Gavin Ortland Leaving Church To Become Full-Time Theology YouTuber. May God Help Us All
Gavid Ortland is both doing the world a favor and cursing it, announcing on X that he’s leaving the pastorate to become a full-time theology YouTuber.
Ortland, the lead pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai, California, is the perfect mix of David French, TGC ethos, and Christianity Today talking points. He revealed that he’s merging his Truth Unites ministry, which has 41,000 subscribers and exists to “promote gospel assurance through theological depth,” with his father’s Renewal Ministries.
He’s also moving to Nashville, where he will become the “Theologian in Residence” at Immanuel Nashville, the prominent Acts 29 church led by TJ Tims, Sam Alberry, and Barnabas Piper. Here, he’ll be joined by another ‘Leader in Residence’ who calls Immanuel home: former ERLC President and current Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief Russell Moore.
Ortland said he’s making the move because “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.” He shares that the greatest passion of his vocational life has been helping folks with re-centering, reconstructing, revitalizing, and re-stabilizing their faith, which he believes he can do the most effectively through this online medium.
While Ortland has produced some useful content, he’s also introduced some polluted theology into the evangelical bloodstream, which we’ve written about or highlighted below:
The Gospel Coalition Author Argues Pro-LGBTQ Xtians and Universalists Are Still In the Faith
TGC’s Gavin Ortlund Appeals to Church History Over the Sufficiency of Scripture
Megan Basham Takes TGC Author Gavin Ortlund Behind The Woodshed For Advocating Climate Science
Gavin Ortlund says if you like Tucker Carlson, you are White Supremacist
Gavin Ortland Criticizes Churches for Being Open During COVID
Gavin Ortland Rejects Young-Earth Creationism
For this reason, from where we’re standing, any expansion of his audience is an unwelcome prospect indeed.
Watch out.