Book Review: Deeper, by Dane Ortlund
Angst is an inevitability. It is a deep, unnerving, and sometimes constant reality for both youth pastors and youth alike. It doesn’t help that the prevailing culture views angst as a stage which ends as adolescence wanes. Think about an “angsty teen” and you probably conjure up stereotypes of late-90’s goths, teary-eyed fans wailing Dashboard Confessional in the mid 2000’s, or affluenza-stricken hyper-privileged suburbanites from 2015 to present day.
Angst runs deeper than these stereotypes. Angst, per Kierkegaard, is the feeling of one’s soul and self being pulled apart when we recognize our freedom amidst bondage, and the infinite amidst our seemingly finite lives. These tensions are heightened when we’re faced with choice. Do I choose comfort because I’m finite and might as well live it up? Or do I choose self-sacrifice because I can sense the weight of eternity? As a graduating student, is my choice of church, career path, college, trade school, or military service a sign that I’m free to forge my own way, or am I simply bound by the standards of my parents or my culture? To choose one is to kill the possibility inherent in the other. That kind of angst is true, deep, and difficult. Youth pastors also face their own angst and tension. Do we pursue growth in number or growth in depth? Should our ministry be focused primarily on facing outward or discipling inward? And at the heart of it all is the tension between presence and program.
Dane Ortlund’s Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners (Crossway, 2021) represents a measured, thoughtfully studied, patient, and kind way to address the many entangled roots of our angst without packaging the solution as a program. The central challenge that Deeper addresses is the reader’s fight against three-step, punchy, alliterated solutions to problems only solvable through union with Christ. Ortlund navigates angst without froth, sanctification without legalism, justification without arrogance, pain without a quick-fix, and the need for the common elements without patchwork procedures. As each chapter unfolds, youth pastors will be warmly refreshed in the presence of Christ and unsettled at some of our efforts and solutions to minister apart from him. Yet even as the challenges and doldrums arise to the reader, Ortlund paces each chapter to provide comfort as we reflect on our failure and the far-surpassing achievements of our savior.
The only struggle you’ll face while reading Deeper is the temptation to read it as a continuous argument from start to finish. Quite simply, the only way to read Deeper quickly would be to admit one’s emotionless stoicism. As Ortlund states in his introduction, it is best read a few sentences at a time, with a willingness to put it down to reflect, worship, or repent as necessary. Due to its refreshing brevity, Deeper is a wonderful choice to read devotionally with students. The prose is so well-crafted and the words artfully chosen, it could be studied with students chapter by chapter, or even paragraph by paragraph, so long as the readers expect to stop on occasion simply for moments of reflection and gratitude.
Deeper is a thoughtful and engaging series of answers to some of the deepest questions our students ask: What is my greatest need? How do I deal with the constant feelings of loss, dread and despair? Is Christ bound to me out of obligation alone? Have I sinned so greatly that he ought simply to cut me off? Can the body of Christ really deal with my honest questions and the doubts I cannot easily express? What if I’m not growing anymore? Where Deeper shines is in the simplicity of the answer it presents. Not answers, answer. Christ above all, Christ in me, Christ before me, Christ working through me, Christ who knows me deeply and who loves me still. Can I be mature? Can I end my sinful habits? What are the processes, the steps, the programs necessary to satisfy these endless thirsts for significance?
Read Deeper first for your own soul. Then consider how to bring its message to your students. Slow down, give up, and grow in Christ. He is more than enough, and more than capable to lead us home.
editor’s note: Youth Pastor Theologian received a complementary review copy of Deeper from the publisher, but we were not expected to provide a positive review. Everything above reflects the reviewer’s honest evaluation and reflection on the book.