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You're Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches
Practical Advice for Weary Leaders Who Want a Gospel-Centered Culture for Their Church Being a pastor is hard. Whether it’s relational difficulties in the congregation, growing opposition toward the church as an institution, or just the struggle to continue in ministry with joy and faithfulness, the pressure on leaders can be truly overwhelming. It’s no surprise that pastors are burned out, tempted to give up, or think they’re going crazy. While we’re quick to assert what the gospel says, we’re often too slow to admit what the gospel should do for our reflect Christ’s beauty through a godly, grace-filled culture. In this practical guide, seasoned pastors Ray Ortlund and Sam Allberry help weary leaders renew their love for ministry by equipping them to build a gospel-centered culture into every aspect of their churches. Emphasizing the importance of healthy doctrine, they explain that failing to also nurture a healthy culture can be frustrating, polarizing, and even unbiblical. This encouraging guide features Scripture-focused advice on honesty, honor, preaching, leadership, and mission to support leaders and help them regain a beautiful, Christ-centered vision for their ministries.
176 pages, Paperback
Published October 3, 2023
37 people are currently reading
506 people want to read
About the author
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.
67 books142 followersPastor Ray Ortlund received a B.A. from Wheaton College, Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, M.A. from The University of California, Berkeley, and Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Pastor Ortlund served as Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, from 1989-1998. He was ordained by Lake Avenue Congregational Church, Pasadena, California, in 1975
In addition to a number of essays and articles, he has published several books. Ray also participated in 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.
Ray is the President of Renewal Ministries, a regional director in the Acts29 Network and serves on the council of The Gospel Coalition.
Ray and his wife Jani have been married for forty-one happy years, and they have four delightful children. Ray says, "I have the most wonderful wife, I love my kids and grandkids, and I love Immanuel Church. My dream is that God would use us for true revival in our city."
In addition to a number of essays and articles, he has published several books. Ray also participated in 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.
Ray is the President of Renewal Ministries, a regional director in the Acts29 Network and serves on the council of The Gospel Coalition.
Ray and his wife Jani have been married for forty-one happy years, and they have four delightful children. Ray says, "I have the most wonderful wife, I love my kids and grandkids, and I love Immanuel Church. My dream is that God would use us for true revival in our city."
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
September 27, 2023
Marvelous. Next to “The Compelling Community,” this is the most important and invigorating book about church culture I’ve ever read.
May 3, 2024
Such a helpful, encouraging book for church leaders. I love and respect both Sam and Ray deeply and have learned so much while serving with them. I could not recommend this book more highly.
September 21, 2023
Ray Ortlund, Jr. and Sam Allberry's new book is designed to help you build a gospel culture in your church and to persevere with joy in ministry.
March 31, 2024
A lot of the same goodness from the podcast. The chapter on “welcome one another” is worth the price of the book. Thanks for this gift, Ben!
November 21, 2023
Most encouraging book I’ve read this year. Full review to follow.
September 9, 2024
I read this as apart of a group of local youth leaders in STL. it is a joy and blessing to read this with fellow leaders and brothers in Christ. I pray our ministries reflect gospel culture.
October 10, 2023
Excellent stuff. Gospel doctrine ought to create and fuel gospel community, which in turn energizes gospel mission. This is a great resource for exploring how right theology should propel us INTO community and how that gospel community should love and function.
4/5
4/5
May 17, 2024
A beautiful book that emphasized building a culture in church rather than strategy. Ray and Sam clearly illustrate what a church saturated with the gospel can look like. They describe attainable practices for all kinds of churches.
Favorite quotes:
Christ has welcomed you is the gospel summed up super briefly (26).
Don't settle for less than gospel doctrine creating honest gospel culture at your church (56).
The church is a family (1 Tim. 3:15). It's not meant to be a place of impersonal efficiency but of highly relational care and consideration (101).
Greatness, in Jesus's eyes, is not measured by how many people are under us but by how many people we regard as being above us (106).
What should make a pastor compelling to the flock is not the force of his personality but the genuineness of his example (111).
... our church family is what is included in Jesus's promise. He promised an abundance of family to those who bear the heaviest relational cost of following him. If we don't attend to living as that family, we risk making Jesus look like a liar (123).
Our love for one another is not only meant to be clearly observable by the watching world. It's to be so strikingly Godlike that it cannot be explained except by the reality of the gospel. The gospel doctrines of the incarnation ("you sent me") and of justification ("and loved them") will become more visible and nonignorable through the love we show one another in Christ (126).
Favorite quotes:
Christ has welcomed you is the gospel summed up super briefly (26).
Don't settle for less than gospel doctrine creating honest gospel culture at your church (56).
The church is a family (1 Tim. 3:15). It's not meant to be a place of impersonal efficiency but of highly relational care and consideration (101).
Greatness, in Jesus's eyes, is not measured by how many people are under us but by how many people we regard as being above us (106).
What should make a pastor compelling to the flock is not the force of his personality but the genuineness of his example (111).
... our church family is what is included in Jesus's promise. He promised an abundance of family to those who bear the heaviest relational cost of following him. If we don't attend to living as that family, we risk making Jesus look like a liar (123).
Our love for one another is not only meant to be clearly observable by the watching world. It's to be so strikingly Godlike that it cannot be explained except by the reality of the gospel. The gospel doctrines of the incarnation ("you sent me") and of justification ("and loved them") will become more visible and nonignorable through the love we show one another in Christ (126).
October 10, 2023
Reorienting.
August 24, 2025
Top 5 read of the year forsure - super refreshing.
Written for pastors but would be beneficial for anyone seeking to cultivate healthy culture in their church.
The main message of the book is that Gospel doctrine creates Gospel culture. A church needs both to thrive.
“How we treat one another horizontally is meant to be an expression of how God has treated us vertically”
The Gospel is divine hospitality. Romans 15:7 - “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.” This verse reveals the disposition of Jesus’ heart toward us - He loves being our Savior.
We are not just welcoming people to church, we are welcoming them to Christ.
Nothing is more beautiful than a church walking together in the light. A posing, pretending, and dishonest church denies the Gospel. Has there ever been a church with too much tenderness, humility, and willingness to confess? Too much forgiveness, freedom from the past, hope, and joy?
We are to be people who notice the best in one another, honor each other, and exclaim our admiration for what we see (Psalm 16:3).
Leadership in the church is to be fundamentally different than leadership in the world. Worldly leadership values power over others. Christ calls us to be servant leaders. To properly put others in their place is to put them above us, not beneath us.
“The church is a family - 1 Timothy 3:15 - it’s not meant to be a place of impersonal efficiency but highly relational care and consideration.”
“The relational health of the local church is not incidental. It must not be an after thought because Jesus’ reputation is on the line. But if we do live together in our churches as spiritual family, our churches become living proof of how following Jesus really is worth it”
Jesus’ presence in our lives means the death of indifference.
Culture > Strategy
Written for pastors but would be beneficial for anyone seeking to cultivate healthy culture in their church.
The main message of the book is that Gospel doctrine creates Gospel culture. A church needs both to thrive.
“How we treat one another horizontally is meant to be an expression of how God has treated us vertically”
The Gospel is divine hospitality. Romans 15:7 - “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.” This verse reveals the disposition of Jesus’ heart toward us - He loves being our Savior.
We are not just welcoming people to church, we are welcoming them to Christ.
Nothing is more beautiful than a church walking together in the light. A posing, pretending, and dishonest church denies the Gospel. Has there ever been a church with too much tenderness, humility, and willingness to confess? Too much forgiveness, freedom from the past, hope, and joy?
We are to be people who notice the best in one another, honor each other, and exclaim our admiration for what we see (Psalm 16:3).
Leadership in the church is to be fundamentally different than leadership in the world. Worldly leadership values power over others. Christ calls us to be servant leaders. To properly put others in their place is to put them above us, not beneath us.
“The church is a family - 1 Timothy 3:15 - it’s not meant to be a place of impersonal efficiency but highly relational care and consideration.”
“The relational health of the local church is not incidental. It must not be an after thought because Jesus’ reputation is on the line. But if we do live together in our churches as spiritual family, our churches become living proof of how following Jesus really is worth it”
Jesus’ presence in our lives means the death of indifference.
Culture > Strategy
September 9, 2024
Sam and Ray’s thinking and teaching on gospel culture has been incredibly impactful on my own ministry and that of our church. Their podcast has given me so many nuggets to chew on and to pray for as we seek to create a culture of humility, honesty, and honor. This book is a fine intro into some of the main themes that they have been talking about for years now.
“A church community beautified by genuine love will be safe. We won’t have to brace ourselves before entering the church building. We’ll be able to exhale, to relax and rethink our lives at a deep level. If the world around us sometimes injures us, like Frodo’s stab by the Nazgûl on Weathertop, the church is meant to be Rivendell, where we can recover and heal. It should be a relief to turn up each Sunday. When gospel doctrine really enters our hearts, the gospel culture springs to life!”
“A church community beautified by genuine love will be safe. We won’t have to brace ourselves before entering the church building. We’ll be able to exhale, to relax and rethink our lives at a deep level. If the world around us sometimes injures us, like Frodo’s stab by the Nazgûl on Weathertop, the church is meant to be Rivendell, where we can recover and heal. It should be a relief to turn up each Sunday. When gospel doctrine really enters our hearts, the gospel culture springs to life!”
May 29, 2024
A book that reveals the beauty of a local church. This book motivates me to be more gospel-central in my church (from welcoming people to honoring others). This book showed how a local church can reveal and be a tangible expression of Jesus. What a book! I think I will give this to a bunch of people in our church who aspire to lead in churches one day...this book proves that our church's culture will demonstrate our church's true theology. Classic Ray Ortlund and Sam Alberry stuff here.
January 27, 2025
Dieses Buch beschreibt eine evangeliumsbasierte Kultur, wie sie in der Gemeinde gelebt werden sollte. Die Autoren helfen mit praktischen Tipps, zu so einer Kultur zu werden.
Der Titel gibt nicht ganz wieder, was der Inhalt des Buches ist. Teilweise ist es unstrukturiert. Teilweise zu oberflächlich. Deshalb 4 Sterne.
Ein Zitat, was mir besonders gefallen hat: „The genuine love our Lord calls us to is deeper than mere words or deeds. The apostle Paul writes: “love one another with brotherly affection” (Rom 12:10). Genuine love can and must be defined further. As this Scripture says, it’s a matter of affection. It’s deeply heartfelt” - Seite 134
Der Titel gibt nicht ganz wieder, was der Inhalt des Buches ist. Teilweise ist es unstrukturiert. Teilweise zu oberflächlich. Deshalb 4 Sterne.
Ein Zitat, was mir besonders gefallen hat: „The genuine love our Lord calls us to is deeper than mere words or deeds. The apostle Paul writes: “love one another with brotherly affection” (Rom 12:10). Genuine love can and must be defined further. As this Scripture says, it’s a matter of affection. It’s deeply heartfelt” - Seite 134
March 6, 2024
I have enjoyed the work of Sam Alberry and Ray Ortlund, their podcast by the same name is a must listen for all pastors and elders. I was worried that this book would be rehashing of the podcast, but instead it was so much more. The first five chapters were very strong and encouraging. The final two were good but not as meaningful to me as the first few. Very good
January 24, 2025
What a delightful book!
The central thesis of this book is that “the gospel—and justification in particular—calls for more than doctrinal subscription. It also calls for cultural incarnation.”
The rest of this book is looking at what this culture could look like in our churches.
Ortlund an Allberry cast a positive vision, focussed on hope and Spirit-led transformation.
Worth reading, contemplating and rereading! My highlighter got a workout.
The central thesis of this book is that “the gospel—and justification in particular—calls for more than doctrinal subscription. It also calls for cultural incarnation.”
The rest of this book is looking at what this culture could look like in our churches.
Ortlund an Allberry cast a positive vision, focussed on hope and Spirit-led transformation.
Worth reading, contemplating and rereading! My highlighter got a workout.
January 16, 2024
This was a helpful and concise book on some of the (easily forgotten) fundamentals of church life. I appreciate the dominant flavors of the book--a Jesus who saves with love and power and a church who responds with love and worship. A good read for anybody who wants to learn more about the Christian church or wants to relearn and remember what God desires for his church.
November 18, 2023
Some books begin with a "bang" and then fizzle out, but this book seemed to get better, and more compelling, with each chapter. Focusing on the character of Christ as the means to calibrating church "culture" was extremely helpful. Indeed, culture eats strategy for breakfast!
September 29, 2023
A refreshing read that calls for reflection, confession, and application.
November 6, 2023
One of the best books I’ve read all year…
April 23, 2025
This was a fantastic, short, easy, yet theologically rich read! Wow! The book is written to pastors (which I am obviously not) but is highly applicable to anyone who deeply cares about their local church body or is deeply involved in ministry in a lot of different capacities. The book reminds us that teaching about the gospel does not necessarily lead to a church culture that actually lives the gospel. Ortland and Allberry provide both a gentle critique and encouragement about the way a lot of churches function today. To sum it up: no matter what we say from the stage or platforms- if our lives don’t look like love, the gospel can’t flourish.
“Have you seen a church anywhere with too much forgiveness, too much freedom from the past, too much hope and joy? Gospel doctorine creates a gospel culture where those beautiful realities come down, and it feels like heaven on earth… Friends, we’re just stumbling forward together, finding out how good Jesus really is. It can only get better. Let’s not hold back- let’s keep going.”
“Your church is how Jesus gives his felt presence to your city.”
“Grace is not a runway, the thing that launches us off. Grace is the plane itself. We get nowhere apart from God’s grace. If a believer isn’t turning from sin, he doesn’t need more tasering from the preacher; he needs more exposure to the grace of God. It’s the grace that changes us.”
“Christ has given his heart to us. Let’s give our hearts to one another. And if you’re thinking ‘But my church is a mess’ well, what church isn’t a mess? But it’s his mess, and his glory is there too. Heaven keeps sneaking into our churches, and showing up in flawed people like every one of us.”
“I’m not willing to pray and suffer and labor and give my life to maintain an ecclesiastical institution that isn’t beautiful. But I am willing to labor and suffer and pray for and give my life to the creation of a beautiful church that can astonish this generation. Sign me up for that. That’s gospel culture.” !!!!!!!!!!!! what a book.
“Have you seen a church anywhere with too much forgiveness, too much freedom from the past, too much hope and joy? Gospel doctorine creates a gospel culture where those beautiful realities come down, and it feels like heaven on earth… Friends, we’re just stumbling forward together, finding out how good Jesus really is. It can only get better. Let’s not hold back- let’s keep going.”
“Your church is how Jesus gives his felt presence to your city.”
“Grace is not a runway, the thing that launches us off. Grace is the plane itself. We get nowhere apart from God’s grace. If a believer isn’t turning from sin, he doesn’t need more tasering from the preacher; he needs more exposure to the grace of God. It’s the grace that changes us.”
“Christ has given his heart to us. Let’s give our hearts to one another. And if you’re thinking ‘But my church is a mess’ well, what church isn’t a mess? But it’s his mess, and his glory is there too. Heaven keeps sneaking into our churches, and showing up in flawed people like every one of us.”
“I’m not willing to pray and suffer and labor and give my life to maintain an ecclesiastical institution that isn’t beautiful. But I am willing to labor and suffer and pray for and give my life to the creation of a beautiful church that can astonish this generation. Sign me up for that. That’s gospel culture.” !!!!!!!!!!!! what a book.
October 27, 2024
Book 49 - You're Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches (Kindle) by Ray Ortlund and Sam Alberry
A short book based on the podcast of the same name. I have never listened to the podcast but the book was free so I read it. The content is built around the idea of going through each part of a church gathering and how the Gospel being central in that aspect of worship creates a Gospel culture. Nothing really new for me but a solid encouragement. Good reminders of the type of community each local church should be striving to build by the grace and Spirit.
A short book based on the podcast of the same name. I have never listened to the podcast but the book was free so I read it. The content is built around the idea of going through each part of a church gathering and how the Gospel being central in that aspect of worship creates a Gospel culture. Nothing really new for me but a solid encouragement. Good reminders of the type of community each local church should be striving to build by the grace and Spirit.
March 6, 2024
While not perfect or revolutionary this book is a good encouragement and reminder. I concur that the culture that this book promotes is that which Christ intends to build for His glory. One quote:
"[Christ] did not come to save and redeem isolated individuals into a band of isolated individuals like pennies in a jar. He came to gather in his elect from all the nations so they might form a body, one that is joined together, lives together, and dies together."
This book shares attitudes that foster such a body. All pastors would do well to give it their consideration.
"[Christ] did not come to save and redeem isolated individuals into a band of isolated individuals like pennies in a jar. He came to gather in his elect from all the nations so they might form a body, one that is joined together, lives together, and dies together."
This book shares attitudes that foster such a body. All pastors would do well to give it their consideration.
July 12, 2025
This is a motivating book written particularly for those in pastoral ministry, but I found it useful in thinking through how I as a church member can contribute to a church culture that is gospel shaped and therefore speaks the truth of the gospel in the way we exist! Listened mostly to as an audiobook. My main critique is that the name of the book is misleading about the content, haha, but I was almost glad about that because it lead me to read a book I wasn’t planning, but benefitted greatly from!
July 1, 2024
I love reading Ray Ortlund because his love for the church and for you, the reader, just bleeds from the pages. Slightly repetitive, but with good truth, short and to the point. Casts a biblical and encouraging view for the church.
December 27, 2025
A wonderfully readable and encouraging book that addresses the ways a church emphasizes and cultivates a gospel culture within the church. An excellent book for a pastor to read with elders/deacons, a small group study, or Sunday School class.
January 9, 2024
This book and podcast are incredible. My prayer for my church is this 🙌🙌🙏🙏
November 5, 2024
Amen and amen!
July 30, 2025
I love anything from Ray Ortlund and Sam Allberry. This book is a very practical and inspiring guide to gospel culture in a church. It made me excited about church and my church family!
March 14, 2025
This was so encouraging. I listened on audiobook and LOVED hearing Ray and Sam trade off and converse between chapters. This book was helpful and applicable for anyone serving at church or even anyone who just loves their church. Everyone needs these reminders and help with direction sometimes, IMO, and I am grateful they took the time to write this. Thank you, Ray and Sam!
November 23, 2024
Pretty much the same content as the podcast - but all of which was a great reminder of how Gospel Doctrine should be felt in a Gospel Culture.
Their chapter on how Gospel Culture should lead to honoring one another is gold!
Their chapter on how Gospel Culture should lead to honoring one another is gold!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews