A biography for John Ortberghasn’t been written yet.
“Tithing is like training wheels when it comes to giving. It's intended to help you get started, but not recommended for the Tour de France.”
“Spiritual formation is for everyone. Just as there is an 'outer you' that is being formed and shaped all the time, like it or not, by accident or on purpose, so there is an 'inner you.' You have a spirit.”
“Sin is, somehow, at the root of all human misery. Sin is what keeps us from God and from life. It is in the face of every battered woman, the cry of every neglected child, the despair of every addict, the death of every victim of every war.”
“Far more books get written about how to get more people in your church than how to get the people already in your church to have more humility and sincere love.”
“Skill at helping people grow spiritually, like skill at playing chess, depends on understanding and valuing differences.”
“The question isn't if someone will sign up for spiritual formation; it's just who and what our spirits will be formed by.”
“Tithing is considerably less popular than words like generosity or sharing.”
“I hate how spiritual formation gets positioned as an optional pursuit for a small special interest group within the church.”
“At the heart of Christian faith is the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.”
“Preaching a series allows you to go into greater depth in the text, and spending several weeks on one theme allows the teaching to be absorbed more thoroughly.”
“The toppling of idols - even respectable, admired, best-practice, fastest-growing idols - is always the road to liberation.”
“Learning something new is a fabulous way to be refreshed. When work can grind you down, something about learning a new activity thrills the soul. It reminds you that the world is bigger than your desk and your to-do list.”
“When it comes to sermon writing, generally there are two problems. Some preachers love the research stage but hate the writing, and they start writing too late. Others don't like doing research, so they move way too fast to the writing part.”
“The day people around me stop questioning my character is the day my character begins to grow vulnerable.”
“Jesus had a universal concern for those who suffered that transcended the rules of the ancient world.”
“When the soul is understood and attended to, we can be liberated from hurry, preoccupation, unsatisfied desires, and chronic discontent.”
“Sin is very important to the soul because sin is what disintegrates the soul; it's what attacks the soul. Sin kind of is to the soul what cancer is to the body.”
“As a preacher who is fully human, and clearly not divine, I can't speak as Jesus did. But I do seek to speak truth that carries weight and authority. All of us who preach the gospel aspire to speak under the authority of Jesus.”
“Real spiritual authority has to do with the truth of the actual words being spoken, and the spirit of the person behind the words. Really, authority is about truth: honest-living truth.”
“Evil exists. Evil is real. One of the hallmarks of evil is that it seeks to convince its victims that it exists 'out there.'”