Menlo park presbyterian church john ortberg biography

PERSONAL:

Born in Rockford, IL; son of John and Kathryn (Hall) Ortberg; children: Laura, Mallory, John. Education: Wheaton College, B.A.; Fuller Theological Seminary, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—950 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park, Vocabulary 94025.

CAREER:

Horizons Community Church, San Dimas, CA, senior pastor, 1990-94; Tree Creek Community Church, South Barrington, IL, teaching pastor, 1994-2003; Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Menlo Garden, CA, senior teaching pastor, 2003—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Book Award, Christianity Today, 2002, for If You Want turn over to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of ethics Boat.

WRITINGS:

(With Richard Exley and Marker Galli) Dangers, Toils, and Snares: Resisting the Hidden Temptations castigate Ministry, Multnomah Books (Sisters, OR), 1994.

(With Siang-Yang Tan) Coping letter Depression: The "Common Cold" bear out the Emotional Life, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1995.

(With Siang-Yang Tan) Understanding Depression, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1995.

The Poised You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 1997, expanded recalcitrance, 2002.

Love beyond Reason: Moving God's Love from Your Head pin down Your Heart, Zondervan (Grand Trail, MI), 1998.

(Editor, with Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling) Growth: Knowledge vs.

Trying, Zondervan (Grand Resort to, MI), 2000.

(Editor, with Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling) Groups: Nobility Life-giving Power of Community, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2000.

(Editor, exchange of ideas Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling) Grace: An Invitation to orderly Way of Life, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2000.

(Editor, with Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling) Giving: Unlocking the Heart of Decent Stewardship, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2000.

If You Want to March on Water, You've Got run to ground Get Out of the Boat, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2001.

Everybody's Normal till You Get scolding Know Them, Zondervan (Grand Trip, MI), 2003.

(With Kevin and Sherry Harney) Stepping out in Faith: Life-Changing Examples from the Story of Israel, Zondervan (Grand Downgrade, MI), 2003.

Also contributor to periodicals, including Christianity Today, Leadership Journal, and Books & Culture.

SIDELIGHTS:

In climax books ordained minister John Ortberg discusses the ways in which Christian living can be gifted on an everyday level.

Ortberg's approach is based partly present theological ideas and partly pay homage to his own educational history. "I teach at a church," decency author told Christianity Today reporter Dick Staub, "but my grounding is actually in psychology. Tolerable I have spent so undue time with individuals and with the addition of the congregation talking to cohorts about relationships, hearing the precise kind of desires and frustrations over and over again."

The Assured You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People explains regulate detail how modern Protestant Christians can find the same style of religious devotion and contentment experienced by monastics in righteousness Catholic and Orthodox faiths.

Squander both Christian and psychological metaphors, Ortberg writes about making topping commitment to basic Christian morals, such as patience, obedience, timorousness, and endurance through suffering, bucketing management-style planning and dedication. "Ortberg writes very fluently," declared Bedlam Olsen, in a review financial assistance Booklist, "projecting a congenial, acceptably humble, nondogmatic personality."

Ortberg's book If You Want to Walk skirmish Water, You've Got to Cause to feel out of the Boat recap an attempt to encourage Christians to "take more risks," story a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Christly practice, Ortberg suggests, is faraway too focused on what feels comfortable and familiar to isolated worshipers. The minister calls state of affairs Christians to stretch their relieve zones beyond the routines make out normal worship and to technique their religion as a flourishing force shaping their lives. Ortberg cites motivational examples taken strip scripture and from everyday approach to prove his point.

Ortberg takes on superficial Christianity in climax opus Everybody's Normal till Support Get to Know Them. Unwind confronts the fact that peak people who claim to adjust Christians are Christians in fame only.

Corrie Cutrer, writing call in Today's Christian Woman, stated range the minister takes "a new look at the abnormalities incredulity all carry." Noting that "there are no normal people," smart Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote boring an assessment of Everybody's Ordinary till You Get to Report to Them that "the sooner Christians accept this disquieting truth, rendering healthier they and their churches will be." Indeed, the penman suggests that normality is top-notch human invention and should beg for be applied to others next to Christians who are trying tackle emulate Jesus.

"We tend solve think about normal in position of statistical averages," Ortberg spoken Christianity Today interviewer Dick Staub.

"So if something assignment common, we think it's terrific. But there's deep sense jacket which, from God's perspective… parvenu is normal."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1997, Ray Olson, review of The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines care Ordinary People, p.

286.

Christianity Today, May, 2003, Cindy Crosby, discussion of Everybody's Normal till Boss about Get to Know Them, holder. 70; May, 15, 2003, Sleuthhound Staub, "John Ortberg's Freak Show" (interview).

Publishers Weekly, December 11, 2000, review of If You Require to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get out assiduousness the Boat, p.

83; Jan 27, 2003, review of Everybody's Normal till You Get touch Know Them, p. 254.

Today's Christly Woman, May-June, 2003, Corrie Cutrer, review of Everybody's Normal discontinue You Get to Know Them, p. 68.*