Good Soil, Holy Ground
Preparing Your People for Facing Change
Coming in 2027
The future will not belong to the churches and organizations with the best programs, the biggest budgets, or the most charismatic leaders.
It will belong to communities that have learned how to form people who can face fear, embrace loss, and remain faithful to a shared mission.
For more than thirty years, Tod Bolsinger and his team have worked with hundreds of churches, universities, denominations, nonprofits, and mission organizations navigating profound change. One lesson has become unmistakably clear:
People do not rise to the occasion when facing a crisis, they fall to the level of their formation.
Good Soil, Holy Ground explores one of the most important leadership questions of our time:
How do we cultivate communities that prepare ordinary people for extraordinary challenges?
Rather than offering another leadership program or discipleship curriculum, this book uncovers how formation actually happens. Drawing from Scripture, adaptive leadership, neuroscience, organizational culture, and stories from communities around the world, it offers a practical vision for creating churches and organizations where transformation becomes part of everyday life.
You’ll discover why:
Programs rarely produce the resilience we hope for.
Every community is already forming people—for better or worse.
Fear and loss are unavoidable companions of faithful leadership.
Culture shapes people far more deeply than any inspirational leader or well-organized program.
The practices, relationships, stories, and shared life of a community create the adaptive capacity needed for a changing world.
Tod Bolsinger, MDiv, PhD, the co-founder and principal of AE Sloan Leadership, Inc, an executive coaching and consulting firm that works with church, non-profit, university, and marketplace leaders in leading change. Tod is the author of nine books, including the Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year in pastoral leadership.
Become an Intentionally Formative Community
If this vision resonates with you, we’d love to stay connected.
By joining our early community, you’ll receive:
Updates on the book’s progress and 2027 release.
Exclusive essays and videos exploring the ideas behind the book.
Practical resources for helping your church or organization become an Intentionally Formative Community.
Invitations to webinars, workshops, and pilot learning cohorts.
Opportunities to help shape future resources before they’re released.
Hear Tod talk about this work in progress:
What Forms a Christian Disciple?, with Tod Bolsinger
Invite Tod to come talk to your team about the research even before the book is published: