ORTBERG, John

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, CA 94025.

CAREER:

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

AWARDS, HONORS:

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

WRITINGS:

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

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

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

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

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

(Editor, with Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling) Growth: Training vs. Trying, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2000.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SIDELIGHTS:

In his books ordained minister John Ortberg discusses the ways in which Christian living can be practiced on an everyday level. Ortberg's approach is based partly on theological ideas and partly on his own educational history. "I teach at a church," the author told Christianity Today interviewer Dick Staub, "but my background is actually in psychology. So I have spent so much time with individuals and with the congregation talking to people about relationships, hearing the same kind of desires and frustrations over and over again."

The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People explains in detail how modern Protestant Christians can find the same sort of religious devotion and satisfaction experienced by monastics in the Catholic and Orthodox faiths. Using both Christian and psychological metaphors, Ortberg writes about making a commitment to basic Christian principles, such as patience, obedience, humility, and endurance through suffering, through management-style planning and dedication. "Ortberg writes very fluently," declared Ray Olsen, in a review for Booklist, "projecting a congenial, attractively humble, nondogmatic personality."

Ortberg's book If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get out of the Boat is an attempt to encourage Christians to "take more risks," reported a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Christian practice, Ortberg suggests, is far too focused on what feels comfortable and familiar to individual worshipers. The minister calls on Christians to stretch their comfort zones beyond the routines of normal worship and to experience their religion as a dynamic force shaping their lives. Ortberg cites motivational examples taken from scripture and from everyday experience to prove his point.

Ortberg takes on superficial Christianity in his opus Everybody's Normal till You Get to Know Them. He confronts the fact that most people who claim to be Christians are Christians in name only. Corrie Cutrer, writing in Today's Christian Woman, stated that the minister takes "a fresh look at the abnormalities we all carry." Noting that "there are no normal people," a Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote in an assessment of Everybody's Normal till You Get to Know Them that "the sooner Christians accept this disquieting truth, the healthier they and their churches will be." Indeed, the author suggests that normality is a human invention and should not be applied to others by Christians who are trying to emulate Jesus. "We tend to think about normal in terms of statistical averages," Ortberg told Christianity Today interviewer Dick Staub. "So if something is common, we think it's normal. But there's deep sense in which, from God's perspective… nobody is normal."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1997, Ray Olson, review of The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People, p. 286.

Christianity Today, May, 2003, Cindy Crosby, review of Everybody's Normal till You Get to Know Them, p. 70; May, 15, 2003, Dick Staub, "John Ortberg's Freak Show" (interview).

Publishers Weekly, December 11, 2000, review of If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get out of the Boat, p. 83; January 27, 2003, review of Everybody's Normal till You Get to Know Them, p. 254.

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