{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"What Forms a Christian Disciple?, with Tod Bolsinger","description":"What is it that actually forms our inner reality? Our values, our perspective, our judgment, our understanding of wisdom about the issues that really matter? What difference does that make in Christian character formation? The American church consistently produces fruit that many of its own leaders either don\u2019t recognize, don\u2019t want, or disapprove of. Under- and malformed Christian people reflect a grounding in the surrounding culture rather than the character and love and gospel of Jesus Christ. In this episode, author, professor, and consultant Tod Bolsinger argues that culture is the thing that forms you before you ever realize it, let alone consent to it. He suggests that the soil of community and belonging\u2014rooted in attachment, vulnerability, trust, and joy\u2014is what makes sense of exemplary models of Christian formation. \u201dIf you wanna grow good fruit\u2014abundant harvests of good fruit\u2014you don\u2019t focus on the fruit, you focus on the soil.\u201d With Mark Labberton, Tod reflects on the agricultural model of spiritual formation; regenerative farming and the impact of soil health on the quality of the fruit; the example of Andre Trocme and the French Huguenots of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, village whose radical hospitality saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust; trust, pain, and care The intentionally formative community: joyful belonging, shared values, vulnerable self-reflection, care that isn\u2019t comfort. Episode Highlights \u201dThere are no dysfunctional systems. They all produce.\u201d \u201cThese people just lived out their faith.\u201d \u201dThe precognitive and the unconscious realities of our life are stronger than our words.\u201d \u201cNothing is as formative as the organizational culture you\u2019re in.\u201d About Tod Bolsinger Tod Bolsinger is co-founder and principal of AE Sloan Leadership, a coaching and consulting firm working with churches, nonprofits, universities, and businesses in seasons of change. He is associate professor of leadership formation at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he earned an MDiv and PhD and served six years as a vice president. His books include \u201dCanoeing the Mountains,\u201d \u201dTempered Resilience,\u201d \u201dIt Takes a Church to Raise a Christian,\u201d and the four-volume Practicing Change Series. He was a Presbyterian pastor for 27 years, most recently in San Clemente, California. Helpful Links and Resources Tod's current project, Good Soil, Holy Ground: Preparing Your People for Facing Change https:\/\/www.aesloanleadership.com\/good-soil-holy-ground  AE Sloan Leadership, Tod Bolsinger\u2019s coaching and consulting firm: https:\/\/www.aesloanleadership.com\/ Canoeing the Mountains, Bolsinger\u2019s best-known book: https:\/\/www.ivpress.com\/canoeing-the-mountains Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change: https:\/\/www.ivpress.com\/tempered-resilience The Practicing Change Series, Bolsinger\u2019s four most recent books: https:\/\/www.ivpress.com\/practicing-change-serie The Biggest Little Farm: https:\/\/www.apricotlanefarms.com\/biggest-little-farm\/ Weapons of the Spirit, Pierre Sauvage\u2019s documentary on Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (from the Chambon Foundation): https:\/\/www.chambon.org\/weapons_en.htm The Patient Ferment of the Early Church by Alan Kreider: https:\/\/bakerpublishinggroup.com\/books\/the-patient-ferment-of-the-early-church\/339350 An Everyone Culture by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, on deliberately developmental organizations: https:\/\/store.hbr.org\/product\/an-everyone-culture-becoming-a-deliberately-developmental-organization\/14259 Show Notes Dallas Willard\u2019s worry: that spiritual formation would become commoditized\u2014\u201da cottage industry instead of rooted deeply in the life of the church\u201d \u201dWe take on the terroir of the soil, like the way a grape does for wine.\u201d \u201cThe Biggest Little Farm\u201d documentary: how regenerative agriculture transformed a soil-depleted farm north of Los Angeles \u201dIf you wanna grow good fruit\u2014abundant harvests of good fruit\u2014you don\u2019t focus on the fruit, you focus on the soil\u201d Rereading the parable of the sower \u201dJesus literally says that more powerful than his preaching is the soil that the word falls into.\u201d Systems perfectly designed for the results they get: \u201dThere are no dysfunctional systems. they all produce.\u201d No church ever started a program in Christian nationalism, no associate pastor, no strategic plan. \u201dIt just came up out of the soil.\u201d \u201cWeapons of the Spirit\u201d documentary: Le Chambon-sur-Lignon: How French pastor Andre Trocme led a small village of Huguenots to save thousands of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. The pastors daughter, at age 93, on being told her parents were heroes: \u201dYou\u2019re very romantic about this. These people just lived out their faith.\u201d Counter-cultural cultivation Examples of radical communal formation: Amish forgiveness, Mother Emanuel AME Cultural competency vs. cultural humility Hospitality as the village economy Mother Teresa and entering East Beirut to save children because of (not in spite of) the bombing Brain scientists reaching for a word: \u201dIt is to be in a room with people who are happy to see you.\u201d \u201dGod, please make me the kind of person my dog thinks I am\u201d The intentionally formative community, which \u201dbegins in joy, it ends in death\u201d \u201dTrust, pain, and care\u201d: Kegan and Lahey\u2019s deliberately developmental organizations, and the three words in the word cloud Are university theology faculty equipped to provide pastoral care to hurting, traumatized students? #SpiritualFormation #Discipleship #ChristianLeadership #LeChambon #AdaptiveLeadership #ChurchLeadership #ChristianNationalism #Fuller Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary. ","author_name":"Conversing with Mark Labberton","author_url":"https:\/\/comment.org\/shows\/conversing\/","html":"