What do you think?
Rate this book
Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory
Over 100,000 Copies Sold Worldwide! 14th Annual Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year
Explorers Lewis and Clark had to adapt. While they had prepared to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, instead they found themselves in the Rocky Mountains. You too may feel that you are leading in a cultural context you were not expecting. You may even feel that your training holds you back more often than it carries you along.
Drawing from his extensive experience as a pastor and consultant, Tod Bolsinger brings decades of expertise in guiding churches and organizations through uncharted territory. He offers a combination of illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.
If you're going to scale the mountains of ministry, you need to leave behind canoes and find new navigational tools. Now expanded with a study guide, this book will set you on the right course to lead with confidence and courage.
Explorers Lewis and Clark had to adapt. While they had prepared to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, instead they found themselves in the Rocky Mountains. You too may feel that you are leading in a cultural context you were not expecting. You may even feel that your training holds you back more often than it carries you along.
Drawing from his extensive experience as a pastor and consultant, Tod Bolsinger brings decades of expertise in guiding churches and organizations through uncharted territory. He offers a combination of illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.
If you're going to scale the mountains of ministry, you need to leave behind canoes and find new navigational tools. Now expanded with a study guide, this book will set you on the right course to lead with confidence and courage.
276 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2015
1141 people are currently reading
2739 people want to read
About the author
Tod Bolsinger
16 books41 followersTod Bolsinger (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is the vice president for vocation and formation and assistant professor of practical theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian: How the Community of God Transforms Lives and Show Time: Living Down Hypocrisy by Living Out the Faith. A frequent speaker, consultant, and blogger, he serves as an executive coach for corporate, nonprofit, educational, and church organizations in transformational leadership. For seventeen years, he was the senior pastor of San Clemente Presbyterian Church in San Clemente, California, after serving for ten years at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. Tod and his wife, Beth, have two children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 352 reviews
March 27, 2018
Summary: Using the story of Lewis and Clark, Bolsinger explores the kind of leadership needed in the uncharted territory of our rapidly changing cultural landscape.
"Seminary didn't train me for this." "Our church is dying and I have no clue what to do." Over and over, Tod Bolsinger encountered these statements in his consulting work. Pastors are trained in teaching, liturgics, and pastoral care, and often, those tools just don't seem enough in our changing world. Bolsinger likens this to the moment Lewis and Clark climbed the Lemhi Pass, having canoed up the Missouri River, and instead of expecting to find a river on the other side of the mountain that would carry them to the Pacific, they found...mountains. The needed to exchange canoes for horses, and adapt to an "off the map" situation. In this book, Bolsinger considers the adaptive leadership of Lewis and Clark, and applies it to Christian leaders often tempted to try to "canoe the mountains," because they don't know any other way to lead. Often, they may be the greatest obstacle to transformative change in their churches or organizations. The choice they face is between adventure and organizational death. All of this is part of understanding the "uncharted territory" that calls for a new kind of leadership.
Part Two makes the contention that there are critical "on the map" skills that leaders must demonstrate in order for people to follow them "off the map." These include competence and credibility in stewarding Scripture and tradition, souls and communities, and teams and tasks. It means leadership that develops "relational congruence" in which one builds trust by showing the ability to be the same person with the same values in every relationship. And it means clarity and embodiment of the core values one hopes to see manifest in the church.
"Leading off the Map" is the focus of Part Three and critical to this is the adaptive capacity of the leader. Leaders must be able to look at systems rather than react to symptoms, to calmly face loss and the challenge of the unknown, leading a learning process expressed in asking questions rather than giving answers. Sometimes rather than doing something, it first means standing still...and then doing something through a process of observation, interpretation, and intervention. In the process, understanding the DNA of the church and not violating that is critical. Interventions should start out modesty and playfully--lots of experiments, and resistance can be expected. In facing resistance, leaders must be absolutely clear and convicted about the mission, which for Bolsinger, "trumps all" and ready to press into mission even when no one else is.
Part Four goes deeper into the issue of "Relationships and Resistance." Leaders cultivate relationships with six groups of people:
1. Allies, aligned and in agreement with the mission.
2. Confidants, who are outside the organization and can give honest feedback.
3. Opponents who are not enemies but have a different perspective that must be heard and engaged.
4. Senior authorities, those above one with whom connection and relationship are critical to support one through a change process. Think of Jefferson's role with Lewis and Clark.
5. Casualties, those who stand to lose in a change process for whom leaders assume responsibility.
6. Dissenters who ask the tough questions that need to be asked and responded to without defensiveness because it is not about the leader but the mission.
The real challenge though is recognizing and persisting through sabotage, which Bolsinger believes can be expected when leading in uncharted territory. That was an eye-opener.
Finally, in Part Five, Bolsinger writes about the "transformation" that occurs with adaptive leadership. He observes the leadership transformation in the Lewis and Clark party, where the two share equally in command, where a woman, Sacajawea, leads, where both she and a slave vote, and a soldier is released from regular duty for discovery--long before such practices would be widely accepted in the culture. Bolsinger proposes that just as the most significant blockage may be the leader, so also, the most important transformation to occur in an adaptive leadership process is in the leader.
This seems to me to be a critically important book for leadership teams and pastors. So often our approach when things are not working is simply to double down and try harder, which, as someone has pointed out, is a definition of insanity. The willingness to leave the canoes behind, and learn new skills, to get up on the balcony, and then try new interventions rooted in careful observation and interpretation and not reaction, and to stay relentlessly focused on mission separated Lewis and Clark from other explorers.
I would have liked to see this leadership model rooted in scripture. Lewis and Clark certainly were singular leaders, and the book invokes good leadership theory. I can't help but wonder what one might draw from the leadership of Moses, of David, of Jesus, and of Paul, each who in some sense led in uncharted territory. The conflict situation of Acts 6 strikes me as a marvelous example of a system that wasn't working, and of leadership that exhibited relational, and spiritual competence linked to clear missional focus while adapting to problems associated with expansion, resulting in a transformed, rapidly growing church and an enlarged and diversified leadership nucleus.
Nevertheless, there is much of profit here. If leaders can simply stop and realize they are trying to "canoe the mountains" that is probably worth the price of admission. To move from a speaking to a collaborating ministry that leads, not with answers, but is open to questions and learning is an important leadership transformation. It could make all the difference between catalyzing the giftedness within our organizations and churches, and losing it.
"Seminary didn't train me for this." "Our church is dying and I have no clue what to do." Over and over, Tod Bolsinger encountered these statements in his consulting work. Pastors are trained in teaching, liturgics, and pastoral care, and often, those tools just don't seem enough in our changing world. Bolsinger likens this to the moment Lewis and Clark climbed the Lemhi Pass, having canoed up the Missouri River, and instead of expecting to find a river on the other side of the mountain that would carry them to the Pacific, they found...mountains. The needed to exchange canoes for horses, and adapt to an "off the map" situation. In this book, Bolsinger considers the adaptive leadership of Lewis and Clark, and applies it to Christian leaders often tempted to try to "canoe the mountains," because they don't know any other way to lead. Often, they may be the greatest obstacle to transformative change in their churches or organizations. The choice they face is between adventure and organizational death. All of this is part of understanding the "uncharted territory" that calls for a new kind of leadership.
Part Two makes the contention that there are critical "on the map" skills that leaders must demonstrate in order for people to follow them "off the map." These include competence and credibility in stewarding Scripture and tradition, souls and communities, and teams and tasks. It means leadership that develops "relational congruence" in which one builds trust by showing the ability to be the same person with the same values in every relationship. And it means clarity and embodiment of the core values one hopes to see manifest in the church.
"Leading off the Map" is the focus of Part Three and critical to this is the adaptive capacity of the leader. Leaders must be able to look at systems rather than react to symptoms, to calmly face loss and the challenge of the unknown, leading a learning process expressed in asking questions rather than giving answers. Sometimes rather than doing something, it first means standing still...and then doing something through a process of observation, interpretation, and intervention. In the process, understanding the DNA of the church and not violating that is critical. Interventions should start out modesty and playfully--lots of experiments, and resistance can be expected. In facing resistance, leaders must be absolutely clear and convicted about the mission, which for Bolsinger, "trumps all" and ready to press into mission even when no one else is.
Part Four goes deeper into the issue of "Relationships and Resistance." Leaders cultivate relationships with six groups of people:
1. Allies, aligned and in agreement with the mission.
2. Confidants, who are outside the organization and can give honest feedback.
3. Opponents who are not enemies but have a different perspective that must be heard and engaged.
4. Senior authorities, those above one with whom connection and relationship are critical to support one through a change process. Think of Jefferson's role with Lewis and Clark.
5. Casualties, those who stand to lose in a change process for whom leaders assume responsibility.
6. Dissenters who ask the tough questions that need to be asked and responded to without defensiveness because it is not about the leader but the mission.
The real challenge though is recognizing and persisting through sabotage, which Bolsinger believes can be expected when leading in uncharted territory. That was an eye-opener.
Finally, in Part Five, Bolsinger writes about the "transformation" that occurs with adaptive leadership. He observes the leadership transformation in the Lewis and Clark party, where the two share equally in command, where a woman, Sacajawea, leads, where both she and a slave vote, and a soldier is released from regular duty for discovery--long before such practices would be widely accepted in the culture. Bolsinger proposes that just as the most significant blockage may be the leader, so also, the most important transformation to occur in an adaptive leadership process is in the leader.
This seems to me to be a critically important book for leadership teams and pastors. So often our approach when things are not working is simply to double down and try harder, which, as someone has pointed out, is a definition of insanity. The willingness to leave the canoes behind, and learn new skills, to get up on the balcony, and then try new interventions rooted in careful observation and interpretation and not reaction, and to stay relentlessly focused on mission separated Lewis and Clark from other explorers.
I would have liked to see this leadership model rooted in scripture. Lewis and Clark certainly were singular leaders, and the book invokes good leadership theory. I can't help but wonder what one might draw from the leadership of Moses, of David, of Jesus, and of Paul, each who in some sense led in uncharted territory. The conflict situation of Acts 6 strikes me as a marvelous example of a system that wasn't working, and of leadership that exhibited relational, and spiritual competence linked to clear missional focus while adapting to problems associated with expansion, resulting in a transformed, rapidly growing church and an enlarged and diversified leadership nucleus.
Nevertheless, there is much of profit here. If leaders can simply stop and realize they are trying to "canoe the mountains" that is probably worth the price of admission. To move from a speaking to a collaborating ministry that leads, not with answers, but is open to questions and learning is an important leadership transformation. It could make all the difference between catalyzing the giftedness within our organizations and churches, and losing it.
March 5, 2018
No one is more surprised than me that a book about "Christian leadership tactics" is getting a five-star review here. Seriously, it's saying something that I loved the book that much, because I typically avoid anything that smacks of "Church, Inc." like the plague. But Tod Bolsinger has broken that mold for me.
First, he writes with a pastor's heart. At no point did I feel like the "institution" trumped the people we are called to minister to. At the same time, though, he has a clear-eyed view on how any healthy institution should function. He manages to thread the needle between the relationally-messy-family-church, and the institution-to-manage-and-run church, and I think he does it brilliantly. Second, he writes with a clear view of the challenges that post-modernity are bringing. This book doesn't "double down" on what has worked before, or simply try to "water down" previous leadership tactics to appeal to Millenials. None of that, thank God (literally). And finally, the use of Lewis and Clark as a driving analogy was extremely helpful. I found myself tracking along with his ideas, and holding on to them, because of the through-line of the Lewis and Clark expedition (and he did his homework on that!).
So, yeah, I actually completely loved this book. Anyone in some sort of church/ministry leadership capacity today absolutely owes it to themselves to pick this up. I will be keeping it in a prominent place on my shelf, and referencing it multiple times in years to come, I'm sure.
First, he writes with a pastor's heart. At no point did I feel like the "institution" trumped the people we are called to minister to. At the same time, though, he has a clear-eyed view on how any healthy institution should function. He manages to thread the needle between the relationally-messy-family-church, and the institution-to-manage-and-run church, and I think he does it brilliantly. Second, he writes with a clear view of the challenges that post-modernity are bringing. This book doesn't "double down" on what has worked before, or simply try to "water down" previous leadership tactics to appeal to Millenials. None of that, thank God (literally). And finally, the use of Lewis and Clark as a driving analogy was extremely helpful. I found myself tracking along with his ideas, and holding on to them, because of the through-line of the Lewis and Clark expedition (and he did his homework on that!).
So, yeah, I actually completely loved this book. Anyone in some sort of church/ministry leadership capacity today absolutely owes it to themselves to pick this up. I will be keeping it in a prominent place on my shelf, and referencing it multiple times in years to come, I'm sure.
November 14, 2017
Overview of current MBA thinking on "change management" applied to churches. You'll think it's great if you think churches should be run by MBAs as businesses.
February 1, 2024
This is a book about Christian leadership—kind of like if Lencioni wrote specifically for pastors. Although it’s aimed at Christian leaders it definitely has useful applications for other businesses and organizations. I couldn’t help thinking about how Bolsinger’s ideas could be beneficially applied in my own business partnership.
Many have felt that the American church has recently entered “uncharted territory.” We have entered a post-Christian age where the church no longer holds the influence or even good favor that it once did. How should the church proceed in these times? Bolsinger helpfully compares this situation to that of the Lewis & Clark Expedition when they realized that there was no Northwest Passage and all their maps were incomplete or erroneous. They understood that they had to recall the ultimate goal of the endeavor—to explore and understand this “uncharted territory”—and make whatever drastic adjustments that might be necessary to carry out these objectives.
Bollinger then draws comparisons with recent efforts to advance the missions of specific churches and calls us to focus on the overall goal, and understand that we may need to consider new tactics as we advance into uncharted territory.
Here’s a summary of some general principles:
“* You were trained for a world that is disappearing.
* If you can adapt and adventure, you can thrive.
* But you must let go, learn as you go and keep going no matter what.
* In a Christendom world, speaking was leading.
* In a post-Christendom world, leading is multidimensional: apostolic, relational and adaptive.
* Before people will follow you off the map, gain the credibility that comes from demonstrating competence on the map.
* In uncharted territory, trust is as essential as the air we breathe.
* If trust is lost, the journey is over.
* When our old maps fail us, something within us dies.
* Replacing our paradigms is both deeply painful and absolutely critical.
* In a Christendom world, vision was seeing possiblities ahead and communicating excitement.
* In uncharted territory, vision is accurately seeing ourselves and defining reality.
* Leadership in the past meant coming up with solutions.
* Today leadership is learning how to ask new questions we have been too scared, too busy or too proud to ask.
* There is no greater gift that leadership can give a group of people on a mission than to have the clearest, most defined mission possible.
* When dealing with managing the present, win-win solutions are the goal.
* But when leading adaptive change, win-win is usually lose-lose.
* In uncharted territory visionary leadership is more likely going to come from a small Corps of Discovery while the board manages the ongoing health of the organization.
* In uncharted territory, where changes occur so rapidly, leaders cannot assume success until after they have weathered the sabotage that naturally follows.
* Those who had neither power nor privilege in the Christendom world are the trustworthy guides and necessary leaders when we go off the map.
* Those without power or privilege are not going into uncharted territory. They are at home.
* Exploration teaches us to see the familiar through a new frame and demands that we become our best selves.
* Uncharted leadership is absolutely dependent on the leader's own ongoing exploration, learning and transformation.”
And thank you Bob for the great gift!
Many have felt that the American church has recently entered “uncharted territory.” We have entered a post-Christian age where the church no longer holds the influence or even good favor that it once did. How should the church proceed in these times? Bolsinger helpfully compares this situation to that of the Lewis & Clark Expedition when they realized that there was no Northwest Passage and all their maps were incomplete or erroneous. They understood that they had to recall the ultimate goal of the endeavor—to explore and understand this “uncharted territory”—and make whatever drastic adjustments that might be necessary to carry out these objectives.
Bollinger then draws comparisons with recent efforts to advance the missions of specific churches and calls us to focus on the overall goal, and understand that we may need to consider new tactics as we advance into uncharted territory.
Here’s a summary of some general principles:
“* You were trained for a world that is disappearing.
* If you can adapt and adventure, you can thrive.
* But you must let go, learn as you go and keep going no matter what.
* In a Christendom world, speaking was leading.
* In a post-Christendom world, leading is multidimensional: apostolic, relational and adaptive.
* Before people will follow you off the map, gain the credibility that comes from demonstrating competence on the map.
* In uncharted territory, trust is as essential as the air we breathe.
* If trust is lost, the journey is over.
* When our old maps fail us, something within us dies.
* Replacing our paradigms is both deeply painful and absolutely critical.
* In a Christendom world, vision was seeing possiblities ahead and communicating excitement.
* In uncharted territory, vision is accurately seeing ourselves and defining reality.
* Leadership in the past meant coming up with solutions.
* Today leadership is learning how to ask new questions we have been too scared, too busy or too proud to ask.
* There is no greater gift that leadership can give a group of people on a mission than to have the clearest, most defined mission possible.
* When dealing with managing the present, win-win solutions are the goal.
* But when leading adaptive change, win-win is usually lose-lose.
* In uncharted territory visionary leadership is more likely going to come from a small Corps of Discovery while the board manages the ongoing health of the organization.
* In uncharted territory, where changes occur so rapidly, leaders cannot assume success until after they have weathered the sabotage that naturally follows.
* Those who had neither power nor privilege in the Christendom world are the trustworthy guides and necessary leaders when we go off the map.
* Those without power or privilege are not going into uncharted territory. They are at home.
* Exploration teaches us to see the familiar through a new frame and demands that we become our best selves.
* Uncharted leadership is absolutely dependent on the leader's own ongoing exploration, learning and transformation.”
And thank you Bob for the great gift!
September 1, 2024
I didn't realize this book was primarily for Christian pastors, and those leading large Christian organizations. I read it in the hope it might be applicable to lay leaders too.
And my conclusion is… kind of? It feels mostly like platitudes. Phrases like: “be agile” or “build collaboration” or “define reality” or “transform the community” aren’t bad. But they aren’t helpful either.
Others could appreciate this book more than me. Walking away, I feel like I got nothing out of this. You could read the bullet point list summary at the back, rather than buying and reading the book.
Read this review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And my conclusion is… kind of? It feels mostly like platitudes. Phrases like: “be agile” or “build collaboration” or “define reality” or “transform the community” aren’t bad. But they aren’t helpful either.
Others could appreciate this book more than me. Walking away, I feel like I got nothing out of this. You could read the bullet point list summary at the back, rather than buying and reading the book.
Read this review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
March 6, 2024
You’re better off reading Edwin Friedman’s a Failure of Nerve and Stephen Ambrose’s Lewis and Clark book. Both are significantly better. Friedman’s book is life changing.
This book is pretty narrowly about helping an older church shift to become missional. If that's your scenario, this book is for you.
This book is pretty narrowly about helping an older church shift to become missional. If that's your scenario, this book is for you.
October 28, 2018
Bolsinger has a message for the church, but not everyone will welcome it. Canoeing The Mountains is a book about culture. It is also a book about leadership. Specifically, given the author's background as a Presbyterian minister, it is a book about church leadership in a changing culture. There are five parts to the book. Each part examines an aspect of change. Bolsinger makes his case well in regards to the changing nature of church leadership in a culture that has restlessly moved on without religion. One would be hard-pressed to deny the truth that this has presented unprecedented challenges to the church and caused unhealthy reactions from church leadership that is confronted with a ministry setting for which there is no training. The "leading off the map" terminology is helpful for understanding where we are. He spends time identifying specific needs, challenges, and types of leadership to encounter those challenges.
Bolsinger basically presents a "change or die" approach. He acknowledges that changes in the church bring about significant challenges and issues that are difficult and sometimes painful. He takes the position that this is not only worthy of our effort but necessary for the continued existence of the church. The ultimate hope is the mission of the church - reaching out to the lost world around us in ways that they can hear and see.
Bolsinger basically presents a "change or die" approach. He acknowledges that changes in the church bring about significant challenges and issues that are difficult and sometimes painful. He takes the position that this is not only worthy of our effort but necessary for the continued existence of the church. The ultimate hope is the mission of the church - reaching out to the lost world around us in ways that they can hear and see.
September 18, 2018
Very stimulating read. Pretty light on the gospel - being more biblically grounded and gospel centred would've made the whole thing much stronger for me. In particular I thought he could've made use of Paul's example in 1 Corinthians 9 - 'I have become all things to all people that by all possible means I might save some ... I do all this for the gospel ...' - which would've been far more compelling ground to urge us to change for the cause of reaching out to the lost around us.
But that aside, it was a very helpful read and one that'll make me keep pondering for a long time, I hope.
But that aside, it was a very helpful read and one that'll make me keep pondering for a long time, I hope.
September 5, 2020
I had to finish reading it half way through as the premise of it continued to grate with me. Having grappled with so much reading on white privilege this summer, this book is a great example of such. There are some helpful leadership insights contained in the reading yet a book based on conquering and claiming lands from natives is just not a helpful basis for my reading right now.
January 11, 2021
A must read for church leaders today
A research-driven, theological , pastoral, and practical guide for Christian leaders in navigating the uncharted territory of post-Christendom leadership in the West. I’ll be coming back to this again and again.
A research-driven, theological , pastoral, and practical guide for Christian leaders in navigating the uncharted territory of post-Christendom leadership in the West. I’ll be coming back to this again and again.
September 11, 2016
Thanks to JK Jones for this recommendation. Took me a while to get to it. Wish I had read it earlier. Briefly interacting with the Lewis and Clark story, Bolsinger writes about leadership that actually transforms the organization (read: church, school, non-profit, etc). His principles are powerfully laid out. His insights are helpful and cause a number of light-bulb moments.
Two illustrations: 1) We regularly use three words to talk about the people with whom we want to serve--character, chemistry and competency. Bolsinger uses the word capacity instead of competency. That subtle change is huge. It's the power of the right word. We use competency but that implies a set of skills. In our explanation we always say that we can teach what we want. Capacity captures that. 2) We're all familiar with Covey's "win-win" scenario. Bolsinger realistically and convincingly argues that win-win almost always causes us to maintain the status quo. If we are truly going to move people at a pace they can tolerate (paraphrase of his definition of leadership) then someone is going to lose something.
This is a great read...engaging...challenging...worthwhile.
Two illustrations: 1) We regularly use three words to talk about the people with whom we want to serve--character, chemistry and competency. Bolsinger uses the word capacity instead of competency. That subtle change is huge. It's the power of the right word. We use competency but that implies a set of skills. In our explanation we always say that we can teach what we want. Capacity captures that. 2) We're all familiar with Covey's "win-win" scenario. Bolsinger realistically and convincingly argues that win-win almost always causes us to maintain the status quo. If we are truly going to move people at a pace they can tolerate (paraphrase of his definition of leadership) then someone is going to lose something.
This is a great read...engaging...challenging...worthwhile.
September 6, 2018
The cultural shifts of the 21st century have caught the church completely flat footed. We know church doesn't work like it used to and many of us are alarmed at the declining numbers we are experiencing and the declining influence churches are having on the culture. Bolsinger has done us all a great service by giving us a book to open a much needed dialogue amongst church leaders. This is not a book of easy answers but thought provoking questions. The easiest summary of the book is that we either adapt or die! This is a guidebook to help us begin the painful process of adaptation that the message of Jesus might not simply survive, but thrive in a future that is radically different from the past.
August 6, 2025
Did this as a book club with some of my work colleagues. I enjoyed learning about adaptive leadership and it reminded me of my time in a different industry where I did feel like I was trying to spearhead change. So there was much in the overall approach that I was interested in.
The biggest drawback on this is that Bolsinger has more or less taken the idea straight from separate management texts and repackaged it for Christians. So as a result, it feels neither as widely applicable as the original concepts would probably be, nor as Christian as you would want it to be. Though I suppose in a Christian context, where people will go to Christian books to provide Christians answers to Christian problems, the only way to get people to consider a solution from another context is to write a book such as this one.
The thing that possibly put me off it is a sense, towards the end, that Bolsinger has written this book as a response to his own denomination's failure at some stage to back him on journeying into new areas of church growth and the need for his denomination to listen to minority voices. This is not a bad thing at all, but seemed to be the only application of adaptive leadership that he was really able to talk about. So it meant that sometimes, I found the book had a slight passive aggressive edge. I could completely have imagined this, and Bolsinger seems like a nice guy, but I would have liked perhaps some more application to different areas of Christian ministry, not just the particular situation facing a church in a particular part of America.
The biggest drawback on this is that Bolsinger has more or less taken the idea straight from separate management texts and repackaged it for Christians. So as a result, it feels neither as widely applicable as the original concepts would probably be, nor as Christian as you would want it to be. Though I suppose in a Christian context, where people will go to Christian books to provide Christians answers to Christian problems, the only way to get people to consider a solution from another context is to write a book such as this one.
The thing that possibly put me off it is a sense, towards the end, that Bolsinger has written this book as a response to his own denomination's failure at some stage to back him on journeying into new areas of church growth and the need for his denomination to listen to minority voices. This is not a bad thing at all, but seemed to be the only application of adaptive leadership that he was really able to talk about. So it meant that sometimes, I found the book had a slight passive aggressive edge. I could completely have imagined this, and Bolsinger seems like a nice guy, but I would have liked perhaps some more application to different areas of Christian ministry, not just the particular situation facing a church in a particular part of America.
August 18, 2022
I’m sure it’s fine! Not quite the read I was anticipating at this point; one I may pick up later on/at a different time.
March 10, 2020
I found this book quite helpful in breaking down the challenges of leading outside the box or according to this metaphor, as you canoe the mountains. Worth reading.
The following are questions from the book and from my own mind that are guiding a book study I'm leading on the final section. They may be helpful to you.
What have you learned that encourages, motivates, or inspires you to learn a new way of leading?
What still doesn’t make sense or could use greater clarification? What concepts do you need to go back and review?
What is rubbing you wrong or creating resistance in you? What piece of this whole paradigm makes you want to discard the whole, or what about this whole paradigm frustrates you?
What do you need to begin to do differently if you are going to learn to lead all over again?
What do I need to learn in order to lead in uncharted territory?
What losess do I need to face or prepare myself to face in order to keep going?
What are the competing values or gaps between my aspirations and actual behaviors that I need to face?
Questions from the quotes: In Christendo world, the dominant voices were rich, powerful, educated, mostly male, mostly white and from the center. This is explained as a result of the desire for stability, predicatbility and order. However, with the church losing its power within the larger culture, there is a tendency to bemoan that loss of the place of dominance.
How might the death of Christendom in the West mean there are more and more brothers and sisters on the margins? How might the death lead to new life?
Chrstena Cleveland once said: “People can meet God within their cultural context, but in order to follow God, they must cross into other cultures because that’s what Jesus did in the incarnation and on the cross. Discipleship is cross cultural.” How so?
Theresa Cho once said: “You have to HAVE something to feel you are LOSING something.” How does a rural environment verify this statement?
How have you in your ministry done the following: “Encouraging...diversity in your leadership pool means greater diversity of thought, which, in turn, leads to improved problem solving?” (197)
“For Christendom trained leaders, perhaps the most encouraging realization is that uncharted territory does not make our experience, education, and expertise irrelevant, just incomplete.” What training and education do you have right now that can benefit you down the line?
What biblical examples can point to a faithful church being led off the map?
How is leadership off the map inherently risky and frequently lonely? Must it always be so? (207)
The most critical skill for adaptive leadership may be the ability to think about thins in more than one way. (208). He includes reframing the weekly church attendance measurement. Can you think of others? Is reframing just putting lipstick on a pig?
Is the church really in decline or is it the Western, Christendom form of church life that is now less effective?
The beginner’s mind is referenced. How does asking stupid questions help a leader?
How is God taking us into uncharted territory to transform us?
The following are questions from the book and from my own mind that are guiding a book study I'm leading on the final section. They may be helpful to you.
What have you learned that encourages, motivates, or inspires you to learn a new way of leading?
What still doesn’t make sense or could use greater clarification? What concepts do you need to go back and review?
What is rubbing you wrong or creating resistance in you? What piece of this whole paradigm makes you want to discard the whole, or what about this whole paradigm frustrates you?
What do you need to begin to do differently if you are going to learn to lead all over again?
What do I need to learn in order to lead in uncharted territory?
What losess do I need to face or prepare myself to face in order to keep going?
What are the competing values or gaps between my aspirations and actual behaviors that I need to face?
Questions from the quotes: In Christendo world, the dominant voices were rich, powerful, educated, mostly male, mostly white and from the center. This is explained as a result of the desire for stability, predicatbility and order. However, with the church losing its power within the larger culture, there is a tendency to bemoan that loss of the place of dominance.
How might the death of Christendom in the West mean there are more and more brothers and sisters on the margins? How might the death lead to new life?
Chrstena Cleveland once said: “People can meet God within their cultural context, but in order to follow God, they must cross into other cultures because that’s what Jesus did in the incarnation and on the cross. Discipleship is cross cultural.” How so?
Theresa Cho once said: “You have to HAVE something to feel you are LOSING something.” How does a rural environment verify this statement?
How have you in your ministry done the following: “Encouraging...diversity in your leadership pool means greater diversity of thought, which, in turn, leads to improved problem solving?” (197)
“For Christendom trained leaders, perhaps the most encouraging realization is that uncharted territory does not make our experience, education, and expertise irrelevant, just incomplete.” What training and education do you have right now that can benefit you down the line?
What biblical examples can point to a faithful church being led off the map?
How is leadership off the map inherently risky and frequently lonely? Must it always be so? (207)
The most critical skill for adaptive leadership may be the ability to think about thins in more than one way. (208). He includes reframing the weekly church attendance measurement. Can you think of others? Is reframing just putting lipstick on a pig?
Is the church really in decline or is it the Western, Christendom form of church life that is now less effective?
The beginner’s mind is referenced. How does asking stupid questions help a leader?
How is God taking us into uncharted territory to transform us?
February 16, 2021
One reason for not giving just one star is because there are some basic truths in this book. But the only reason the author really has for trying new things is still for the sake of success. And the way he uses his "friends" in the last chapter is disgusting. The only value he sees if people of color is to help the white dominant culture. There is no acknowledgement of their value in and of themselves - only what use they can be to the dominant culture who finds themselves at a loss.
June 18, 2021
I read to page 139 in this book for my Christian Leadership class with Dr. Don Dunn at MidAmerica Nazarene University. I found it to be full of extremely helpful advice in leading the church in challenging circumstances.
Bolsinger constantly reminds you that you must have a core mission that informs and guides all you do. It must be the one thing that trumps all others in decision-making. He talks about how adaptive leadership necessitates you being able to give things up that are non-essential in order to continue forward, focused on your core mission.
"When what you are doing isn't working, there are two things you cannot do: (1) Do what you have already done, (2) Do nothing." (108)
When problem-solving, he states that you must look beyond the symptom to diagnose the real issue and come up with strategies for change. In this process, do not rush to fixing things too quickly. And we must be unafraid to fail repeatedly because that is how we learn.
He also reminds the Christian leader continually that people do not like the uncomfortablility that comes with change. "People do not resist change, per see. People resist loss." (138)
"Most of us who have been asked to consider leadership have big cheering sections. We are used to applause, affirmation and feeling successful. But the minute we accept the call to adaptive leadership that brings transformation, we should expect most of the cheering to stop." (137)
"When you stand before people and tell them that in order to accomplish a mission, they have to change, adapt, give up something for the greater good, work with those they don't like or compromise on something they care about, they get mad. They get really mad. Mostly, they get mad at you, and this is exactly the sign that transformation is beginning to happen." (139)
"Leadership is disappointing your own people at a rate they can absorb . . . [This] is a skill that requires nuance: Disappoint people too much and they give up on you, stop following you and may even turn on you. Don't disappoint them enough and you'll never lead them anywhere." (123-124)
"'Your system is perfectly designed to get the results you are getting.'" (127)
"A church that has maintained unity through homogeneity will find it difficult to welcome those who differ in lifestyle, education, mores and social class" (75)
Note to self: When looking back at this book, go through my Kindle highlights.
Bolsinger constantly reminds you that you must have a core mission that informs and guides all you do. It must be the one thing that trumps all others in decision-making. He talks about how adaptive leadership necessitates you being able to give things up that are non-essential in order to continue forward, focused on your core mission.
"When what you are doing isn't working, there are two things you cannot do: (1) Do what you have already done, (2) Do nothing." (108)
When problem-solving, he states that you must look beyond the symptom to diagnose the real issue and come up with strategies for change. In this process, do not rush to fixing things too quickly. And we must be unafraid to fail repeatedly because that is how we learn.
He also reminds the Christian leader continually that people do not like the uncomfortablility that comes with change. "People do not resist change, per see. People resist loss." (138)
"Most of us who have been asked to consider leadership have big cheering sections. We are used to applause, affirmation and feeling successful. But the minute we accept the call to adaptive leadership that brings transformation, we should expect most of the cheering to stop." (137)
"When you stand before people and tell them that in order to accomplish a mission, they have to change, adapt, give up something for the greater good, work with those they don't like or compromise on something they care about, they get mad. They get really mad. Mostly, they get mad at you, and this is exactly the sign that transformation is beginning to happen." (139)
"Leadership is disappointing your own people at a rate they can absorb . . . [This] is a skill that requires nuance: Disappoint people too much and they give up on you, stop following you and may even turn on you. Don't disappoint them enough and you'll never lead them anywhere." (123-124)
"'Your system is perfectly designed to get the results you are getting.'" (127)
"A church that has maintained unity through homogeneity will find it difficult to welcome those who differ in lifestyle, education, mores and social class" (75)
Note to self: When looking back at this book, go through my Kindle highlights.
May 12, 2021
The beauty of Tod Bolsinger's book "Canoeing the Mountains"is that he takes a famous but little referenced historical event and uses it to teach about how to lead in changing times. The ongoing image is of Lewis and Clark who rowed up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to find a water passage to the Pacific Ocean. The story is well know and he makes several references to Stephen Ambrose's book about the journey. But what he wants us to see is that halfway through their journey Lewis and Clark encountered a wholly unexpected world. They had been prepared to carry their canoes over a short plain and then resume rowing. Instead they encountered the Rocky Mountains. All bets were off, all plans were scrapped. They could turn around or keep going, but if they continued they would need new leadership, new strategies, new alliances and new metrics for success. You cannot canoe the mountains. You have to climb.
Bolsinger thinks that the church in America is in this same position. We are facing a new land. No training has prepared us to face the journey ahead. You need adaptive leadership for uncharted territory.
Bolsinger thinks that the church in America is in this same position. We are facing a new land. No training has prepared us to face the journey ahead. You need adaptive leadership for uncharted territory.
March 27, 2021
This is a great leadership book for Christian leaders navigating increasingly post-Christendom circles. How do we lead when the methods we learned don't work anymore? By weaving the intriguing story of Lewis & Clark's expedition to traverse across America to the Pacific Ocean, Bolsinger ties many great connections and applications for how to navigate uncharted territory.
A couple favorite quotes:
"We who have been trained in a Christendom context will never thrive as leaders as long as the majority-world voices around us are silenced" (p. 16).
When the world is changing quickly and our old methods to solving new problems don't work, we must "clarify and cling to our core convictions and let go of everything else..." (p. 46).
"Christian leaders in a post-Christendom world need to engage, encourage, and even insist that discernment and decision making begin with making a broader number of voices heard. But do we? And when we do, to who do we really listen?" (p. 196-7).
A couple favorite quotes:
"We who have been trained in a Christendom context will never thrive as leaders as long as the majority-world voices around us are silenced" (p. 16).
When the world is changing quickly and our old methods to solving new problems don't work, we must "clarify and cling to our core convictions and let go of everything else..." (p. 46).
"Christian leaders in a post-Christendom world need to engage, encourage, and even insist that discernment and decision making begin with making a broader number of voices heard. But do we? And when we do, to who do we really listen?" (p. 196-7).
August 20, 2019
This may have been the most helpful leadership book I’ve read, particularly for a ministry context, since Andi Stanley’s “Visioneering”.
• you were trained for a world that is disappearing
• those who had neither the power nor privilege in the Christendom world are the trustworthy guides and necessary leaders when we go off the map
• those without power or privilege are not going into uncharted territory. They are at home.
• in a moment of crisis, you will not rise to the occasion. You will default to your training.
• leaders are “in the system”. That is, they have stayed in relationship with those they are called to lead. You can’t lead from outside the system. (You can be a prophet or critic or consultant or supporter, but you cannot be a leader).
And so. Much. More.
What a thing to chew on. This should be required reading for anyone leading in ministry right now.
• you were trained for a world that is disappearing
• those who had neither the power nor privilege in the Christendom world are the trustworthy guides and necessary leaders when we go off the map
• those without power or privilege are not going into uncharted territory. They are at home.
• in a moment of crisis, you will not rise to the occasion. You will default to your training.
• leaders are “in the system”. That is, they have stayed in relationship with those they are called to lead. You can’t lead from outside the system. (You can be a prophet or critic or consultant or supporter, but you cannot be a leader).
And so. Much. More.
What a thing to chew on. This should be required reading for anyone leading in ministry right now.
October 13, 2023
My review of the book is brief and purely anecdotal, rather than a diagnosis of a book from an objective standpoint. I start off my review by saying that because I was given this book to read as an assignment from work. As my church staff and I have been reading through the book, some of my time was spent mulling over the chapters, all another parts I spent through it. Bolsinger’s approach to leadership, I would argue, is timeless, and in many ways, very practical in the context of vocational ministry. So, in that regard, I really enjoyed the book.
While I always think that they are principles, practices, and models that make for good and bad leadership styles, leadership is one of those things that is more ‘caught’ than ‘taught.’ That isn’t meant to discount the entire premise of the book. I just felt like the book is more about principles, which is good but it allows them to be molded to (almost) any kind of specific church framework.
While I always think that they are principles, practices, and models that make for good and bad leadership styles, leadership is one of those things that is more ‘caught’ than ‘taught.’ That isn’t meant to discount the entire premise of the book. I just felt like the book is more about principles, which is good but it allows them to be molded to (almost) any kind of specific church framework.
November 28, 2020
Pretty good book on leadership for a season of radical change. The theme of the book is what lies behind is nothing like what lies ahead. That certainly seems like the position of the church in 2020 not just because of Covid but even more so as cultural attitudes toward Christianity have changed so radically.
A few quotes (some might be paraphrases):
We can fail... but we can’t suck
People don’t resist change... they resist loss.
Leadership is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb
Instead of continuing to try to answer the question what if we reframed the question?
In a Christendom world, vision was seeing possibilities ahead and communicating excitement, in uncharted territory vision is accurately seeing ourselves and defining reality.
A few quotes (some might be paraphrases):
We can fail... but we can’t suck
People don’t resist change... they resist loss.
Leadership is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb
Instead of continuing to try to answer the question what if we reframed the question?
In a Christendom world, vision was seeing possibilities ahead and communicating excitement, in uncharted territory vision is accurately seeing ourselves and defining reality.
January 22, 2022
One of my favorite leadership reads in recent years. Added plus: Bolsinger is at the seminary I graduated from. To be honest, I wasn't so sure how I was going to feel about the Lewis and Clark illustration throughout, but it wasn't too overwhelming for my anti-colonial self. I liked the transformational and adaptive change models that he lays out in the book and it's quite relevant to pastoring during a pandemic and thinking through digital discipleship. Some great nuggets in this book for any pastor or leader trying to navigate this "new normal."
February 25, 2024
INCREDIBLE READ!!! Highly recommend! This follows the journey of Lewis and Clark through the Louisiana Purchase. They were prepared for rivers and brought canoes but instead faced mountains to forge and hike through with no water ways. Their experience and tools for canoeing weren’t bad, but they didn’t meet the needs of the uncharted territory. Our culture is much the same. We are going into places of uncharted territory with knowledge of how things worked before. What do we do now? We grow adaptive leadership skills that lead to organizational and personal transformation.
January 28, 2018
I wish I could add a few stars to the review. This book was/is exactly what I need. I devoured it in two days. It doesn’t sugar coat the reality of in the trenches Ministry in the 21st century; yet at the same time, if point to a way forward. I’m so thankful to have read it (thanks Mark for pushing it on me!). Now I’m got to go over it again and begin to mine its rich wisdom for today.
September 12, 2020
This is now on my must-read list. Bolsinger extracts the best from a number of celebrated leadership books and situates all the principles inside the story of Lewis and Clark. I found it stimulating and challenging to my thinking and leadership. I look forward to revisiting this book again and again.
September 25, 2020
This is very good and speaks to the moment we are in now. The urgency is here to imagine and then reimagine community, ministry and shared lives of faith.
This was published in 2016 but it was made for this time.
This was published in 2016 but it was made for this time.
August 31, 2021
I felt I understood this book better after having read Failure of Nerve. The author refers to this book throughout the book. This book also had a good narrative component with the story of Lewis and Clark.
April 11, 2025
If you’ve read other church leadership books and materials, then there’s not much new here. The list of all of the main points is super useful if you’d like the meat of the book without all the stories, but the Lewis and Clark metaphor is decent.
January 18, 2018
Wonderful in-depth look at adaptive leadership in the church context. Approachable and easy to read yet full of leadership insights.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 352 reviews