# Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. (born 1949) is the former and founding pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the son of Renewal Ministries founders Ray and Anne Ortlund.
Ortlund 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.
He now 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, where he played football. After high school, he attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, where he lettered in football. He met his wife, Jani, while a student at Wheaton.
Ortlund notes that his participation in the Jesus movement shaped his understanding of Christianity as a renewal movement. He additionally 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.

## Ministry

After graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1975, 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. He received an MA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1978. Ortlund moved to Scotland to pursue his PhD from University of Aberdeen. While in Scotland, he served as assistant minister of Banchory Ternan West Church of Scotland from 1982-1985. Upon returning to the United States in 1985, Ortlund planted Cascade Presbyterian Church in Eugene, Oregon. 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. After 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.
In 2004, Ortlund moved to Nashville, Tennessee, as senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church. 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, Tennessee. 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.
Ortlund presently serves as president of Renewal Ministries. He also serves as Canon Theologian in the Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast of the Anglican Church in North America.
As an Old Testament scholar, he served on the translation committee of the New Living Translation (NLT) for Psalms 76-150. He served as a review scholar for the English Standard Version (ESV) translation. Ortlund provided study notes for the ESV Study Bible for Isaiah.
Ortlund has taken public stands against racism. In 2015, after arson targeted a number of African-American churches in St. Louis, Ortlund tweeted, "Hey racists, come burn our church too. We stand for Jesus too. We oppose racism too." Following 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".
In October 2024, Ortlund received criticism from political conservatives when he endorsed Kamala Harris for President on social media. He later deleted the post stating it was being misrepresented.

## 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." In his podcast, You're Not Crazy, Ortlund specifically states 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". He further points out that "gospel doctrine creates gospel culture, and has the same authority as gospel doctrine".
Ortlund is an emeritus council member of the Gospel Coalition, "a fellowship of evangelical churches in the Reformed tradition". As a minister of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), he affirmed the Westminster Confession of Faith, while he currently serves in the Anglican Church in North America, which requires affirmation of the Thirty-nine Articles.
Ortlund's exegetical approach is from a confessional perspective.
Ortlund has written in support of complementarianism. In the 1991 book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Ortlund wrote that the principle of male-female equality was established at creation, as was male headship, stating, "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." He clarifies 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. According to Ortlund, the interpretation of gender roles in Genesis 1-3 frames the rest of the biblical debate.
Following the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015 legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States, Ortlund signed onto the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) statement defining marriage as between one man and one woman. 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 (CBMW) in 2017.
Ortlund has emphasized the importance of the Old Testament in the Christian faith, pointing out how the Apostle Paul stressed his roots in Judaism.

## Personal Life

He is married to Jani. Together they have four children: Eric, married to Erin; Krista, married to John; Dane, married to Stacey; Gavin, married to Esther.

## Selected works

* — (1994). A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.
* — (1996). Whoredom: God's Unfaithful Wife in Biblical Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans.
* — (2000). When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today. Baker.
* — (2001). Supernatural Living for Natural People: Studies in Romans 8. Christian Focus.
* — (2005). Isaiah: God Saves Sinners. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.
* — (2012). Proverbs: Wisdom That Works. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.
* — (2014). The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.
* — (2016). Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.
* — (2021). The Death of Porn: Men of Integrity Building a World of Nobility. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.
* — (2023). You're Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.
* — (2023). The Psalms: Real Help for Real Life. Lifeway.
* — (2025). Good News at Rock Bottom: Finding God When the Pain Goes Deep and Hope Seems Lost. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.