{"id":4004,"date":"2008-03-19T00:20:19","date_gmt":"2008-03-19T05:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/"},"modified":"2008-03-19T00:20:19","modified_gmt":"2008-03-19T05:20:19","slug":"meet-nancy-ortberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Nancy Ortberg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Nancy Ortberg has just published a book that Kris and I both enjoyed, and now our daughter, Laura, is reading it (Nancy was one of Laura\u2019s leaders in the days of Axis at Willow Creek). There\u2019s a depth as well as an angle on what genuine Christianity is in this book. Nancy isn\u2019t afraid to step on toes or to say what she thinks. So, now we\u2019ve got Looking for God<\/a>\"\"<\/em>. Nancy was willing to answer five questions I sent to her about this book. So, here you go \u2026 No, before that let me say this. I read this book in ms form and I told her that one chp was too short; she wrote back, \u201cThat\u2019s all I had to say.\u201d I loved it.
\n1. What \u201choly discontent\u201d led you to write \u201cLooking for God\u201d?<\/strong>
\nI got so tired of being told about these very few, highly introverted [spiritual] practices, that were supposed to be the only\/the best way to build a relationship with God and to deeply know Him.
\nAnd while I have certainly benefited, in deeply foundational ways from things like quiet times and journaling, I was finding that I was profoundly experiencing God in many other arenas.
\nI also think that it is extremely important, and theologically correct, to first understand the goodness of God, and the repetition and sameness of the quiet time\/journal routine, was not pointing me in that direction.
\n2. Why might it be easier for women to write books for Christians but still difficult to find themselves facing Christians as teachers on Sunday morning?<\/strong>
\nFirst, I think one that even though it is easier for women to write the books, if it is a woman author, it most often gets categorized into a \u2018book for women\u2019 while if a man writes it, that is usually not the case. So women get niched in ways that marginalize their influence by that very thing.
\nAs far as teaching on Sunday morning, I think most women lack an opportunity extended to them by their church. It seems if they are interested in working in the nursery or teaching kids under the age of jr. high, that is welcomed, but I don\u2019t often see the opportunity offered for women to teach beyond that.
\n3. Which books or thinkers are closest to your vision in this book? Why?<\/strong>
\nThat is hard to answer, I was just thinking aloud when I wrote the book\u2026kind of scary, huh?
\n4. Where did you get your uncanny ability to tell stories?<\/strong>
\nOne of my most vivid church memories, when I was about seven years old and attending church most Sundays with my grandmother, was about when the pastor told a story. I remember thinking, \u201cdoesn\u2019t he \u2018get it?\u2019 When he tells a story, you could hear a pin drop in that room, after it is over, there was shuffling, coughing, and not the same kind of focused attention.
\nI think one of the reasons many of us are drawn to Jesus, is he taught through stories. I think our brains and hearts are hard-wired to respond to that.
\n5. When people put your book down after reading it, what three things would you hope they would store in their memory?<\/strong>
\nWhat a lovely question. It delights me to think that my words might prompt memories:
\nThat God is staggeringly good.
\nThat our experience of that goodness is for our enjoyment, as well as to reflect to us the nature of a good God that we can fully trust.
\nThat sometimes, counter intuitively, God can be most deeply experienced and known, during our most difficult times\u2026and He is still staggeringly good.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nancy Ortberg has just published a book that Kris and I both enjoyed, and now our daughter, Laura, is reading it (Nancy was one of Laura\u2019s leaders in the days of Axis at Willow Creek). There\u2019s a depth as well as an angle on what genuine Christianity is in this book. Nancy isn\u2019t afraid to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1733],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayer-and-formation"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet Nancy Ortberg<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nancy Ortberg has just published a book that Kris and I both enjoyed, and now our daughter, Laura, is reading it (Nancy was one of Laura's leaders in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Nancy Ortberg\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nancy Ortberg has just published a book that Kris and I both enjoyed, and now our daughter, Laura, is reading it (Nancy was one of Laura's leaders in the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-19T05:20:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/\",\"name\":\"Meet Nancy Ortberg\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-19T05:20:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-03-19T05:20:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Nancy Ortberg has just published a book that Kris and I both enjoyed, and now our daughter, Laura, is reading it (Nancy was one of Laura's leaders in the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/19\/meet-nancy-ortberg\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Meet Nancy Ortberg\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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