The culture is changing.  The world is changing rapidly.  Churches are facing change on an unprecedented scale.  Churches and church leaders are becoming increasingly irrelevant, even marginalized.  The cultural advantage we experienced during the seventeen centuries of Christendom has almost completely dissipated.  Much training for church leaders continues to be focused on a world which no longer exists and which has become inadequate to meet the challenges of today.

 

But the church is also at an exciting crossroads.  We are entering a new day, a new terrain, and a new adventure.  We are not alone.  The Spirit of God goes before us.  The mission of Christ will not fail.  But, our next steps are going to be demanding.  The moment requires us to have an "adventure-or-die" attitude.  We are heading into uncharted territory and must lead people into a future which is nothing like the past.  How can we do that?

 

Rev. Dr. Tod Bolsinger will be addressing these questions in a day long conversation and training event for clergy and church leaders.  Tod will be discussing the ideas he wrote about in his book Canoeing the Mountains.  The book takes the example of Lewis and Clark who left the east coast in the early 1800s to discover a water pathway to the Pacific Ocean.  Their technical skills only took them so far.  They had to develop adaptive skills as they faced challenges they never thought they would face.  Tod will talk about how pastors and church leaders have to take wise risks, learn to lead on the map before they can lead off the map, how to prepare for the unknown, how to become resilient leaders, and how to follow the Holy Spirit into places we feel completely unprepared for.

 

Tod Bolsinger was on staff at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church for ten years.  Then, he was the senior pastor at the San Clemente Presbyterian Church for ten years.  For the last five years, he has been the Vice President and Chief of Leadership Formation at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena CA.  Tod is a pastor, speaker, coach, author, and blogger.