Todd Lanting

“In 1997 I went to Israel with Ray VanderLaan. And I’ve never been the same.

I had been a Christian my entire life. I thought I knew the Bible pretty well. I thought I knew what it means to follow Jesus. I discovered that I had so much more to learn.

In Israel, Ray invited me to experience God’s Word as Jesus did during Jesus’ time as a first-century Jewish rabbi. As I did so, God began opening pathways into the Biblical Text that I never even knew existed. These pathways connected the Scriptures in new ways, profoundly enriching and deepening my understanding of the Bible, God’s love, and what it means to be a talmid, a disciple, of Jesus. God ignited a fire in me, and Jeremiah 20:9 became my testimony too.

In the years that followed, I’ve continued to study and to learn and to teach the Scriptures, emphasizing their historical, cultural, and contextual settings. I’ve been blessed to return to Israel many times to lead study trips where I invite others to experience together God’s Word in its original, Jewish context. The trips I lead follow a rabbinic approach to learning and to studying the Scriptures, embracing the Biblical Text in its original context of Israel and the people God chose as his segullah, his treasured possession. I am looking forward to our next trip. I hope you can join us!”

Shema, Todd Lanting

Todd is a graduate of Hope College (B.A.), Indiana University School of Law (J.D.) and Denver Seminary (M.Div.). He has also completed graduate coursework at Western Theological Seminary and Jerusalem University College. Todd has practiced law as a trial attorney, and has served as Executive Director of That the World May Know Ministries, junior and senior high school Bible teacher at Front Range Christian School, Lead Pastor of West Bowles Community Church, and CEO/Head of School of Denver Christian Schools. Todd, his wife Jill, and their three children live in Littleton, Colorado.

Todd has studied and trained under Ray VanderLaan for the past 20 years, and Ray endorses Todd as a trip leader:

“As an author, Bible teacher, and study tour leader, I have had the privilege of walking the lands of the Bible with thousands of Jesus’ followers. As they learned about the land, the people, and the culture of the Bible, these believers discovered that the context God chose for his redemptive plan could help them live the Text in their own lives. They not only had faith in Jesus but a fresh commitment to having the faith of Jesus. Somewhere on that journey of studying the Bible I met Todd Lanting. Like many others I had known, his first experience of the ancient world of the Bible produced an ever-growing hunger for understanding the story in its context. He was as intentional as any student I have ever had in his search for a deeper understanding of the Biblical Text.

There are many good study tours to the Bible lands. Some are labelled ‘rabbinic’ though few truly are. Todd’s program is different. He has taken the same approach as That the World May Know and created his own seminar. His knowledge of history, culture, and geography is exceptional. Best of all he uses each hike, each site, each experience to better understand the Scripture. And best of all his approach fits each experience into God’s grand narrative, the story in which he chose human partners to bring shalom to a broken world using the same approach as I do. I give Todd’s study tours my highest recommendation. You will never read the Bible the same way.”

Ray VanderLaan That The World May Know Ministries