John G. Blumberg
183 pages
When Tracy and I went to CCC last weekend we heard John Blumberg, the author of [Silent Alarm] preach the first message of the series (silent alarms) based upon the book. He was fantastic and gave a great amount for me to ponder and think about not only now in the present, but to reflect upon my past and change for the future as it relates to my busyness. This book is a great little parable providing hope, food for thought, and some practical questions to ponder and think through as it relates to your life, your values, your motives, etc, etc, etc. However, if I could be a little reflective, there was one point in particular that stood out to me more than anything else:
Redefine your dream. Not of what you will do… but of who you will become.
I’ve wrestled with this concept before, and even most recently in conversation with my friend Glenn but for some reason this time it took root.
I’ve often times defined myself based upon “career goals” for ministry—many have begun calling it being a “Professional Christian”—and most recently in terms of being a church planter. It always comes around that people invariably ask “What do you do?” as if your value and meaning in life comes strictly from the position or title that you hold. As I thought about it, I wish people could ask me “Who are you?” or better yet “Who are you becoming?” Unfortunately for me, I’m not sure I could answer those questions with any amount of clarity or certainty.
This book shook some things loose in my stubborn ol’ head and I’m glad. The writing is fair, but the story is intriguing and the more you internalize the story the more engulfed you become. I look forward to looking through this book again at various times to come back to some of the concepts as I look to re-define my life and re-orient myself around my core values instead of my professional dreams. I hope it can do the same for some of you.
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- Faith of My Fathers (a review)
- breaking the missional code (a review)
- survivor (a review)
- Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelicals Lament (a review)
I too have been trying to re-define my life for some time. I still feel like a pastor, though I haven’t held that position for over five years. Yet, I would be at such odds with the powers that be in a conventional church situation, that I have pretty much ruled that out. Just as the current theological and ecclesiastical conversation is about “stripping away” cultural and Christendom influences or deconstructing and reconstructing, the same process is hitting individual pastors and leaders in huge numbers. I think that it is hard for us to think truly outside of the box in a way that is truly missional, truly simple, truly effective, truly Christlike. Oddly enough, this is virgin territory.