John Ortberg Biography
John Ortberg is an American evangelical Christian author, speaker, and the former senior pastor of Menlo Church in Menlo Park, California. He is also an ECO Presbyterian church with more than 4,000 members. Ortberg was born in born May 5, 1957. Ortberg has published many books including the 2008 ECPA Christian Book. It is an Award winner When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box, and the 2002 Christianity Today Book Award winner If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat. Another of his publications, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, was the most-selling book in 2008 where he sold more than 500,000 copies.
John Ortberg Age
How old is Ortberg? He is around 66 years old as of 2023. He was born in born May 5, 1957.
John Ortberg Education
He earned his undergraduate degree from Wheaton College and his M.Div. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Ortberg also studied at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland from 1985 to 1990. He served as senior pastor at Simi Valley Community Church, and then from 1990 to 1994 at Horizons Community Church in Claremont, California.
John Ortberg Height|Weight
Ortberg stands on an average height of 5 feet 9 inches and weighs around 70 kgs.
John Ortberg Family
Ortberg used to play Monopoly with his grandmother. As he was retelling his experiences and it was used at the beginning of Peter Joseph’s 2011 documentary.
John Ortberg Wife
Ortberg is happily married to his wife named Nancy who also serves as a pastor. They are blessed with three children: Laura, Daniel, and John III.
John Ortberg Children
Their daughter Laura has written for The New York Times, New York Magazine, and BuzzFeed. Their son Daniel M. Lavery is the founder, writer, and editor of the now-defunct feminist humor blog The Toast and was the author of “Dear Prudence”. Their son John III, known as Johnny, was an Ultimate Frisbee coach until late 2019
John Ortberg Career| Spiritual Formation
The main teaching of Ortberg’s teaching and books is spiritual formation, the transforming of human character through authentic experiences with God. Ortberg wrangles that the desire for comfort and security often stands in the way of a genuine relationship with God – when people place too high a value on being secure and comfortable they may be reluctant to make the sacrifices God asks of them.
Eternal cravings
Ortberg has warned his listeners against the societal pressures which tell people that bigger is always better, saying, “I think for most of us, whatever your ministry or job, bigness will never satisfy the call.”Mostly in his books, Ortberg has described his own desire for importance and success, and how achieving them did not ultimately bring him happiness. Ones cravings,” according to Ortberg, “if you could get to the bottom of them, are for the eternal.”
Ortberg Resignation
Ortberg’s son, John III, confessed to him that he was sexually attracted to minors, in the summer of 2018. At that time, Ortberg took no action to ensure that his son stopped his volunteer activities with minors at Menlo Church. Ortberg also did not alert other church leaders to the situation.
Daniel Lavery, posted on Twitter in 2020 that a member of his father’s church had revealed his ‘obsessive sexual feelings about young children’ to Lavery on November 15, 2019. Upon discovering that his father had not shared this information with Menlo Church Leadership or the Elder Board. Lavery went to the church’s leader himself. Ortberg went on leave from his position on November 22, 2019. Noone Knew the reason for this.
Menlo Church issued a statement indicating the reason Ortberg was placed on leave was that he had allowed a church volunteer to work with children, despite that volunteer’s confession of a lifelong sexual attraction to children. John III’s name was not stated in the statement on January 21, 2020. Ortberg was reinstated after an investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Lavery alleged the investigation was inadequate because the lawyer who conducted it had no experience with sexual misconduct. He stated he was a specialist in protecting clients from litigation.
On July 29, 2020, Menlo Church announced that Ortberg had resigned from his position. Effectively on August 2, 2020, citing broken trust and fallout from the “poor judgment”. The decisions he had made in allowing his son to continue to volunteer with students after his confession of an attraction to minors. In October 2021, the third-party organization Zero Abuse Project completed an investigation into the matter. They were interviewing 104 witnesses and reviewed or analyzed more than 500,000 documents. Zero Abuse Project did not find any disclosure that Ortberg III committed any acts of wrongdoing against a minor.
John Ortberg Books
- Grace: An Invitation to a Way of Life (with Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling). Zondervan, 2000 ISBN 978-0-310-22074-9
- If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat. Zondervan, 2001 ISBN 978-0-310-22863-9
- Love Beyond Reason. Zondervan, 2001 ISBN 978-0-310-23449-4
- The Life You’ve Always Wanted. Zondervan, 2002 ISBN 978-0-310-24695-4
- Everybody’s Normal Till You Get To Know Them. Zondervan, 2003 ISBN 978-0-310-22864-6
- Living the God Life: Finding God’s Extraordinary Love in Your Ordinary Life. Inspirio, 2004, ISBN 978-0-310-80195-5
- God Is Closer Than You Think: If God is Always with Us, why is He So Hard to Find? Zondervan, 2005 ISBN 978-0-310-25349-5
- Now What?: God’s Guide to Life for Graduates. Zondervan, 2005 ISBN 978-0-310-80282-2
- When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box. Zondervan, 2007 ISBN 978-0-310-25350-1
- Know Doubt. Zondervan, 2008 ISBN 978-0-310-32503-1
- The Me I Want To Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You. Zondervan, 2010 ISBN 978-0-310-27592-3
- Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus. Zondervan, 2012 ISBN 978-0-310-27594-7
- Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You. Zondervan, 2014 ISBN 978-0-310-27596-1
- The foreword for Vanderbloemen, William (2014). Next: Pastoral Succession That Works. Baker. ISBN 978-0801016479.
- Eternity is Now In Session: A radical rediscovery of what Jesus really taught about salvation, eternity, and getting to a Good Place. Tyndale, 2018 ISBN 978-1-4964-3164-6
John Ortberg Salary|Net Worth
Ortberg has an estimated net worth of $1 Million -$5 Million.
John Ortberg Social Media Platforms
Ortberg is active on all social media accounts and often posts on his platforms. Ortberg has over 4.3k followers on Twitter, 3.1k followers on Facebook, and 2.9 k followers on Instagram.
Frequently asked questions about John Ortberg
Who is John Ortberg?
Ortberg is an American evangelical Christian author, speaker, and the former senior pastor of Menlo Church in Menlo Park, California. He is also an ECO Presbyterian church with more than 4,000 members. Ortberg was born in born May 5, 1957. Ortberg has published many books including the 2008 ECPA Christian Book. It is an Award winner When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box, and the 2002 Christianity Today Book Award winner If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat. Another of his publications, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, was the most-selling book in 2008 where he sold more than 500,000 copies.
Is John Ortberg Married?
Ortberg has a wife named Nancy who also serves as a pastor. The pair have three children: Laura, Daniel, and John III.
Where does John Ortberg Live?
He resides in La Mirada, CA 90638.
