About Us

Renewal Ministries exists to spread gospel-renewal
to weak people, through weak people,
by the power of God.

The story of Renewal Ministries began in 1979 through the ministry of Ray and Anne Ortlund. Together they wrote, “We purpose to magnify and exalt the Lord by being agents of revival among younger Christian leaders and bodies of believers both at home and abroad.” God honored their purpose with a worldwide ministry of biblical revival.

After Ray Sr. died in 2007, Anne and the Board of RM entrusted the ministry to Ray Jr. and Jani Ortlund. The story continues – with the same purpose.

About Ray & Jani Ortlund

What Ray and Jani Ortlund care about most is more and more people renewed within by the gospel of Jesus. Only the gospel helps sinners and sufferers. And it does, by the power of God. Nothing can resist the freeing power of Jesus.

Ray and Jani met at Wheaton College in 1968 and married in 1971. Today they serve Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee – an Acts 29 church. Ray also serves on the Council of The Gospel Coalition and blogs at the Coalition website. Jani speaks to women’s groups around the world. Both are published authors.

Ray is a graduate of Wheaton College, Dallas Theological Seminary, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Jani is a graduate of Wheaton College and National Louis University.

Together Ray and Jani have served in gospel ministry for over 40 years. They have four outstanding children and fifteen fabulous grandchildren.

Ray loves to hunt. Jani loves to garden. They love each other most of all!

ray and jani ortlund about us grid

Pastor Ray Ortlund is the President of Renewal Ministries and a Canon Theologian in The Anglican Church in North America. Ray graduated from Wheaton College (B.A.), Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M.), The University of California at Berkeley (M.A.), and The University of Aberdeen, Scotland (Ph.D.). Dr. Ortlund was ordained into the Christian ministry by Lake Avenue Congregational Church, Pasadena, California, in 1975. He taught Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, from 1989 to 1998. His primary work has been pastoral ministry in California, Oregon, Georgia and Tennessee.

In addition to numerous essays and articles, Ray has published eight books. His Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel was named “2017 Christian Book of the Year” in the category Bible Study. He also served as an Old Testament translator for The New Living Translation and The English Standard Version of the Bible. He contributed the introduction and study notes to the book of Isaiah in The ESV Study Bible.  After planting Immanuel Church in Nashville, Ray was named Pastor to Pastors at Immanuel. Ray also served as a founding member of The Council of The Gospel Coalition.

Ray and his wife Jani have been married for fifty-two years. They have four children and fifteen grandchildren.  Ray says, “I have the most wonderful wife, I love my kids and grandkids, and I love sharing the gospel of Christ. My dream is that God will use us for true revival in this generation.”

Jani Ortlund loves to connect women with the Word of God. She serves as Executive Vice President of Renewal Ministries, speaking at women’s conferences both in the United States and abroad.

Jani’s first book, Fearlessly Feminine (Multnomah, 2000), encourages women to boldly embrace God’s design for them as women. Her second book, His Loving Law, Our Lasting Legacy: Living the Ten Commandments and Giving Them to Our Children (Crossway, 2007) offers practical ways to live out the Ten Commandments today and to teach them to the children in our lives.  A Child’s First Book About Marriage: God’s Way is Always Best (Christian Focus, 2018) introduces children to the beauty of God’s design for marriage in ways they can understand and embrace. Jani’s latest book, Help! I’m Married to My Pastor: Encouragement for Ministry Wives and Those Who Love Them (Crossway, 2021) helps a pastor’s wife feel less isolated and more noticed, understood and supported.

Besides conference speaking and writing, Jani podcasts at herestoresmysoul.org. She is a pastor’s wife, mother, grandmother, and former elementary school teacher, with a master’s degree in education. Jani is married to Rev. Dr. Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., pastor, author, seminary professor, and President of Renewal Ministries. The Ortlunds have four married children and fifteen grandchildren, serving Christ throughout the United States and Great Britain.

About Gavin Ortlund

Dr. Gavin Ortlund is a pastor, author, speaker, and apologist for the Christian faith. He is a husband to Esther, and a father to Isaiah, Naomi, Elijah, Miriam, and Abigail. He serves as President of Truth Unites and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Church.

Gavin has a Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary in historical theology, and an M.Div from Covenant Theological Seminary. He is the author of eight books as well as numerous academic and popular articles. His Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t won numerous awards. For a list of publications, see his CV.

Gavin is a fellow of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, a fellow of The Center for Baptist Renewal, a fellow of Credo, a member of St. Basil Fellowship of The Center for Pastor Theologians, and a Visiting Scholar at Reasons to Believe. He regularly speaks at churches and conferences around the country.

Gavin runs the YouTube channel Truth Unites, which seeks to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Truth Unites has a dual purpose as both a theological resource to the church as well as an apologetics voice to our culture. In its inward-facing role, it seeks to serve the church with theological education. It especially focuses on historical retrieval and theological triage, seeking to buttress and unify evangelical theology amidst its current fragmentation. It also produces content in defense of Protestantism. In its outward-facing role, Truth Unites seeks to provide a winsome and credible voice to the culture for the existence of God and the resurrection of Christ.

Our Passion

Renewal Ministries exists because of this wonderful reality: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26). We are weak and often depleted. But God loves weak people. He sends his Spirit not to the mighty but to the weak. This divine help comes to us through the gospel of Jesus, the crucified Friend of the undeserving. Renewal Ministries exists to spread gospel-renewal to weak people, through weak people, by the power of God.

Our Board

Byron & Anne Morris
First Presbyterian Church
Augusta, GA

John & Melinda Perry
Immanuel Church
Nashville, TN

Howard and Dawn Varnedoe
Redeeming Grace Church
Franklin, TN

David and Ashley Edwards
Immanuel Church
Nashville, TN

Officers

PresidentRay Ortlund
Executive Vice PresidentJani Ortlund
TreasurerJohn Perry

Our Doctrine

Our doctrinal convictions stand in glad alignment with The Confessional Statement of The Gospel Coalition.
To view this on the TGC website and to download a PDF of Foundation Documents, please click here.