2023-11-03 18:35:04
A pastor made news when he announced his decision to abandon leadership of a church with 100 members to dedicate himself exclusively to preaching on his YouTube channel, where he has more than 3.6 million views and 40 thousand subscribers.
Pastor Gavin Ortlund led the First Baptist Church of Ojai, California, on a salary for full-time ministry. He is the brother of another pastor who also dedicates himself exclusively to the ministry, leading the Presbyterian Church of Naperville, in the state of Illinois.
When announcing his decision, he stated that the reach of his preaching on the video platform is a strategy that allows him to speak to many more people, including those who no longer attend churches: “YouTube is a strategic place for ministry; the opportunities are simply unbelievable,” said Ortlund.
“As you know, I’ve mentioned a lot that in the United States we are experiencing the greatest religious decline in the history of our country. About 40 million people stopped going to church. […] It’s just a huge change and, especially in the younger generation, there are a lot of people who abandon their faith”, he contextualized.
Gavin Ortlund has a Ph.D. Fuller Theological Seminarybelieves that his channel Truth Unites (“the truth unites”, in free translation) will be able to “promote the security of the Gospel through theological depth”.
“In recent years, the greatest passion of my vocational life has become simply dedicating myself to doing everything I can to resolve this situation, trying to help people, being a friend […] I use these words – recenter, rebuild, revitalize, stabilize – trying to convey what I hope my videos are doing for people, especially younger people,” said the pastor.
According to information from the portal The Christian Posta spokesperson for the First Baptist Church of Ojai reported that members are saddened by the departure of Gavin Ortlund, and that he is expected to continue fulfilling his ministry at the church until mid-December, and expressed the expectation that the pastor’s initiative will be well- successful.
Gavin Ortlund said he will move with his wife and five children to Tennessee, where he will have the support of Renewal Ministries, which is led by his parents. Furthermore, the pastor will serve as resident theologian at Emmanuel Church in the Nashville area.
He said that since starting Truth Unites three years ago, his life has become busier and it is also difficult to focus on the things he is truly passionate about:
“We had two more children during this period. We have five children now. I’m a full-time pastor and I do all these different types of things and I love them all. So I was able to try and navigate things. Over the past year, the situation has risen to an additional level of occupancy. And that’s part of it. This change allows me to focus a little more and not feel like I’m doing five different things at once.”
“I want to write a book about the sacraments, for example. I would love to write a book about existentialism and how the kind of classic existentialist philosophy intersects with our culture and some of the needs of the moment. I also want to be free to accept requests for lectures that come in”, he added, explaining at the end that currently it is necessary to “refuse 98% [dos convites] because, with five young children, it’s difficult to travel and I’m very busy.”
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