Tod Bolsinger, vice president and chief of leadership formation at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Chair in Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Md., are featured resource people for Annual Conference this year. The Conference takes place July 1-5 in Grand Rapids, Mich., on the theme “God’s Adventurous Future.”
Bolsinger will be the featured speaker at an all-Conference “equipping session” on Friday, July 3, where he will address “Doing Church in Uncharted Territory.” On Thursday, July 2, he will speak at the Moderator’s Dinner on the topic “Adventure or Die,” and will lead an insight session on “Standing the Heat, Surviving the Sabotage.” He also will speak at a breakfast on Friday, July 3, on the topic “The Fire and the Anvil.”
Gorman will be the keynote speaker for the Minister’s Association pre-Conference gathering June 30 and July 1, focusing on “1 Corinthians: Challenges for Today’s Church.” He will be the Bible study leader for each morning of the Conference, studying passages from Revelation. He will lead an insight session on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, July 2-4, on “Reading the Bible Missionally.” On Saturday, July 4, he will speak at a luncheon on the theme “Nonviolence in the Writings of Paul.”
Bolsinger is vice president and chief of leadership formation at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. Previously, he served the seminary as vice president of vocation and formation and assistant professor of Practical Theology. Holding hold a doctorate in theology and master of divinity from Fuller, Bolsinger also is an executive coach in transformational leadership for corporate, nonprofit, educational, and church organizations. For 17 years he was senior pastor of San Clemente (Calif.) Presbyterian Church after serving for 10 years at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. The most recent of his three books is “Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory.”
Gorman holds the Raymond E. Brown Chair in Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Md. He has taught at St. Mary’s since 1991, and served as the dean of St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute 1995-2012. Gorman holds a master of divinity degree and doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he taught Greek. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and an elected member of the Society for New Testament Studies. A United Methodist layperson, Gorman is a frequent lecturer at churches, institutions of higher education, and clergy gatherings of many traditions in the US and abroad. His nearly 20 books include several on Paul, the atonement, Revelation, and John, as well as volumes of biblical interpretation and short books on topics in Christian ethics.
For more information about Annual Conference, entitled “God’s Adventurous Future,” visit the Annual Conference website at www.brethren.org/ac/.