John Ortberg

How do you provide what previous Christians called the “cure of souls” when we can’t be with our sheep?

How do we protect against slipping into moments of depression, isolation, discouragement, and temptations that come with the stress of these challenging times.

COVID-19 has forced a shift in preaching. How can we adapt our sermon prep and preaching during this digital church age?

Ideas and encouragement to adapt your craft, care for your soul, and shepherd your people during this challenging season.

John Ortberg offers 6 lessons evangelical organizations can learn from Billy Graham and his team.

How to think biblically in times of political chaos.

The goal of application: transformation not more information.

After a bitter, divisive election, what will the nation’s ministers say?

Using your introduction to gain your listener’s interest.

What to consider when you’re preaching with feeling.

Certain themes keep coming up, millennia after millennia.

Why I’m trying to get better at preaching.

A pastor’s primer on praying.

5 pastors share how they react when a high-profile Christian leader has a moral failing.

Almost.

Stretch out your hands to God, the Great Catcher.

Four laws for clear direction in unclear circumstances.

What I learned from a man both “scary smart” and humble.

What Dallas Willard taught me about living the Jesus way in ministry.

The snare of smugness and fuzzy immorality.

We all have to decide whether we will be merely an admirer of Christ or a devoted follower of Christ.

Is the best option to seize it?

Brain science and the renewal of your mind.

Or, “why a personality disorder should never manage a neurotic.”

Three pastors reflect on what they’ve learned from Martin Luther King Jr.

We’re all in the waiting business. How we wait on God makes all the difference.

4 indicators that you’ve embraced what you are doing.

The ‘roid oft traveled.

By giving generously you’ll make sure that money is a tool for God and not a drug for yourself.

How to make sure your passion connects with your audience.

How are we doing when it comes to living with financial wisdom? Let these 10 biblical principles serve as a guide.

How do I help someone grow who’s not like me?

It’s never fun but sometimes fruitful.

The place of giving in the gospel.

Forget being exotic and elite; it’s all about becoming more like Christ.

A little grit goes a long way.

What it takes to call leaders for tomorrow’s church today.

In and through Christ, our hearts can sing with radical gratitude and blessing.

Dealing with post-sermon remarks.

Who am I to teach all nations and feed Jesus’ sheep?

Sanctification, theologically and spiritually, is a matter of life and death (not necessarily in that order).

We need a pure spring more than strong boundaries.

Only Christ’s grace, not our works, can give us the love, acceptance, and forgiveness we want.

God’s Word accomplished creation, it brings hope in times of despair, it brings power in times of weakness, and it brings guidance in times of darkness. Only God’s Word has authority over your life.

Only Jesus deserves to be the Lord of your life.

We can give God glory and share in God’s glory because of Christ’s redemptive work.

The quality of your faith doesn’t save you; it’s the object of your faith that saves you.

And it’s where you’re headed, too.

The right kind of guilt can be healthy. But false guilt depletes your soul and ministry.

What does the Bible mean by “spiritual warfare”?

What should we think of human desires?

Five rules that allow friends to be real friends.

Rediscover a powerful source of energy and rest.

Your willpower is limited, so use it wisely.

What we learn from the passing of our icons.

Spiritual thermometers and prayer in the darkness

We grow in Christ only as we receive honest and loving feedback from others.

Whether challenges bring failure or success depends on how we view them.

Teaching with genuine authority spurs growth and awakens desire for God.

God’s plans for your church may be bigger than you imagine

Throughout the Bible God graciously blesses us so we can richly bless others.

A gift. A tool. A trap. It’s all part of the world we minister in.

The difference is seen in the way we live.

The Bible contains the incredible story of our calling to become God’s image bearers.

Our public personas often overshadow our true identity

Crises, while unwanted, are windows of opportunity for the Cure of Souls.

Every worthy task can wear you down.

What we want is not joy. What we want is ‘unforced’ joy.

There’s nothing like an open grave to offer a glimpse of life.

We dare not be silent about injustices, if only we can see them as God does.

God gave lavishly to us, and we will be blessed when we give lavishly to others.

The story of the resurrection is not just good news; it’s true news.

Do Christians even need a unified voice?

Do Christians even need a unified voice?

The most important growth is not a “me” thing but a “we” thing.

Is the question for Christians “Out or In?” or “Farther or Closer?”

Why is a once honored leadership trait now despised?

Six indicators of God’s existence

A conversation with Dallas Willard

An introduction to knowledge and worldview

What happens when we let gifts and relationships define our organizational structures?

Developing life in the Spirit is a customized process.

What a not-so-Christian movie says about the goal of the Christian life.

What a not-so-Christian movie says about the goal of the Christian life.

Getting rid of the scaffolding.

What we prize, we eventually resemble—in unintended ways.

Celebrities and obituaries offer competing definitions of what’s worth pursuing.

How are you growing these days?

We need to learn to recognize and follow God’s guidance.

There is a difference between a surrendered will and a weak will.

Here are five things to keep in mind while building a team that spans from young to old.

Why you need downtime and how to spend it

Do we ever get to stop fighting against the evil within?

Surrendering to Christ is not easy, but it leads to freedom and life.

Ministry has its own list

Stop wishing for hope. Here’s how to make it happen.

What do the recent surveys tell us about the future of faith?

What do people learn from you about the Christian life? Sometimes it’s what you never intended to teach.

What the recession makes very, very clear, if you can see it.

Once you hit bottom, you’ll find that God is there, doing something great.

The thrill (and danger) of evaluation.

There is purpose in our pain.

The wisdom of God transcends the wisdom of the world.

Peace comes only when we understand the bigness of God.

Can eternal happiness be achieved by selfish pursuit?

In an election year, is “Don’t talk about politics” good advice?

Our work is transformed by the way we approach it.

Planning a short spiritual retreat.

God’s will for the human spirit is that it would never suffer entropy.

The condition of leaders affects the condition of those they lead.

Why the human race needs an administration of another kind.

That the least will be the greatest is the deepest reality in the kingdom.

Here’s the gift you should really be seeking.

What Jesus might write to churches today

Be faithful where you are while you wait for God’s call.

God’s people are distinguished by one thing; my job is to teach it.

An open letter to a movement that has brought so much to American Christianity

Optimism is the one responsibility no leader should delegate.

How all-too-human preachers can prepare their souls to preach.

How all-too-human preachers can prepare their souls to preach.

An excerpt from the Summer 2007 issue of Leadership Journal.

Proverbs 6 offers an “ant documentary” to make a case for diligence.

“Email regret” occurs when you click “send” but wish you hadn’t.

Using the disciplines to keep ourselves in check.

5 practices that take small groups beyond polite “sharing” to the disciplines that change lives.

Our response to the injustice highlighted by the Prophets should be to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

A step-by-step guide to bringing the text alive.

How all-too-human preachers can prepare their souls to preach.

I’m no Superman. So why do I feel the need to do the impossible?

Is my life in ministry helping or hurting my walk with Christ?

What leaders can learn from Joseph about the high cost of righteousness.

Faith requires risk and choice, but it also brings big rewards.

God’s work in the preacher makes his Word come alive.

Maintaining five basic commitments will safeguard sexual righteousness.

Christ meets us in our worst trials.

Jesus sometimes tests us in order to teach us.

Waiting on the Lord is fundamental to our faith.

Overcoming things that defuse sincere passion

5 practices that take small groups beyond polite “sharing” to the disciplines that change lives.

Anger without sin

When humor helps a message

Creating and seizing opportunities for spiritual transformation.

Somewhere between “abiding” and “abounding” is a quiet, but productive place.

Some sermon series hang loosely together and lose steam as they go. Others pick up speed and attenders with each installment. In this interview, Willow Creek teaching pastor John Ortberg talks about shaping series that stimulate increasing interest.

Finding powerful sermon illustrations in the storytelling and scenes of the everyday.

The role of timing in telling a gripping story.

Biblical preaching occurs when people are enabled to hear that God is addressing them as God addressed the world of the Scriptures, and are enabled to respond.

The disciple’s dilemma: sit at His feet or serve in His name?

It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

Real preaching cannot be blasé

How to minister at a healthy pace.

For today’s leaders, it’s the sin none dare confess.

After six days, God’s creation was done. But for pastors…

How a hurried and harried pastor began practicing the spiritual disciplines–deliberately.