Truth Unites - 5 Years On YouTube: Looking Back and What's Next

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Gavin Ortlund shares how Truth Unites began, how he is currently doing, and what is next for the channel. Truth Unites (https://truthunites.org) exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites, Visiting Professor of Historical Theology at Phoenix Seminary, and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.SUPPORT:Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunitesFOLLOW:Website: https://truthunites.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truth.unites/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gavinortlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/

Right around this time five years ago, I was on a walk and the idea was solidifying in my mind. I'd been chewing on it for a while. I remember the sheet of paper on my desk where I'd written down some of the details like the name Truth Unites. The idea was solidifying in my mind to start a YouTube channel. There's a lot of thought that went into that. I'm going to share about in this video. I can't believe it's been five years. In this video, I want to look back and share about God's faithfulness over that time. I want to give an honest update of how I'm doing right now. And then third, I'll look forward and share some goals and some upcoming videos, my next 12 videos, things like that. I'm going to share some things here that I haven't really gone into before, and I'll be pretty

honest and vulnerable about how I'm doing, though there's nothing too scandalous or anything, but I'll just share from my heart, and I'm also going to share about a book I'm writing right now that I'm really excited to share and ask for prayer about that. The goal of this video is just kind of for fun. I'm kind of fried. We just got back from vacation. I don't have the mental energy to do a real serious theology video, and I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and hopefully this could help you feel more connected to Truth Unites, understand where I'm coming from better, pray for Truth Unites more. So hopefully this would just be kind of fun to share about my YouTube channel and you can understand it a little better. First of all, looking back, I never thought I would do YouTube. I mean,

honestly, I'm not a likely candidate for that. I don't have the personality that loves being right in the center of attention or something like that. I never expected something like YouTube to be a part of my life. I remember the first time I ever heard the term YouTuber. And it was like, wow, people do that. But it came about in this way. I was writing a book on the the existence of God, why God makes sense in a world that doesn't. And I was thinking, you know, YouTube is a great platform to reach young men. There are so many people who will never read this book, and they're certainly never going to visit my church, but they might come and watch a YouTube video because they're interested in these things. And I was watching a lot of YouTube

videos about, you know, it's amazing how much discussion does have about philosophy, apologetics, the existence of God, so many conversations are happening. And I wanted to reach people and kind of extend the ideas of my book out onto a new platform like that. And I got to, got particularly inspired one night and decided from watching another YouTube video about this and decided just to go for it despite knowing absolutely nothing about videography and I mean nothing. And also knowing very little about YouTube and social media either. It was several months into COVID. This was summer 2020.

So things were pretty slow. And I'd finished this major book project and I just felt like I needed a new challenge. So I bought a camera. I watched a ton of videos about YouTube. on YouTube. Did I say that right? You can learn anything you need to know about YouTube by watching YouTube videos. It's very much a self-sustaining kind of thing. And I watched all kinds of things about just everything. I mean, I almost burned out that first year just with Shear. I got to a point where if someone, you know, gave me advice about a technical question about anything, uploading,

how to do timestamps, anything, I would just, my eyes would glaze over. I could absorb no more information. I remember the first video I ever recorded, it was this one on the argument for God's existence from math. I borrowed that Blue Yeti microphone you see there from my friend Alexander. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. It honestly, the quality wasn't that bad, considering how I didn't like study and then dive in. I just pulled the trigger and that was the advice I got. Just learn as you go. And as I got into it, I got pulled more into different directions. The biggest one has been Protestant apologetics, defending Protestantism. That was a surprise. It got pulled into that purely on the basis of a need, just trying to meet

needs. That's all that got me into that. But there was a tremendous surprise for me and realizing this is, although a precarious platform, as all social media is, a legitimate way to meet needs. And I began to see fruit in it. It's not easy or glamorous. It's really hard work, actually, but it's a way you can meet needs and answer questions. And mine started off pretty slow. But as I got into it, especially about three or four years in, because of course, in those early years, it was just something and I was doing in spare time, a few hours here or there. As I got into it a few years, I began to feel this, just this draw deep yearning in my heart to meet needs to spread gospel assurance.

I became more familiar with Gen Z and a lot of younger people in the struggle with anxiety. And the goal that I have for my videos is every single video would be predictable in that it lands on the gospel. I hope every single video leads people to the joy of the gospel and that feeling of assurance in knowing that your sins are forgiven. and I feel so committed to it at this point that I don't feel like I'm exaggerating when I say I feel like Paul going to Jerusalem when he says he feels constrained by the Holy Spirit

and this sense of I will die before I give up and not necessarily YouTube per se though that's the way I'm directing my energies right now but I'll die before I give up in the sense of my heart's desire to bring the gospel to the next generation and bring the peace and enchantment of the gospel to hearts right now I want to do everything

I can do to get the gospel out there. As I mentioned, I kind of got off to a slow start, but no one was more surprised than me when my videos began to get a little bit of traction. I felt very vulnerable and kind of embarrassed about doing it for a while, to be honest. My video on purgatory was one I remember, I think back on as an earlier video that began to get some views, and I began to realize, wow, people actually don't want the clickbaity stuff. They actually want, like, a long academic video essay on an really arcane topic like purgatory and church history. True story, the thumbnail for that, Mike Winger gave me the advice for that text on the thumbnail. He's been a real

encouragement to me along the way, actually, as several others have that I'll try to honor here. It felt vulnerable, especially in the move to Nashville, making Truth Unites my main focus under renewal ministries. I don't have a personality that needs to be in the center of attention. I'm not looking to, you know, the temptations that might draw someone to do that aren't actually what my motive was, and so it actually felt a little bit vulnerable. But I have no doubt in my mind that God's called me to do this, and he's provided for me. I want to share three ways, all three stories of how he's provided. Number one, within a few weeks of moving here, I'm getting my drink at Culvers, and there after church with my family, and someone says, hey, are you Gavin? I say,

yeah, he introduces himself, we start talking. Today, he eventually became my video editor and now my media manager. I wouldn't have known how to hire for that role, or even that I really needed to. But now, Zephaniah, thank you. You pretty much, I don't know what it would be like without you. I used to edit everything myself. I remember after this video on slavery in the Bible, that one took eight hours to edit just the editing, let alone the scripting. Each video has three main sections. The research and scripting. I script every word of every video. Then the actual recording. That's the easy part. Then the editing. A video editing is a lot of time. and the research for that one was intense as well. And it just, you know, I remember after that thinking,

I can't keep doing this. I think the Lord sent me, Zephaniah, to help me with so many of these things. And I've had other friends who've helped along the way. My friend Clow, who's been my creative director, has done just an incredible job with graphics and thumbnails and stuff. My old thumbnails used to look like this, and that's not even the worst one,

but it gives you a flavor, okay, to more looking like this. I think Clow does just in top-notch, quality with thumbnails. I'm so grateful for him. And I'm definitely embarrassed when I look back at old thumbnails, old video quality. You want to reach through the screen and just smack the guy who's talking. You know, it's like he's talking so softly and slowly and you just think, man, he needed a haircut in that video. This video is, you know, I would do so many things differently. Thanks for bearing with me. I know that the reason people watch Truth Unites is not all the bells and whistles, but I am grateful

for God bringing people into my life like this, like Zephaniah now and Clow and others who can help me because I don't want those things to be a distraction from the message, which is the important thing. But just the fact that God, I really feel like God has brought people in to help me. That's one example because I never would have imagined meeting someone at a fast food restaurant. Second example, again, within, I don't know, I don't know to exaggerate. I think it was a couple of weeks or months at least, at most. I'm having lunch with a friend and he says, hey, I need to give away all of my YouTube gear. Can I give it to you?

and can I come over to your house and set it all up for you? I remember just thinking, okay, Lord, I'm getting the memo. You know, that, and I'm not going to share who that was because I don't want to embarrass him, but just, you know, that just met a need so exactly for me. It was just like exactly what I needed. And I just felt like it was from the Lord. And there's so many people I could honor like that that I could go around and talk about because I don't have a full team of people teaching me stuff.

I'm just doing my best. I'm like an academic and pastor who's just kind of winging it on social media doing my best. And so when the Lord brings people in like that and just, you know, I can look back and see these clear instances where I feel like the Lord's provided needs. Another one was providing, so one of the things that after we arrived here, I began to have this, that one of the aches in my heart was I would still love to have some kind of academic outlet because that was something we'd kind of declined pursuing. there were opportunities to do that, but we didn't feel like the Lord was releasing us to do

those kinds of jobs, and I didn't feel, and I felt called to do what I'm doing now. And then there were lots of factors into that. There were some things I didn't get. And then when there were opportunities, we just didn't sense the Lord calling us to take that kind of career. I feel like I'm doing what I'm called to do right now. But you know how it always is where if you give something up, the Lord sometimes gives it back in a better form. And that's what's happened to. I get to teach locally a little bit at Lipscomb University, teaching a class this fall, just kind of adjunct-type role there. And then Phoenix Seminary reached out and offered me a visiting professor position.

So I get to teach there in a more limited basis while I'm still doing what I'm doing at Truth Unites. So I have Truth Unites, and then I try to meet needs at my local church, Emmanuel Nashville, wonderful church, come check us out in Nashville if you ever are in town. And then I teach in a limited capacity of Phoenix. I love Phoenix, and so that's an honor. And so I look at my setup now and I just couldn't feel more grateful. I'm grateful for my parents and allowing me to bring Truth Unites under our Renewal Ministries. And they have given me such a model for healthy ministry.

And now I feel like I'm just a, I'm so grateful. I could not, I couldn't plan a better job. I love what I do. God's provided for me financially, practically in so many ways. I just could not have more gratitude. And I hope to follow in the footsteps of people like my parents who've served faithfully over the years. and I'm trying to meet needs in my own way as best as I can right now. And this is where I genuinely feel like I'm doing what God's calling me to do.

So I guess all that is my way of just saying I'm, I just want to publicly give praise to God and express my gratitude. I really mean that. Thank you to all of you who support and thank you to the Lord. All right, how am I doing? Big picture is that. Couldn't be more grateful. This is like a dream.

Now, at the same time, there's struggles with YouTube. It's totally different than any struggles I've ever had. I mean, I don't even know how to describe it. A psychologist could explain it, but year after year, there's a grind factor. You know, like I'm an introvert, but even I get, I kind of miss, like, the things that I used to not enjoy, like, meetings. I kind of miss more meetings. You know, it's different kind of season of life. I have different struggles.

And there's a grind factor in focusing so much on content. Most of my videos are research-based. So I do, and I do two to three videos a week sometimes, not planning to. I only ever plan to do one per week, and then something comes up, and I just feel like doing a sometimes. But most channels are interviews or reaction to current events as opposed to like a theological essay so they don't have as much research. And there's a grind factor and an exhaustion factor in the kinds of videos I'm producing. So I'm trying to, I'm not burned out and I'm not discouraged. I'm just trying to be mindful about the long term and I'm kind of thinking, okay, I feel like God's called me

to this ministry, but I want to steward it well because I would love to be, I would love for it to be that Truth United States is still around in 10 years. And 20 years maybe, who knows, knows if the Lord does not return by then. I would love to just approach this ministry as a marathon, not a sprint. That's why I'll put out a video that won't get as many views like a commentary on the Nicene Creed or something like that. But I'm just hoping that that will have a long shelf life because I see this, I want to put out a library of resources. But I'll do reactions to current events as well. But I don't want that to be the mainstay. But I just want to be healthy in the process. And so I'm just mindful. I'm thinking long term. Like how do I do this? I want to,

you know, I have five kids. I want to be available to them. And I just want to be available to I want to be healthy before the Lord and so forth with the midst of the grind factor. And so I'm taking a lot of steps, you know. This week we were on vacation. I didn't bring my computer. I deleted a bunch of apps from my phone and I'm just trying to completely unplug from the online world. I'm trying to take breaks.

I'm going to try to take next summer, July, 2006. I'm going to try to take a whole month off. Maybe two or three videos will still come out during that time, but I just will be completely unplugged. And I've never done that before. I was trying to think, Esther and my wife and I were talking, and I was like, when is the last time I did that? I realized I've never done that. And that's not healthy.

I've been, for the last 12 years, I have been working really hard. That is the reality. And I love it. And I, again, nothing but gratitude. But I'm trying to say, I guess what I'm saying is I'm at a point where I'm asking the Lord, what does it look like to kind of have a long-term mentality that's healthy. And it's a good problem to have in that I love what I do so much. But I think, you know, little things for me just go a long way that I'm, where I'm trying to take time to rest.

I'm spending a lot of time outdoors, biking, a lot more basketball at the YMCA, pickup games, just stuff that I find rejuvenating. I think sports for some reason are good for my mental health, being outside on a bike. I've formed a Tritianite's council people. It sounds selfish, just people I've gathered around me just to ask for their encouragement and just for their prayers and just say, I just need people to bear this with me and help me think about things. I need wisdom. A lot of times I don't know, should I respond to this or not?

I just need, so we have a text thread and they're so gracious to be supporters of me and just help me. Help me think about it. Help me, you know, it's a lot to think through sometimes. What do I, what kind of videos should I make and that kind of thing? And so with that said, some changes are coming up. Number one, the good news is none of this will change the content of YouTube videos per se. You're watching this on YouTube. That's probably your interest a little more.

But number one, I'm going to make my Instagram account inactive. and I will no longer be regulating or overseeing the Truth Unites Facebook page or the uploading of YouTube videos. So someone else will run the Truth Unites Instagram. Thank you, Zephaniah. I feel like Instagram and YouTube is a good combo. Good cross-pollination, having those two,

repurposing content from YouTube to put it out on Instagram. They're different platforms. They reach different people. I think that's good. I just refuse to do TikTok. I just, it's just, I just can't do it. It's not me. But, um,

uh, Instagram will happen, but I'm not going to run that. I will have no connection to it. My personal Facebook, I'll retain control of, but that's not for anything ministry related. That's purely for personal usage,

like anniversaries and birthdays and personal updates and stuff for friends. And then I'll oversee my X account for the time being. But I'm trying to create some buffers. Second, and with that, I need to set boundaries in terms of email and even other. forms of messaging, you know, I'll get, it's gotten to a point with Facebook messages and Twitter messages and stuff. I just have to ask for patience. There's a grind factor in keeping up with email, and I just, I honestly hate this, and I'm honestly kind of grieved by it and sorry for it. I would

like to be the kind of person in principle where I can just, you know, someone random emails into the question and I can take their question seriously and give them the time it deserves, but I can't do it. I need to set boundaries, and I think it's the right thing to. do. And so I just want to say, I'm sorry. And if I don't get back to you, please don't take it personally. And please don't feel like it's about you that you're not important enough. It's just I'm trying. And even for, you know, other things, speaking, you know, book endorsements and stuff, I'm just having to say no to an insane amount of stuff. And I'm sorry. And I even saying that, I feel kind of, I just, I'm just saying that to say, I hope you understand where I'm coming

from here that when I don't get back to people, it's not that I don't want to. It's just I got to be healthy for the long run. And I need to be, I put it like this, I need to be less responsive and less accountable to screens and communication via screens so that I can really be healthy over the long haul, more responsive to my kids, more responsive to local things, and really focus on where I think I'll have the biggest impact. That leads to the third section of the video looking ahead. I want to share about two things. Some upcoming videos, but first, a book, books, really. I'm writing. now and the next one. So I don't want this to ramble, so I'm just going to say the big picture.

But I'm writing a book right now, potentially entitled Why Christianity Makes Sense. It's my main project right now. There's going to be a little less, a little lighter video load, just one video per week over the summer. I'm not going to overdo it. The summer is a downtime on YouTube anyway. Like a video like this, it probably won't get very many views, and that's okay. I'm just kind of emotionally detaching a little bit, and I'll crank back up, Lord willing, on YouTube in September and October in terms of a little more focus there. But right now I just feel like the best thing to do is give myself to this book. And when I signed on to do it, I believed in it.

But as I've written the first three chapters, chapter four, I'll start writing tomorrow. And as I'm writing it, it's really come deep in my heart. And I just wanted to share about it and ask you to pray for it. I'm really excited about it. I really think, to the point of I almost feel like this is going to be one of the more important things I ever do in my life, maybe. I really feel excited for this book. It is a popular level book, explain.

Christianity, hoping that you could give this book to, you know, a college student or any, any person is not an academic book, short chapters, aiming to be readable, assuming no background. The first two chapters are just about why you should even care about religious questions, hoping to walk someone through all the way to Pascal's wager at the end to say, here's why it really makes sense to be a Christian. And I don't know how to convey how much it's coming to my heart except, you know, sometimes when I'm in a writing project, I just say, Lord, it's that weird feeling of, you know, to joke around, don't take this seriously, but it's almost like, if you were planning the second coming, could you just delay that for six months, you know? It's that feeling of like,

I just got to get this done. I got to get this done. It's deep in my heart. And so I wanted to ask you to pray for it. The theme of the book is the beauty of Christianity. The three transcendentals, the good, the true, the beautiful. Christianity is beautiful. And that's a theme. So, you know, as you get older in your life, you realize you don't have much to say. You just keep saying the same things over and again. I have like four themes in my whole ministry. Number one is retrieval. Number two is triage. Well, one of them is the beauty of the gospel as that plays out into evangelism and apologetics. And this is what the theme of my earlier book is why God makes sense in a world that doesn't. And this is something I really believe. And I just think it's needed right now. I think we need to

emphasize the beauty of the gospel. And so I couldn't be more excited. As I'm writing it, just something's coming into my heart, and I'm thinking, I feel there's a place for this book, and I think it could meet some needs, and so I just want to share that. It'll come out January 27. Thank you for praying for that. And then I'm going to write a next book called You Can Keep Going, and I'm going to space that a year after before I really get into it. And the publisher approached me about these. I prayed about it, and I thought, I think the Lord's calling me to do that. I think books are one thing that I want to be a priority. Not one per year, not a ton, but you just now and again, I think books can meet needs.

And I say that because my book on Protestantism, even though it has a lot of overlap, though not total overlap, with my YouTube videos, is meeting different needs than my YouTube videos are meeting. And I think I'm doing a both-and approach with books and social media is a way that I feel good about for the future. So if you can pray for those, I'm excited about the next book too. I'll talk about that some other time.

It's about the ministry of Elijah. And it's like a encouragement for people, for Christians and especially for pastors. I'm also excited about other things coming up, but let me just tell you. So this fall, my major research projects are the argument for Christianity from fulfilled prophecy, which I think is a historic argument for Christianity, but majorly neglected and on the back burner today. And I'm going to give that some focus.

I've done one video on it, but I'm going to do more. The other research project is Pascal's Wager. Both of those will, of course, go into the book and hopefully make their way into their own YouTube video. But these are the next 12 videos I'm thinking of. Number one, explaining the Athanasian Creed, since I've done the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed, this would be a good conclusion to that trio, just to have those as hopefully evergreen-type videos that just can meet needs and serve people who are interested in church history. Number two, did Jesus' ascension change heaven?

I think we neglected to talk about the ascension of Christ and the fact that Jesus has a physical body in that act. And so now you've got three bodies in heaven, Enoch, Elijah, Jesus. And let's not get into others. But point being, there's a lot to reflect upon about that event, and I think it's edifying to think about. So basically, that'll be a video about Christ's ascension. Number three, why atheism is devastating and unlivable. I've done a lot of videos on why I think atheism is not true, like arguments for God from

fine-tuning and things like this. I've never done a video on just the existential ramifications, and so I'm going to draw a lot. That'll be a longer kind of academic video drawing from existentialist philosophy, and I'm excited to share that with you. Number four, would C.S. Lewis be on YouTube? I was thinking about what a fun video that would be, both for A, examining C.S. Lewis's thought, but also for B, a chance to reflect upon social media and some of the dangers. Number five, abortion in church history. I've just got to get the research done. It's been in the queue forever. Thanks for your patience on that. Number six, are Anglican orders valid? And this is especially going to be looking basically a criticism of the

Roman Catholic criticism of Anglican orders. Detailed video in the realm of sort of Protestant apologetics. I think Protestant apologetics is another one theme that just based upon responding to needs, it's always going to be a part of truth unites. Some of you even follow me just for that. Number seven, should we portray Jesus? That is, should we use images of Jesus and if so, how? And then that video, I'm going to give sort of a moderate reformed view on that that doesn't say we should never portray him, but tries to indicate three dangers when we put a physical image up of Christ. I actually don't take the view that we can't do that, but I think there are some dangers. So I'm going to talk about the danger of making Jesus too white, because he wouldn't have had

super light skin as if he's from Scandinavia. And yet so much Christian. art has done that, making Jesus too sentimental. A lot of film adaptations of the Gospels make Jesus a little nicer, a little bit less like Aslan. You know, he's not a tame lion, this kind of thing. So in other words, I'm going to try to give a theological treatment of this question of can you use images of Christ. And I'm going to say, yes, we can because of the incarnation. But then I'm going to try to highlight some of the dangers. That was one that was recommended. I thought that's a good idea. Number eight, I'm going to do a video called worship in the first 200. years of church history, purely descriptive, purely church history, just trying to, and I'm even going to try to not, I'm reading several books for that. Research, again, a lot of my videos are research intensive. That's why there's the grind factor. That's why I need your prayers for when I get exhausted. But that, I'm not going to go into it with an angle. I'm just going to try to be descriptive so that will Lord willing challenge my tribe as much as anybody's. Number nine and number 10, Eucharistic miracles and the Shrout of Turin. I'm not going to do those because they're super trendy.

I'm just going to do them because they come up enough in these conversations that I would feel irresponsible if I was doing Protestant apologetics over the years. This is where I've had to embrace this part of my calling, but I just completely wasn't ignoramus about those topics, which I am now. So I got to study them. In other words, I want to at least come up to basic competence of understanding what the issues are, read the academic literature, for and against, that kind of stuff and just try to understand. That's what I had to do. I did that with the, with Apparitions of Mary a little bit earlier this year and put out a video on that. Those are, those are in the queue. I don't know when I'll get to these. I just have to ask for patience because these, the truth is to

put out a high quality video. I try to make my videos quality. I hope you feel that. I try to script them and make them worth your time. And to do that takes an incredible expenditure of energy. And so thanks for your patience and all these. Number 11, a defending the virgin birth. And number 12, has been good for the world. So that's where you can expect. I just want to say thank you again. Thanks for watching. If you made it to the end of this video, let me know in the comments. I always appreciate knowing that the people even care about a video like this. But I hope it could just be helpful to you to know what's going on, what I'm thinking about behind the screens here. Please pray that I would be faithful to my mission to advance assurance in the gospel.

Please pray that my videos would have integrity in a time of rancor, that they would be positive and healthy in their motivation and in their construction and what they're doing in a time of terrible deconstruction and, you know, people getting ripped to shreds, please pray that they would be historically informed and kind of just healthy. I think we need healthy Christianity right now. Please pray that my videos would serve real needs and meet needs and serve people today. And if you're, if you feel compelled to support, only ever support Truth Unites if it's a source of joy to you. Don't do it out of some sense of obligation. But if it's joyful for you, because you've benefited from and you want to support, that does, that is appreciated. And I do try to steward that

carefully and so forth. So thank you for those of you who feel compelled to support Truth Unites. Thanks for watching, everybody. We'll see you in the next one. And I'm excited for all that lies ahead, Lord willing.