These reviews keep coming hot and heavy because I finished three books over the course of two days. One only took two days, one took a month, and one took almost 4 months. [The last one purposely took that long so I could digest it a few pages at a time, this will make more sense when the Book 14 review is up]
This one, All the Place to Go: How will you know? by John Ortberg took a month, As it was published this year I have decided to use it as V. A book published this year, I know I can get really creative sometimes. This was not my first brush with Mr. Ortberg's writing, nor will it be the last, I currently own another of his books that I am very much looking forward to reading at some point in the future, but I have to say that this one was at times a real slug fest. There were times when I breezed through sections, loving what I was reading. There were times when I was scratching my head about some of his conclusions. There were times that I was shaking my head at the ridiculousness of some of his pastor jokes. And, for the sake of honesty, there were times when I merely skimmed sections of the last two chapters because I just wanted to be done with the book.
I am not an official book reviewer, so my negative comments about a book isn't really going to change how many people read a book, To that end I will not dwell on them much, other than to say that at times Mr. Ortberg believes that God only has a general care about the choices we make while at other times God is the one who closes each door or forces us to go through one door or another. It seemed like he wanted it both ways, freedom of choice and a God in complete control, it is my contention that you can have either one or the other, but if you can believe both and not go crazy, be my guest. In addition Ortberg uses Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go! as a jumping off point for this book, peppering in a few rhymes from time to time, and while it is an interesting device, I don't believe it was the best idea. If I had to guess I would say that the book may have started off as a sermon series, and the rhymes may have worked a lot better orally than they do on paper.
As far as the good there are two thoughts that I want to focus on for the rest of our time together. First was Ortberg's rather brilliant point about the church that Jesus gives the "great" commission to, Ortberg points out that it is a group of 11, not 12. 12 being a direct reference to the 12 tribes of Israel, a sort of new Israel that Jesus has formed, a number of completeness, of wholeness, of readiness. 11 on the other hand is less than, it is not ready, it is not whole, it is not complete. The church that Jesus sends out to change the world is a church that is unequal to the task, which ultimately means they must rely on each other and rely on God in order to begin to accomplish the task.
The second thing I loved about this book was a 3 page section on God using us in circumstance that we care about. In other words God equips us to deal with things that we already have a heart for. You hate modern day slavery? Perhaps God is calling you to work to end it. You have many issues with unequal pay? Perhaps God is asking you to speak up. Ortberg titles the section "What's your problem?" and at base if we understand the things that make our blood boil we may already know where God is wanting us to affect change. I have read whole books about this one topic, Bill Hybels The Power of a Whisper comes to mind, that have taken a lot more space to explain what Ortberg does in three pages, and I give him kudos for that.
As I said, there were good things and bad things about this book. Would I recommend it? I'm not sure. If it sounds good to you maybe just get it from the library, like I did.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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