Blacksmithing serves as a perfect metaphor for the long, hard, repetitive, seemingly violent method of transforming a leader. If the purpose of a transformational leader is, in the words of Dr. King, to “hew out of a mountain of despair stones of hope” then we would expect that process to be as transformative for a leader as the process of taking steel and shaping it, hardening it, and tempering it to become a tool that can stand up to both the pounding of the task and the resistance of the rock.

Adapted from Tempered Resilience by Tod Bolsinger. Copyright (c) 2020 by Tod Bolsinger. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

Tod Bolsinger (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is a speaker, executive coach, former pastor, and author who serves as vice president and chief of leadership formation and associate professor of leadership formation at Fuller Theological Seminary. His books include the forthcoming title, Tempered Resilience, the Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year in Pastoral Leadership, Canoeing the Mountains, and the Christianity Today Award of Merit recipient, It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian.