Bob Buford

I have a confession to make. I'm forty. I aged out in June and I am forced to face the fact that I'm statistically closer to the grave than the cradle. In many ways I don't feel forty yet. I feel like I'm still becoming who I was meant to be. I don't feel like I'm established. There is so much I had hoped to accomplish at this point, there is security which has eluded me, such as a fulfilling job and life success.

4434Authors Peter Greer and Greg Lafferty both have successful ministry show more careers. Greer is the president and CEO of Hope International, a global micro-finance organization. Lafferty is the senior pastor of Willowdale Chapel in Jennersville, Pennsylvania. Greer watched Lafferty navigate his forties and decided to learn from him about how he could avoid a midlife crisis and be propelled towards meaningful mission (17). 40/40 Vision: Clarifying Your Mission in Midlife is Greer and Lafferty's call for us to reevaluate our lives and press into the things which matter.

Lafferty and Greer share vulnerability about their experience of aging. They also engage a third dialogue partner: Qoheleth. The author of Ecclesiastes provides insights on refocusing our life midstream. Greer and Lafferty (and Qoheleth) address midlife (ch. 1), the meaninglessness of life (ch. 2), disappointment with our life not going how we had planned (ch.3), the lose of 'thrill'(ch. 4), facing mortality (ch. 5), growing in generosity (ch. 6), breaking the addiction to go-go-go (ch. 7), aging well (ch. 8), deepening our relationships in midlife (ch. 9), relinquishing control (ch. 10), finding meaning outside of 'a job' (ch. 11), and living a life with lasting purpose (ch. 12).

In their introduction, Greer and Lafferty write, " Our hope is that this is not just another self-help book loosely based on Christian principles or a list of ways to ease the symptoms of midlife. Rather, we want to address the underlying questions of midlife through the timeless wisdom fo Ecclesiastes. Although many issues in their forties, others face them in their thirties or fifities" (17-18). Sharing vulnerably from their life experience, they delve into each theme, highlighting the wisdom and insights of Ecclesiaties and exploring what it means to live life on mission in life's latter half.

This book speaks meaningfully to me in a way I wish it did not. I would rather be young, invincible, and immortal. But the experience of forty means I have to face up to life and press forward knowing that reckoning and resurrection await those who fear God and keep his commandments (183-184). Greer and Lafferty's conversational tone draws you and causes you to reflect on what life could be like moving forward.

I recommend this book for those near forty, those who are forty or fortyish, and those who saw forty a long time ago and still pretend they are forty. Greer and Lafferty show how Ecclesiastes speaks to midlife. I give this four stars.

Note: I received this book from IVP in exchange for my honest review. show less

Well, as I said earlier, I picked this book up b/c it was sitting in front of me one day at church. I was hesitant about it, afraid it was going to be one of those self-help, motivational rah-rah type of books. I think to some extent I was right, it was. I was drawn by the premise: that one's second half of life is better than the first and that this is b/c of of a shift in focus from success to significance. So while you're young, working hard, trying to build a career, you are stressed show more out, running around like a crazy chicken, not contemplating the passage of time and what your purpose is/ Once you hit your forties, you begin to shift and may begin a new focus in life- a mission, a ministry of some sort. I like Buford's ideas about this, however his examples of how people he knew made this shift successfully were a bit one-sided. Though Buford insists you do not have to be wealthy to make this shift, to quit your job and then focus on your true passion and start up a whole new bag of tricks, he inevitably draws up examples from his affluent friends: CEOs of banks, Vice Presidents or Presidents of huge corporations, and other millionaire types... Sure, if I had a pot full of gold I could have the leisure of investing in a dream. But most regular joes don't have multi-million dollar assets they can sell off to support their second half ventures. The regular joes have bills to pay, debts and loans to pay back, and many live paycheck to paycheck. Buford makes mention of these situations, but it's only lip service. He himself was a cable exec and entrepreneur. He has no idea what it's like to be on the poor end of things... So while he and his cronies can quit their first half jobs and start up new ventures and live out their significance in joy, peace and luxury, the rest of us are still trying to pay off mortgages or paying ever increasing rent and a myriad of other bills. We simply don't have the luxury to put into practice his lofty ideals. That being said, I do appreciate the premise; do something of significance in your later years. You're never too old to be significant.









I saw this today, sitting on a table at church. And we have a copy of the book at home. So b/c it was there, I started to read the preface and foreward. I really shouldn't be starting to read yet another book (!) as I've got three others going already. but this caught my eye. I hope it isn't going to be motivational speaker-type of hoopla w/christian-ese. show less

show more 《人生下半场》描述了我个人由追求成功转为寻求价值与意义的经过；本书则是一份地图，引导你开始这趟非凡却从未经历过的成长之旅。
在《人生下半场》中，我邀请读者写下自己的墓志铭。这可以帮助你专注在那些真正对你有价值的事上，很值得做。要是你从未做过，那就赶紧采取行动，因为人生下半辈子的主要工作是与“遗产”有关的——把宝贵的事物遗留下来。预先思考我们最后离去的情景，然后据此决定生前的计划，可以帮助我们确认真正的优先顺序以及可能产生的贡献。
在这本书里我预留了很多空白处，可供你写下心得或是回答问题。或者你也可以把这些问题的答案，写在另外的笔记本上。不论用哪一种方法，我都鼓励你将思绪化为文字，那么读完本书，你便有自己的计划可加以检视和应用了。
如果说，每个伟大的冒险行动，都是从一小步开始，那么你一生中最刺激的冒险正要展开。拿笔记下你的心得；与你的配偶和几个亲近又信得过的朋友谈谈你即将展开的旅程；祷告、倾听神的声音。你的生命将会全然改观，而这正是你今天所听到的最好消息。 show less

show more 在《人生下半場》中，班福德把焦點放在人生的關鍵時刻——人生賽程的上半場結束時，我們開始扪心自問：“人生不過如此嗎？”他幫助我們意識到，這段“中場”時間，正是讓人身心蘇醒的機會，讓人生的下半場不僅擁有成功，更能獲得意義，活出豐盛！要有成功的下半場，關鍵不在于換工作，而在于改變心態，重新規劃生活。今天，在美國、東南亞等許多地區，“人生下半場”成了大衆傳媒的熱門話題，引發人們思考新的人生方向。
鮑伯有令人欽佩的先見之明，很早就看到了這一點。他領導的“領袖關系網”像催化劑一樣，專門幫助大型獨立教會有效地動作，找出主要問題所在，使教會能不斷擴展（這是早期獨立教會從未有過的現象），把全副精力投注在傳福音、作見證及提供社區服務上。現在，他不是以牧師身份，而是以企業家的活力推展這項事工，幫助大、中型的獨立教會把潛在能力發揮出來。 show less