How to Remake the World One Neighborhood at a Time

How to Remake the World Neighborhood by Neighborhood is the solution to the social breakdown felt across the country and around the world today. It narrates the story and philosophy of Community Renewal International (CRI), an organization founded in Shreveport, Louisiana. In the places where it has taken root, people build new friendships and begin to restore the bonds that sustain communities so that they thrive. Crime rates plummet. People come out of their homes and grow connections with their neighbors. They become active, caring participants in their societies.

The late Millard Fuller, co-founder of Habitat for Humanity, once described CRI as "the premier community renewal building model in the nation," and his wife and co-founder Linda Fuller writes, "Mack McCarter shares the courageous steps he took to fuse love and caring into relationships, using the best elements of society to improve neighborhoods, cities and our futures."

The book tells the story of how McCarter returned to his home town of Shreveport after many years as a pastor in Texas. He found a city that was racially divided and suffering from violence. With a small group of like-minded people, he intentionally and proactively began engaging with people in the city's most violent and dangerous neighborhood. Over time, studying the history of the rise and fall of civilizations and applying that research to the practical question of community renewal, he developed a replicable system. Today, Black and white, Republican and Democrat, men and women--all who have become part of the "We Care Team," now over 50,000 strong, have remade entire neighborhoods and repaired the fabric of society

G.S. “Mack” McCarter is the founder and coordinator of Community Renewal International. Before returning in 1994 to his native Shreveport to implement his vision, Mack pastored churches in Texas for eighteen years. There are now more than 50,000 “We Care” team members in every state and forty-one nations. Ten cities in the United States are reproducing the Shreveport model of connecting caring people, changing lives, and transforming communities. Mack and his wife Judy live in Shreveport, LA, and Washington, DC.


Tim Muldoon teaches in the philosophy department at Boston College and is the author or co-author of ten books including The Ignatian Workout and, with his wife Sue, The Discerning Parent. His books and essays are used frequently in college courses, faculty discussion groups, and retreats. He and Sue reside outside of Boston.