Truth Unites - Mega-Huge Update for Truth Unites

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

In this video I share a huge update about Truth Unites. See the new Truth Unites website here: http://www.truthunites.org/ Truth Unites exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai. SUPPORT: Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/truthunites One time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/truthunites FOLLOW: Twitter: https://twitter.com/gavinortlund Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/ Website: https://gavinortlund.com/

Hey, everybody. This video is going to be a happy and exciting update about Truth Unites and just some personal news. My family is moving to Tennessee. I'm going to be focusing more upon Truth Unites. Truth Unites is merging with another wonderful ministry I'm going to share more about called Renewal Ministries. And so Truth Unites will come under its oversight. And then I'm going to serve as a theologian in residence at Emmanuel Church in the Nashville area. Wonderful church I'll share more about too. I couldn't be more grateful to the Lord. I sometimes I was saying to someone today I look around at my life and just feels overflowing gratitude in my heart for God's kindness to me. This is a perfect situation for us right now in our season of life.

Even while there's a every Sunday there's a heaviness and sadness because we love our church family so much. But it's just a kind of an all-the-stars-aligning opportunity because it allows us to be close to our families and it frees me to focus on some of these ministries that are really deep in my heart right now, like Truth Unites. And so I just want to share a little bit about my thought process, the passion and and the vision behind this, stay tuned to the end because I'll share more about my website, my newsletter, future videos, ways you can support and be involved and so forth at the end.

But let me just canvas a little bit of the vision and just my heart of what I've been praying about. It's so freeing to just, you know, not worry about anything other than, Lord, use me for your purposes. And that's kind of been my heart cry over the last couple weeks and months as we've been praying. But as you know, I mentioned this a lot that in the United States, we're going through the greatest season of religious decline in our nation's history. About 40 million people have stopped going to church. And then those who don't have any religious affiliation, which is a little different

demographic, interestingly, has spiked up to over 30%. 30 years ago, it was only 5%. It's just this massive sea change. And especially in the younger generation, there are so many people leaving their faith. Over the last several years, the greatest passion of my vocational life has become to just spend myself doing whatever I can to address this situation, try to help people, to be a friend to those. I use these words, re-centering, reconstruction, revitalization, restabilizing, trying to convey what I hope my videos are doing to people out there, especially younger people. I get lots of questions. I often think of, I'll put up my life first here for my ministry, Isaiah 58, this imagery of pouring out, pouring yourself out, trying to give food to the

The Hungry. And then there's also a verse in this chapter about rebuilding foundations. There is so much anxiety out there right now. There's so much uncertainty and even despair. And I want to give my life to try to touch those needs because the gospel of Jesus is the answer. And it's true and it's happy. And it's people need to know about how the gospel applies to their own doubts and struggles, you know. And the more I've been on YouTube, the more I just see these incredible opportunities to try to speak into topics and address needs. And I've even come to feel so strongly about it in Acts chapter 20, there's the language of being constrained by the spirit. Paul's basically saying, I'm going to Jerusalem. It's going to be hard, but I'm constrained by the spirit. And that's really

what I feel. You know, I feel the sense of just the opportunities on YouTube are so significant. I feel compelled to try to do everything I can to help and meet needs. And so basically, I'm at a point now, you know, the last several years, the last three years, I started Truth Unites about three years ago, a little more than three years ago for my recording this. And so I've been, it's been a busy three years. We've had two, two more children in that time period. We have five kids now. I'm a full-time pastor, and I'm doing all these different kinds of things, and I love them all, so I've been able to try to kind of navigate things. Over the last year or so, it's ratcheted up to one level further of busyness. And so that is a part of this. This change allows me to focus a little bit more

and not feel like I'm doing five different things all at once. It's hard because I love all of them. I love being a pastor. I have joy every Sunday. Every member's meeting, I get choked up. That's to the point they make fun of me now because they know I'm going to get choked up, but it's just, you know, trying to tell our church how much I love them and how much, just how kind of spoiled I feel by what a wonderful church we have.

I also love writing. I've got, I just signed a contract for my next book, which I'll write in February. It's going to be a basically possible working title is how to disagree without being a jerk. Maybe that title will change, we'll see. But that's the idea is basically the sociology of disagreement. So it'll be a popular level short book. But I have about three or four others after that I would love to give myself to. I want to write a book on the sacraments, for example.

I'd love to write a book on existentialism and just how kind of classic existentialist philosophy intersects with our culture and some of the needs right now that's in the very very. of apologetics, and I've written a little bit about that. I also want to be free to accept speaking requests that come in. I have to decline, like 98% of them right now, because with five young kids, it's hard to travel, and I'm just so busy. I want to be a faithful dad. And then Truth Unites and Husband, you know, I want to be faithful. My family comes first, you know. And then Truth Unites has really become, I never anticipated how much joy I would find in it, amidst all the downsides of social media, there are so many opportunities.

The mission of Truth Unites is gospel assurance through theological depth, and the more I do this, the more I'm just like, wow, there are so many opportunities to try to answer questions and address things and try to meet needs that are out there because there's such a need for assurance, for gospel assurance. There's such, as I mentioned, that word, anxiety a lot. Even beyond just how that word is often used in a secular context, there are spiritual anxieties in many hearts right now. So, you know, I've been trying to kind of negotiate all these different things, and it's all been joyful, and I love everything.

But I've just concluded as I've not just prayed about it, but also talked with people and also studied, actually, that the best way I can serve Isaiah 58 is by focusing more. And YouTube is such a strategic place for ministry. The opportunities are just unbelievable. But as I've been praying about this, you know, one of the concerns I've had is, number one, I don't want to be disconnected. from the local church. And number two, I don't want to just function in this rogue way. I want to make sure I have godly accountability, healthy community. And so merging with Truth Unites, merging with Renewal Ministries, which I'll share more about in a second, provides for that. And that is such a wonderful thing. And then being a theologian and

residents at Emmanuel Church is such a wonderful opportunity because it's just this wonderful church. If you're ever in the Nashville area, just check it out. It's a place of gospel cultural as well as just faithful doctrine and the people there. It's a really special place. I was preaching there a while back and I just said, you feel like you're at home here after five minutes because there's such a sense of the love of Christ in the culture and in the relationships as well as in the way the theology works out. It's just a wonderful church. So that helps me feel good about this, you know, because I always want my ministry to serve the local church ultimately, you know. And I want to just say a little bit of

about renewal ministries because this is just, when I think about who are my ministry heroes, and about a week after, maybe a week or a week and a half after this video comes out, an interview with my dad will come out, you'll get to know him a little bit better. When I think of my ministry heroes, I think of four people. I think of my parents, and I think of my dad's parents. And my grandfather, Ray Ortland Sr., he was a pastor for many years. He and my grandmother started renewal ministries in the late 1970s. grandfather, both of them, they were like, you know how most of us walk into a room and subconsciously

were thinking about ourselves more. He was the kind of person who would walk into a room and his genuine heart posture was, how are you? Just this joyful, loving, sincere man of God. And my grandfather was like, my grandmother was like that as well. Amazing people. I wish you could have known them. I showed a clip of them in my video on the Asbury Revival, so you could get to know them a little bit in that way. And then my parents, my parents have served in ministry for many years as well. They now oversee RM, and they are such special people, such joyful servants of Christ. If you just talk to them for five minutes, you'll see what I mean. Life-giving people. I've often said that if I just follow in their footsteps and do in my life what I've seen modeled in their life and in their ministry,

I'll consider my life well spent. They've given me a priceless gift of modeling what authentic Christianity looks like, and I just am so grateful for them. Niceness is the secular counterfeit for gospel culture. But when I receive you into my heart, and I'm saying to you, I want you in my reality, then people can actually experience what Christ has done

as Christ has welcomed you. That's gospel doctrine. Christ does not tolerate us. He welcomes us, he presses us into his heart. Okay, now we know how to treat each other. I also love the board of RM. These are godly people that I admire. And so it just feels healthy to have a context of accountability and support and relationship

for my ministry as I'm stepping forward. And that gives me this really good feeling in my heart, like I'm stepping into something healthy here. I will say that this is not easy or glamorous. It feels like the path of faith. I've just, you know, I've gotten out on my knees before the Lord and said, God, how do you want me to spend my life? And what I've concluded is, this pathway is the most fruitful way I can spend my life for

his purposes. And that just gives me so much joy to be free to just give myself to that. So let me just say, I can talk more about that as well on other occasions. But in this video, the main focus is I want to share about what this means for truth unites and how you can be involved. Okay, so what the final part of the video, what does this mean? Nothing will go away. There will be no subtractions in this, only additions. The focus of Truth Unites will continue to be going deeper into theology and deeper into church history and philosophy and

apologetics, all for the sake of assurance in the gospel. That's the focus. You can see the next 30 videos that I planned out. I love thinking about future videos in my community tab, also on the Facebook page for Truth Unites, also on my personal Twitter. I put all that out. You can see those if you're curious what's coming up. I also have a new website. You can check this out for endorsements, other information about Truth Unites. You can sign up for a monthly newsletter that will be going out. I would love to stay in touch with you through that way. And I just couldn't be more grateful for some of these gracious, kind people who were willing to write endorsements for my ministry. It was more meaningful than I can express to have these people who I have looked up to so

much throughout my life, willing to say kind things about truth unites. So praise God for that, and I'm so grateful. And you can just check it out. I'll put a link to my website in the video description. That'll also give you more of a sense of kind of some of the things I'm leaning into as I'm trying to move forward in pursuing this ministry that God has entrusted to me that, you know, as it's grown over the last few years, I've really been honestly overwhelmed by the opportunities to touch real needs out there. I get emails and Facebook messages and Twitter messages. day from people who are asking these questions about whether it's Protestantism or the existence of God or deconstruction or other specific theological questions.

And I just feel the sense of I want to give myself to try to meet needs, as I've said. I've thought about other things to do as well. With more time to focus upon videos, you know, I would love to have a conference. I would love to have an in-person get together. A Truth Unites Conference of some kind at some point. I'd love to do a monthly live stream. I have all kinds of ideas that I'll probably share about in the future, but I'll keep it limited here. Also, Truth Unites will now be considered a ministry of renewal ministries, and that applies to tax and oversight purposes as well. So that means if you would like to support Truth Unites, you can now do so in a tax deductible manner. Now, the main point of this video was not just about financial support. I just wanted to kind of share with you all of this, But I do want to let you know of needs that I have. My plan is to build support for Truth Unites over the next several years to be my primary source of income.

And then I'd love to hire help at a certain point down the road. I do everything right now. I'd love to, especially video editing. I would love to just have some help there. It's so time-consuming. And that's, again, where the last three years have been kind of crazy. I've thought about, you know, offering courses and other ways to meet those financial needs. But I've decided, no, I'm just going to make every single thing that I do on Truth Unites completely.

free and just make videos and just trust that the resources will come in. And some other YouTubers helped me think about that. So I would just say if it would be a source of joy for you, if you would feel the pleasure of God in becoming a partner with me and Truth Unites in this ministry, you can support on the website. It should be very easy to do. There's a clearly marked donate page. It's all set up and ready to go. And those are tax deductible. The Patreon page will continue as is. Nothing is going to be taken away there. I don't want to take that option away. from anybody, but now you know you have this option available to you. And thank you. And the main thing, and I really mean this, the main thing is prayer. I would just, I'll say more about this in a second to finish,

but just invite you to pray with me for those words I use like renewal and reconstruction and revival. My dad and I are on the video that will come out in a week or a week and a half talk about revival. It's thrilling to pray for that. And that's what I want to be a part of. That's what I want to give my life to. Here are six forthcoming video titles. Next Monday, I'll have a crossover with the Credo podcast run by Matthew Barrett, who teaches at Midwestern Seminary. He's kind of at the center of a lot of retrieval and historic Protestantism work that is happening right now. He's written some significant books, and I really admire his work. So we're going to be partnering now and again to celebrate and promote historic Protestantism,

and that'll be the first Lord willing of further videos, so you'll see that come out on Monday. I've mentioned the revival, the discussion. The title of the video is just talking about revival with dad. I was just editing it this morning. I think you'll find that edifying and wonderful, and you'll get to know him, which thrills me. I'm also going to do a dialogue with my friend Eric Yubara on points of commonality and agreement, between Protestant and Catholic, even looking apart. from even we'll talk about atonement, creation, other things like this. He's a friend of mine.

I admire him. I just think it's healthy to talk. Just have dialogue. Three next videos, I'm going to do a response to Alex O'Connor on divine hiddenness. I like him so much, and I find his argument so interesting and so sincere. And the argument from divine hiddenness is one of the most increasing arguments against the existence of God right now, including in like high-level academic philosophy. Let me grab these books, actually. So this is my stack of books that I'm going to read over the next couple. Well, I don't know how long it'll take me. But this first one is one of the most famous ones by this philosopher named Schellenberg.

It's called The Hiddenness Argument. So you get all these books coming out right now that are, you know, it's like an Oxford University Press book by a good philosopher about this argument. And the basic way of thinking about the argument is, if God exists, why is that so murky and ambiguous? Why isn't it clearer? And so I'm fascinated by that argument. I'm fascinated by Alex making that argument, and I've been thinking about it for a long time. I'm really excited to make a response to that.

That'll be a longer video, and probably early November, something like that. And then I'm going to do a video on the argument for Christianity from fulfilled prophecy. This is a classical approach. You see it in Blaise Pascal, for example, basically to make the appeal colloquially. It's like, hey, read Isaiah 53, read Daniel 9. how did they know this in advance? Okay, that, you know, there's a lot more to it than that. But that's kind of a neglected approach today, though.

I find it fascinating, and it's also so edifying to see how all of the scripture does hold together. So that video will come out in early November 2, Lord willing. I'm also going to do a video on divine simplicity, a shorter video, three reasons and five minutes to believe in divine simplicity. Those are kind of the immediate ones coming up next. So hopefully, you know, things will just keep rolling forward, but I just wanted to give this update as a way, to invite you into it with me.

I'll have two final comments. One is just to express my gratitude to the Lord. I have so much joy in my life at how much he has been kind to me. And a big part of that is my YouTube channel. And a big part of that is those of you who watch my videos. I never dreamed that YouTube would be so much fun, so joyful, and such an opportunity to meet needs. I never dreamed.

It's just amazing. So I'm so thankful to God. And I hope to steward this ministry well and pray for me to do that. Number two, final comment is just to ask, would you join me in the kind of Isaiah 58 ministry that I seek to have? And I'm not talking about finances right now, but just in your heart. Would you join me in seeking renewal, re-centering, the reassuring of those hearts that are filled with anxiety about these deep ultimate questions of life? Renewal and revival in the church, revitalization in the church today.

That is what I want to give my life to. American evangelicalism, as well as evangelicalism elsewhere, is in a diminished condition right now. There's a lot of fragmentation, a lot of cynicism, a lot of declension. Let's build something new and beautiful and focused upon Jesus that our kids and our grandkids can benefit from. I will happily give my life to that cause. Join me, you know? Let's go for it. I'll conclude by putting up these great verses in Acts 20. Paul says, Behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,

except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me that in every city, imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to myself. If only, I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. What a wonderful phrasing there of basically, my life doesn't matter if only I can do this, you know. And that's kind of what I feel, honestly. I just want to give my life to serving the cause of the renewal of the gospel in our time. And the exciting last thing, I keep saying last thing, the really last thing, there is a lot of hunger. As much as we talk about the problems in the world, there's a lot of spiritual hunger in younger people.

And there is a movement of God in younger people, college age students, for example. so I'm excited to try to give myself to try to serve that cause in our time, and I invite you to join me in that. I'm excited for all that's to come. Thank you, everybody. May God receive all the glory.