As a strategist and coach, I love helping pastors, churches, business leaders, and businesses go where they need to go. Having planted a church from scratch in the Baltimore-Washington-DC area, and developed it for 18 years, we always seemed to attract entrepreneurs. This was likely because I love engaging with new ideas and seeing how they can become reality. From there, I spent 4 years in a rapidly growing mega-church in Las Vegas, helping them to rethink their systems for spiritual formation and leadership development. Now serving as the National Director of Church Strengthening for Converge Worldwide, I travel all over the country to help pastors and churches think through what healthy effective ministry looks like in their local context, staying true to their values while adapting to the ever-changing culture. I am also a part of a leadership team called SouLeader, where we focus on the holistic development of a leader.
I developed Doc Hop Consulting because I love working with business owners and pastors alike in helping them to do a ruthless self-assessment of where they are at, better articulate where they believe they are called to be, and then work on effective strategies and leadership development plans to get there. It is not my role to tell a business person or a pastor who they are supposed to be or where they are supposed to go. I don’t create programs and try to force their leadership in a box. Instead, being convinced that the person I am working with is the local expert, I take them through tools and processes in helping them to see where they need to go. I don’t try to project myself as the local expert; rather, my role is to help create multiple “aha” moments for the local leader.
Being a lifelong student, I have gained multiple certificates in doing what I do. The two that stand out the most are earning my Doctorate at Fuller, with a concentration in spiritual formation and leadership, and my certification as a StratOp facilitator for both businesses and nonprofit organizations.
I have been married to the love of my life, Terri, for nearly 30 years. She has made me a better person. I love her for who she is, and I become a better person when I am with her. I have two adult sons: Caleb, who is an Economist for the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics near Capitol Hill, and Levi, who is a creative musician aspiring to make art in Austin, Texas one day.
Riding my motorcycle is one of my favorite forms of meditation, and, being close with my family, I can never get enough time with them.
“Dr. Bruce Hopler is one of those rare leaders that has experience and success in every facet of leadership. Bruce has been a Lead Pastor and Staff Pastor of a mega-church and has given his life to coaching and developing leaders in the Body of Christ! Bruce co-founded an organization that specializes in church health and strengthening.
I don’t know another person who is more prepared than Dr. Bruce Hopler to help coach, guide, and direct leaders to their next level of leading and/or advancing their business for the Body of Christ! Bruce is now Director of Church Strengthening for Converge Worldwide and has been greatly effective with helping numerous Pastors, Leaders, churches, and organizations move from a stuck position to a more healthy and effective position. It has been my unique pleasure to have the opportunity to observe this kind of leader up close and personal! ”
