remarkable (and unsustainable) affluence that we take for granted. The gap between the richest third and the poorest third is growing greater and greater. We who have been given much know that much is expected from us ... so we must focus on ways to help the poorest third of humanity. Aid and debt relief are key to helping them, but most important is fair trade-helping the poor of our inner cities and rust belt regions become part of thriving regenerative economies. We must do the same for our brothers and sisters in Africa, Latin America, and Asia as well. Selfish prosperity is short-lived and insecure; deep prosperity demands that we show concern for our neighbors in need.

Third is the crisis of peace. When the gap between rich and poor grows too great, both rich and poor arm themselves with increasingly catastrophic weapons. That's why we need a three-dimensional security strategy. Yes, we need defense, but we also need diplomacy and development in at least equal measures. Our faith tells us that it's the peacemakers who are blessed, not the war-makers and weapons-manufacturers.

Finally is the crisis of purpose. We need a spiritual story to live by that gives direction and meaning to our lives. Our consumerist society offers only a hollow story of affluence and comfort and hedonism. Our political parties too often offer only narratives of conflict and fear. Tragically, our religions too often only baptize the hollow stories provided by our culture or seek to add spiritual products and services to a consumerist mindset. But at the heart of our faiths, this deep story runs: that our good Creator is up to good in our world and invites us to be co-creators and co-laborers who seek peace through reconciliation, justice, and generosity. You won the election by articulating this deep story of hope and collaboration over a competing story of fear and fighting, and I hope you will keep articulating this better story from your bully pulpit.

You won as a thinking and caring president, not just a fighting or ideological president. So my counsel to you is to keep going deep. Keep focusing on the systemic diseases that need to be healed. Government can't solve all those problems, but a leader like you can lead people everywhere to engage them courageously and creatively, with faith, hope, and love.

Brian McLaren is the author of Everything Must Change. See brianmclaren.net.