John Ortberg

John Carl Ortberg Jr. (born May 5, 1957) is an American evangelical Christian author, speaker, and pastor. He served as the senior pastor of Menlo Church in Menlo Park, California, an ECO Presbyterian church with more than 4,000 members, for 17 years. Ortberg has published many books; his 1997 The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People sold more than 500,000 copies as of 2008. Ortberg's 2002 If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat was a Christianity Today Book Award winner, and the 2008 When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box was an ECPA Christian Book Award winner. Ortberg's Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (2012) debuted at #29 on Christian Book Expo's bestseller list in November 2012. During the summer of 2020, Ortberg resigned as pastor of Menlo Church after an investigation disclosed that he had allowed his son, John III, to continue volunteer church work with minors after John III had disclosed having experienced unwanted thoughts of attraction to minors, allegations that had arisen in late 2019, initially without identifying the volunteer in question. Since his resignation, Ortberg has run a podcast offering daily Bible devotionals and speaks at Christian events.