Rev. Dr. Gerard Bolling serves as the Lead Pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Pastor Bolling likes to say that he worked at every capacity level at BLC—van driver, seminary student, team leader, vicar, deaf ministry coordinator, community outreach minister, and Associate Pastor— before he was elected to be the Lead Pastor after the passing of Pastor John Schmidtke who went home to be with the Lord in May of 2022. This is Pastor Bolling's 8th year as a Pastor at BLC and 11th year as a BLC Staff member overall. As Lead Pastor, he is responsible for stewarding the entire mission of BLC and vision casting her direction as a church. 

 

Pastor Bolling holds a BA in Theatre (2012) from Concordia University Chicago, a Master of Divinity (2016) from Concordia Seminary St. Louis, and a Doctorate of Education (2020) from Concordia University Wisconsin in Leadership, Innovation, and Continuous Improvement. His dissertation focused on Urban Leadership Development as it related to mentorship for Urban LCMS Pastors.  In addition to serving as full-time Lead Pastor at Bethlehem, Pastor Bolling also serves as Professor of Leadership and Theology in the online modality at Concordia University Texas. He is a writer for Concordia Publishing House, adjuncts at various universities, speaks at various functions in the LCMS, and serves as a podcast host for Lutheran Hour Ministries in a show called “The (Im)partial Church” focusing on Race and Diversity (https://www.lhm.org/theimpartialchurch). 

 

In his spare time, Pastor Bolling enjoys growing plants, taking care of his Bonsais, riding around town on his golf cart, reading, writing, weightlifting, and spending time with his family. You can find the Bolling family at Disney once or twice a year as they are avid Disney-goers and love the memories they get to make together as a family! His wife Lorenda teaches Preschool at Word of Life Lutheran School where their son (Lincoln) and their daughter (Monroe) both attend school. The Bolling family resides in South St. Louis City.