Explore Quotes by John Ortberg

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.

This much I have learned: human beings come with very different sets of wiring, different interests, different temperaments, different learning styles, different gifts, different temptations. These differences are tremendously important in the spiritual formation of human beings.

God has decided, for his own good reasons, that people are not transformed outside of community.

At the heart of Christian faith is the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

Congregations shaped by the Scriptures generally have preachers who are shaped by the Scriptures.

Churches need to figure out how they will address the spiritual lives of their staffs and leadership teams.

Tithing is a bad ceiling but an excellent floor.

People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller.

When people feel they're getting to speak into what's being preached, there is high built-in motivation to participate.

I'm not sure ministry can ever have the urgency it requires if it is not aware of evil, both externally and internally.

In the context of worship, amusement is a waste of time and a waste of life, and therefore a form of sin.

Pastors have historically understood their primary battle to be not the battle to build a big church, but the battle against the power of sin.

I am a political junkie. During a presidential campaign, I will often buy a couple of newspapers a day just to keep up.

I wrote 'Soul Keeping' because we are taught more about how to care for our cars than how to steward our souls. But you cannot have an impactful life with an impoverished soul.

Some leaders are not intimidated by opposition; they actually thrive on it. It wakes them up. It energizes them. It calls them to battle. It causes them to mobilize their thoughts and energy.

We do not need answers or formulas to minister in crisis.

Jesus had a universal concern for those who suffered that transcended the rules of the ancient world.

We call an obsession with having someone's approval 'co-dependency;' the Bible's word for it is idolatry. A country can be an idol. A family can be an idol.

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.

One of the reasons I'm an interesting person to be married to is my intensely late-blooming self-awareness.

Jesus viewed his own destiny - to be glorified in and through death - as an expression of a kind of cosmic principle: the pathway to life runs through death.