Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

Last updated
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.
Ortlund2021.jpg
Ortlund in 2021
Born1949 (age 75–76)
Pasadena, California, US
NationalityAmerican
Education
OccupationPastor · theologian · author · professor
Years active1975–present
OrganizationsImmanuel Church (Nashville); Renewal Ministries; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Known forFounding pastor of Immanuel Church (Nashville); President of Renewal Ministries; Old Testament professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Notable workA Passion for God (1994); When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today (2000)
SpouseJani Ortlund
Children4

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. (born 1949 [1] ) is the former and founding pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville. [2] He is the son of Renewal Ministries founders Ray and Anne Ortlund. He has served in pastoral ministry and is the author of several Bible commentaries and other books. He taught Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois for nine years. He has served on the translation committees of the New Living Translation and English Standard Version Bible translations, and provided the study notes on Isaiah for the ESV Study Bible.

Contents

Ortlund serves as president of Renewal Ministries and as Canon Theologian in the Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast of the Anglican Church in North America.

Early life

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. is the son of Ray and Anne Ortlund. He attended Blair High School in Pasadena, California. [3] After high school, he attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. [4] While a student at Wheaton, he met his wife, Jani. [2]

Ortlund notes that his participation in the Jesus movement shaped his understanding of Christianity as a renewal movement. [5] He also notes that while attending the first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, Francis Schaeffer's address left a lasting impact on his convictions about pastoral ministry. [5]

Ministry

After graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1975, [3] Ortlund joined the staff of Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California. He was ordained in 1975 at Lake Avenue Congregational Church, where his father was pastor. [3] He received an MA degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1978. [6] He moved to Scotland to pursue his PhD degree from University of Aberdeen. [2] [7] While there, he served as assistant minister of Banchory Ternan West Church of Scotland from 1982-1985. [8] [9]

After returning to the United States in 1985, Ortlund worked with planting Cascade Presbyterian Church in Eugene, Oregon. [2] After Cascade was accepted into the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), he began teaching Old Testament and Semitic languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. [2] Following nine years at Trinity, Ortlund returned to the pastorate at the 1,500 member First Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Augusta, Georgia, which he led as senior pastor for five years. [2]

In 2004, Ortlund moved to Nashville as senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church. [2] [10] After parting ways with Christ Presbyterian in 2007, Ortlund and his wife were involved with a fellowship group which ultimately grew to a Bible study group that became Immanuel Church in Nashville. [2] [11] Immanuel had its first public service in 2008 and joined Acts 29 in 2009. From 2011 to 2012 Ortlund served as an Acts 29 regional director. [2]

Ortlund serves as president of Renewal Ministries. [2] He also serves as a Canon Theologian in the Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast of the Anglican Church in North America. [12] As an Old Testament scholar, Ortlund served on the translation committee of the New Living Translation (NLT) for Psalms 76-150. [2] [13] He was a review scholar for the English Standard Version (ESV) translation and provided study notes for Isaiah in the ESV Study Bible. [2] [14] [15]

Ortlund has taken public stands against racism. In 2015, after a number of African-American churches were set on fire in St. Louis, he tweeted, "Hey racists, come burn our church too. We stand for Jesus too. We oppose racism too." [16] After a racially motivated mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart in 2019, Ortlund tweeted that mass shootings were evil and "if motivated by racism, evil compounded". [17]

In October 2024, Ortlund received criticism from political conservatives when he endorsed Kamala Harris for president on social media. He later deleted the post saying it was being misrepresented. [18] [19]

Theological views

Ortlund describes his own theological views as Reformed: "I believe in the sovereignty of God, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Solas of the Reformation, I believe that grace precedes faith in regeneration. Theologically, I am Reformed." [20] In his podcast, You're Not Crazy, Ortlund said that his purpose is "to very carefully, reverently, joyously attend to cultivate and build the intangibles of relational beauty that the gospel itself calls for and creates". [21] He points out that "gospel doctrine creates gospel culture, and has the same authority as gospel doctrine". [22]

Ortlund is an emeritus council member of the Gospel Coalition, [23] "a fellowship of evangelical churches in the Reformed tradition". [24] As a minister of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), [2] he affirmed the Westminster Confession of Faith. [25] He serves in the Anglican Church in North America which requires affirmation of the Thirty-nine Articles. [12] [26] Ortlund's exegetical approach is from a confessional perspective. [27]

Ortlund has written in support of complementarianism. In the 1991 book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood , he wrote that the principle of male-female equality was established at creation, as was male headship, saying, "In the partnership of two spiritually equal human beings, man and woman, the man bears the primary responsibility to lead the partnership in a God-glorifying direction." [28] He clarified that the idea of headship and equality are not mutually exclusive. Being made in God's image, their equality is in the spiritual realm, while Genesis 1-3 allows men "headship" within this concept of equality. [29] According to Ortlund, the interpretation of gender roles in Genesis 1-3 frames the rest of the biblical debate. [30]

After the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015 legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States, Ortlund signed the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission statement defining marriage as between one man and one woman. [31] [32] He was one of the initial signers of the Nashville Statement, an evangelical statement of faith relating to human sexuality and gender roles authored by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in 2017. [33]

Ortlund has emphasized how the Old Testament is important as part of a guide to the Christian faith, saying that the Apostle Paul stressed his roots in Judaism. [34] [35]

Personal life

He is married to Jani and they have four children, including theologian and author Gavin Ortlund. [36] [37]

Selected works

References

  1. ↑ "Ortlund, Raymond C., Jr. (Personal Name)". John Bulow Campbell Library. Columbia Theological Seminary. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Zylstra, Sarah Eekhoff (24 January 2018). "How Ray Ortlund Became Foster Father to a Generation of Church Planters". The Gospel Coalition . Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 "Son of Minister to be Ordained". Pasadena Star-News . September 13, 1975. p. 4. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Star News". December 20, 1970. p. 30. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
  5. 1 2 Ortlund, Ray (2017-06-16). "God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
  6. ↑ "Ray's Bio". Immanuel Church. Archived from the original on November 24, 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  7. ↑ Scholz, Susanne (2005). "The Christian Right's Discourse on Gender and the Bible". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 21 (1): 81–100. doi:10.2979/FSR.2005.21.1.81. ISSN   8755-4178. JSTOR   25002517.
  8. ↑ Ray Ortlund & Sam Allberry (October 18, 2021). "You're Not Crazy Podcast: The Cost of Gospel Culture?" (Podcast). The Gospel Coalition. Event occurs at 2:25. Retrieved December 4, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Ray Ortlund Bio". 2023-06-09. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  10. ↑ Searcy, Charles (December 29, 2005). "Pastor finds passion". The Tennessean . ProQuest   239728861.
  11. ↑ Smietana, Bob (February 20, 2010). "Ministers go to the mat for Jesus". The Tennessean . ProQuest   239933752.
  12. 1 2 "Leadership". Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast. Retrieved 2024-10-18.
  13. ↑ "Meet the Bible Translation Committee – New Living Translation" . Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  14. ↑ "Review Scholars | ESV.org". ESV Bible. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  15. ↑ "The ESV Global Study Bible Contributors | ESV.org". ESV Bible. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  16. ↑ Zylstra, Morgan Lee and Sarah Eekoff (2015-10-21). "Burning Black Churches Rekindle Old Fears". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  17. ↑ Shellnutt, Kate (2019-08-05). "Recent Shootings Spur Pastors to Call Out White Supremacy". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  18. ↑ Brown, Jon (2024-09-30). "Ray Ortlund deletes social media post endorsing Kamala Harris after backlash". www.christianpost.com. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  19. ↑ Quintanilla, Milton (October 2, 2024). "Pastor Ray Ortlund Receives Backlash for Deleting Social Posts Endorsing Kamala Harris". Crosswalk.com. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  20. ↑ Ortlund, Ray (2008-07-15). "Truly Reformed". The Gospel Coalition . Archived from the original on 2013-10-09. Retrieved 2024-11-23.
  21. ↑ Ray Ortlund & Sam Allberry (August 16, 2021). "You're Not Crazy Podcast: What Is Gospel Culture?" (Podcast). The Gospel Coalition. Event occurs at 7:28. Retrieved November 27, 2024.
  22. ↑ Ray Ortlund & Sam Allberry (August 16, 2021). "You're Not Crazy Podcast: What Is Gospel Culture?" (Podcast). The Gospel Coalition. Event occurs at 20:50. Retrieved November 27, 2024.
  23. ↑ "Council". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  24. ↑ "Foundation Documents". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  25. ↑ pcannet. "Beliefs". pcanet.org. Retrieved 2024-11-23.
  26. ↑ Anglican Church in North America (2014). Constitution and Canons (PDF). Anglican Church in North America. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 25, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  27. ↑ Vogels, Walter (June 1998). "Whoredom: God's Unfaithful Wife in Biblical Theology . Raymond C. Ortlund" . Near Eastern Archaeology. 61 (2): 132. doi:10.2307/3210648. ISSN   1094-2076. JSTOR   3210648.
  28. ↑ Dowland, Seth (2009). "A New Kind of Patriarchy: Inerrancy and Masculinity in the Southern Baptist Convention, 1979–2000". In Friend, Craig Thompson (ed.). Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on Manhood in the South since Reconstruction. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. p. 258. ISBN   9780820336749.
  29. ↑ Kvam, Kristen E.; Schearing, Linda S.; Ziegler, Valerie H., eds. (1999). "Hebrew Bible Accounts". Eve & Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender. Indiana University Press. p. 18. ISBN   0-253-21271-5.
  30. ↑ Imes, Carmen Joy (2022-08-30). "Helper: You Keep Using That Word for Women". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  31. ↑ "Here We Stand: An Evangelical Declaration on Marriage". Christianity Today. 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  32. ↑ "Here We Stand: An Evangelical Declaration on Marriage". Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  33. ↑ "Nashville Statement". Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhoo. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  34. ↑ Gryboski, Michael (2018-10-18). "Reformed Theologian: 'Paul Did Not Unhitch the Christian Faith From the Old Testament'". www.christianpost.com. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  35. ↑ Gryboski, Michael (2019-01-08). "Andy Stanley says Ten Commandments don't apply to Christians". www.christianpost.com. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  36. ↑ Ortlund, Ray (2008-04-11). "My heroes". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  37. ↑ "Ray Ortlund Bio". 2023-06-09. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  38. ↑ "Book Notes". Shofar. 16 (2): 150. 1998. ISSN   0882-8539. JSTOR   42942746.
  39. ↑ Jobes, Karen H. "Whoredom: God's Unfaithful Wife in Biblical Theology". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 2024-10-31.
  40. ↑ "Books Received". The Journal of Theological Studies. 57 (2): 838. 2006. ISSN   0022-5185. JSTOR   23971832.

You're Not Crazy - Ray Ortlund's podcast

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