All the places to go by John Ortberg is mostly a fun read. Ortberg is seriously challenging people to take more risks and be open to new opportunities but he does it with such humour and light-heartedness that you almost don’t realise the significance of his message.
Ortberg uses the metaphor of the open door from Revelation 3:8 “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut” to write about stepping into new ventures and new ministries for God. He spends time on why we are reluctant to move into new things and encourages people by discussing what they might be missing out on as well as some of the hurdles involved in taking a new direction. He also spends time discussing our indecision and why we don’t always get a clear message from God in our decision making. God wants us to mature and make wise decisions without always being told what to do.
Ortberg uses self-deprecating humour to great effect. As well as using his own stories, he also includes other family, friends and congregation members to illustrate his points. Towards the end I was beginning to feel the “open door” metaphor was being slightly overdone but Ortberg makes it such fun, it’s hard to criticise.
An enjoyable, yet challenging read.
My daughter pointed out that I failed to mention that Ortberg writes a whole chapter about Jonah in his book and he even includes Jonah 4 (which many writers do not). It's odd that I didn't think to mention this because I find Jonah such an interesting character. However Ortberg uses the story to make a slightly different point to the one I usually make so perhaps this is why I neglected to mention it. However the chapter is quite insightful.
My daughter pointed out that I failed to mention that Ortberg writes a whole chapter about Jonah in his book and he even includes Jonah 4 (which many writers do not). It's odd that I didn't think to mention this because I find Jonah such an interesting character. However Ortberg uses the story to make a slightly different point to the one I usually make so perhaps this is why I neglected to mention it. However the chapter is quite insightful.