About Josh

Short Bio

Josh Olds (D.Min. Columbia International University) is a pastor for those disillusioned by institutional church. He is a public theologian, social commentator, and leadership expert committed to bringing the inclusive, life-giving message of Jesus to the world. He has preached the Gospel on three different continents and lives in Australia with his family. You can follow him on Facebook, Youtube, or at JoshOlds.com.

Josh Olds (born 1 June, 1989) is an American-born public theologian and church leadership expert living in Australia. Josh was born in North Vernon, Indiana, and grew up within the Restoration Movement as part of the Christian Church/Church of Christ. He attended Liberty University as an online student, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Religion (2011) and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies (2012). In 2013, he briefly served as the interim pastor of Laurel Church of Christ. On May 30, 2013, leadership of that church ordained him to ecclesial ministry. Josh would then serve as a Teaching Pastor at Tulsa Chinese Christian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from June 2013-August 2020, focusing on English-speaking and youth ministries.

In high school, Josh’s love for gymnastics morphed into a love of coaching and he spent twelve years coaching gymnastics at every level—from toddlers to national level competitors. From 2008-2012, he was the head of the men’s gymnastics program at Jody’s Gymnastics Zone in Columbus, Indiana, where he led a small but successful program until that facility’s closure. In 2008, he was the youngest head coach to qualify a gymnast to National Championships. During this time, he became a USA Gymnastics National Level Coach and taught at State and Regional gymnastics clinics. In 2013, he moved to Oklahoma and, in addition to serving as a pastor, became a staff coach at SSB! Kids, a gymnastics academy in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. There, he served as a recreational instructor and competitive trampoline and tumbling coach before being named head of the men’s artistic gymnastics program in 2015. Some of his former students have gone on to have collegiate and international careers.

In 2020, Josh and his family followed God’s calling to sell most of their possessions and travel the United States while Josh’s wife, Mick, took short-term placements as an occupational therapist. After stints in Indianapolis and Philadelphia, hampered by COVID lockdowns, they moved to Beck Row, England, in December 2021 where Mick worked as a pediatric occupational therapist on local US military bases. Josh returned to academia, completing a Doctor of Ministerial Leadership from Columbia International University (2023). During this time, he served as a volunteer pastor with Lightwave, a parachurch organization that offered support and resources to rural churches. He helped in the creation of and eventually led a once-monthly VBS-style children’s church and a once-monthly family-oriented Breakfast Church within the local parish.

In 2024, Josh and his family continued to follow God’s calling—this time moving them to Australia. They returned to the US to visit family, then moved to Australia in late March 2025, where—God willing—they intend to stay permanently. In Australia, Josh has cultivated his online ministry, releasing Year on the Mountaintop, a one-year 52-session small group Bible study over the Sermon on the Mount. He has also spoken at several local churches and continues to engage in ministry wherever God places him. Josh also writes for a number of publications, including Baptist News Global and Red Letter Christians.

Josh also runs Life is Story, a premier book review and discussion website that generates over 150,000 visitors per month. In this role, Josh has interviewed a number of Christian fiction and non-fiction writers. He’s talked with Max Lucado about grief, Joni Eareckson Tada about disability ministry, Jemar Tisby and Brenda Salter McNeil about racial reconciliation, Joel Rosenberg about Israel-Palestine relations, and so much more.

Josh has also written a number of published works. If you go way back, as a young teen in 2003, Josh co-authored Art and the Bible for Children, a homeschool art/Bible curriculum for elementary-aged students. Josh adapted the Bible stories, while artist Barry Stebbing provided the art lessons and his students provide sample art. In 2010, Josh partnered with NYT bestselling author Ted Dekker to write The Blood Book, a special promotional book that released alongside Dekker’s novel, The Priest’s Graveyard. He also contributed to Fostering Hope: A Prayerbook for Foster and Adoptive Families edited by Robert W. Lee (Smyth & Helwys, 2022) and wrote the official four-week small group curriculum for the Christian film Caged No More (2016).

Josh met his wife, Kelsie “Mick” Olds, online when they were teenagers (note: youth pastor Josh does not necessarily recommend this). They both signed up to play an online RPG sponsored by Ted Dekker where the grand prize was a car. Neither of them won the car, but they did win the friendship of a couple dozen folks from across the world. As time wore on, it became clear that God was calling the two of them together. They were married in December 2013 and have two adopted children. Mick is a pediatric occupational therapist and known online as The Occuplaytional Therapist.

Josh has come a long way from the rigid fundamentalism of his youth. Education and experience have taught him that God is bigger than the boxes in which we’ve tried to contain Him. He is committed to the all-loving, ever-inclusive, radical gospel of Jesus. Jesus is the center of his faith. Community is the center of his life. Reconciliation is the center of his work.