Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership with Ruth Haley Barton (Ruth Haley Barton)

Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Wiens begin the discussion of Lent by talking about the seasons of the church calendar. Each season has unique invitations and keep us connected with Jesus’ spiritual journey while he was on earth. Lent invites us into aspects of transformation that we might not choose on our own, or even know how to choose.  They also discuss some of the unique challenges for leaders during the season of Lent. Whether you have never participated in Lent or wish to re-engage Lent in a fresh way, you will learn something new in this bonus episode of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast.

Mentioned in the podcast: Lent: A Season of Returning, Ruth Haley Barton

Other resources for Lent:

An Invitation to Walk with Christ: Stations of the Cross Prayer Guide, Ruth Haley Barton

Transforming Center

Life Together in Christ: Cultivating Communities for Spiritual Transformation

Many of us are carrying a lot of baggage regarding Christian community.  Ruth has often commented that it is one of the most over-promised, under-delivered aspects of the Christian life—which means that Christians who have been deeply involved in church are often the most cynical and disillusioned. In Season 2 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast, Ruth and Steve will discuss how to cultivate communities where people regularly and routinely experience spiritual transformation. In episode 1, Ruth shares how God led her to the story of the Emmaus Road as a biblical model for transforming community. She unpacks the three nuanced ways of talking about community: Christian community, spiritual community, and transforming community, and also describes what Christian community is not—with a rich discussion of the role community plays in navigating liminal space. 

In this podcast:

Episode 6 | Transformation Through Self-Knowledge and Self-Examination

Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community by Ruth Haley Barton

Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation (Chapter 6) by Ruth Haley Barton

Join us on the journey of transforming leadership! What do pastors and ministry leaders tell Ruth when they know they are safe? In the very first episode of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast, Ruth and Steve discusses what it looks like for leaders to be dangerously tired. Are you holding a beach ball under water?  Ruth shares her first experience of noticing she was dangerously tired, which became her invitation to step away from ministry and church for a time to just be with God and God alone. Discover why desire is not a bad word, and why it is so hard for pastors and leaders to answer the question that Jesus asks us all, “What is it you want me to do for you?” There is a lot packed into Episode 1 of Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader. Download the first two episodes and a bonus episode on Lent today!  

Resources from Ruth Haley Barton related to this episode:

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, Ruth Haley Barton

Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton

Transforming Center

Do you sleep with your phone? You won’t believe who has your number! Ruth and Steve talk about the challenge of technology for leaders who desire to practice silence and solitude. They discuss the unique difficulties leaders face as they enter into solitude and silence. And you will hear more about Ruth’s own journey into solitude and silence. Are you ready to give more control to God? Listen to episode 2 in Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader.

Mentioned in the podcast:

Invitation to Solitude of Silence, Ruth Haley Barton

Transforming Center

Jesus wants to be in your juicy conversations. Just think about it—the Emmaus Road encounter would not have happened had the disciples not welcomed “the stranger” on their journey home. Welcoming the other’s experience and story are integral to the idea of welcoming the stranger. In episode 2, Ruth shares a story of how welcoming the other created a transforming community experience. What will you miss when you don’t welcome the stranger? The polarization of our culture is so acute, that the practice of learning how to recognize and welcome the stranger is more crucial than ever. Let’s make the radical choice to walk with others and discover how Jesus will meet us there!

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Season 1: Episode 6 | Transformation Through Self-Knowledge and Self-Examination
• Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community by Ruth Haley Barton

Continuing the story of the Emmaus Road, Jesus plays dumb and models what spiritual companionship can look like. How do we become the kind of person who can listen rather than fix, and stand still being sad rather than rushing in with our own advice? In episode 3, we discover some great questions that can help us be better spiritual companions. Some great thoughts for leaders even if you don’t use a toolbox! The episode ends with a beautiful prayer; we hope you can pull over to the side of the road, stop what you’re doing, find a quiet spot and join us.

 

In this podcast:

• Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community by Ruth Haley Barton

How does Ruth respond when a pastor admits they don’t know how to pray anymore? You will be surprised. This episode is for those who feel stuck in their prayer even though prayer is part of their job description. Ruth describes transitions in the life of prayer with a rich discussion of intimacy that isn’t about sex — or at least mostly not about sex. :) Ruth shares a liberating way to pray for someone when they ask, “Please pray for me.” Best of all, Ruth ends this episode by guiding you through a prayer practice. Don’t miss Episode 3 of Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader.

Mentioned in the podcast:

Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton

Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership, Ruth Haley Barton

Transforming Center

What happens to a leader’s soul when s/he only engages Scripture for ministry? Steve asks for a friend. ;) What can a pastor or leader do when they are no longer encountering God in Scripture? Join us for an enlightening discussion about the practice of finding yourself in the Biblical story — especially difficult for leaders who want to “make it happen.” Ruth affirms the importance of moving from information to transformation in our approach to Scripture, and emphasizes how important it is for pastors to create space for God to surprise them through Scripture. All this and more in episode 4 of Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader.

Mentioned in the podcast:

Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton

Transforming Center

In their conversation on the Emmaus Road, Jesus created a safe space for the disciples to share their deepest desire. Getting in touch with our deepest desire is like peeling an onion—there are many layers, and getting to the center might leave you in a pool of tears. Listen to a great conversation about how to cultivate communities where people are safe enough with each other to name their deepest desires. In doing so, people can then support each other in arranging their lives for what they say they truly want. This is a great episode for leaders who need a safe place to name their own desires. Psalm 37 anchors this episode.

 

In this podcast:

• Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community by Ruth Haley Barton
• Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation (Chapter 1) by Ruth Haley Barton

Ruth draws from Elijah’s story to shed light on the role of the body in the spiritual life. This episode explores the connection between our bodies and our spiritual lives.  Discover the joy of living in your body as a gift from God. Ruth and Steve discuss different practices for honoring God in our bodies, including learning how to live within limits. There is so much joy, life, and energy when we connect our spiritual lives with life in our bodies! Listen with your whole body to Episode 5 of Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader.

Mentioned in the podcast:

Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton

Transforming Center

If you read the Emmaus Road conversation carefully in Luke 24, you will notice that part of the story the disciples told Jesus was that “the women of our group astounded us” with news of the Resurrection on that first Easter morning. Ruth unpacks the countercultural approach Jesus took to the role of women and men in Jesus’ life and ministry. Ruth and Steve speak candidly about how discrimination on the basis of gender happens even in settings that affirm the equality of men and women. They also acknowledge the sparks that can be present when women and men are together and Ruth highlights how the person we are is what helps us navigate sexual dynamics safely—not whether or not we choose to be in a car or a meeting alone with a person of the other gender! A great conversation that offers a healthy vision of men and woman in partnership—in life and ministry.

In this podcast:

• Equal to the Task: Men and Women in Partnership at Work, at Church and at Home by Ruth Haley Barton
• Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community by Ruth Haley Barton

Jesus listened long enough to the disciples on the Emmaus Road to offer a spiritual perspective on the hardest experiences of life. In this conversation, Ruth and Steve discuss the role of suffering in the Christian journey and how we need to normalize suffering so we can claim its fruitful role in the spiritual life. Ruth highlights the stages of the spiritual journey and how transforming communities need to have resources to meet people at all of these stages.

 

In this podcast:

• The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God by Dallas Willard
• Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation by M. Robert Mulholland, Jr.
• Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community by Ruth Haley Barton

This podcast kicks off with a discussion of the ancient practice of the Examen. In case you are wondering, self-examination is so much more than just asking God to show us our sin. In this rich discussion straight out of Psalm 139, Ruth provides a clear definition of true self and false self and deals with the unsettling truth that most leaders are hired for their false-self strategies. Along with touching on the Enneagram, Ruth shares her own story of wondering if she was falling off the spiritual path only to discovering that this was in fact the spiritual journey. Listen to episode 6 of Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader for a glimpse of what the journey of faith really is — because you can’t have a faith journey without faith. 

Digging Deeper into this topic:

Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton

Invitation to Solitude and Silence, Ruth Haley Barton

Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership, Ruth Haley Barton

Transforming Center

 

Jesus is on a roll now—helping the disciples on the Emmaus Road to see their story and what felt so personal to them as part of the larger story of what God has been doing down through history.  What makes the human journey really exciting is being able to understand our own story in light of the bigger picture of what God is doing. Are there places where we shouldn’t do what Jesus did? Find out in episode 7. Also included is a rich discussion of the Word and the role of mystery in Scripture.  

 

In this podcast:

• Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christians in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation (Chapter 4) by Ruth Haley Barton

Discernment is not a subjective woo-woo experience! Ruth begins episode 7 by explaining why discernment is an art AND a practice. This discussion highlights the unlikely place discernment begins, and why it is important to remember God’s wisdom is often very different than human wisdom. Steve shares his own story of discerning together with other leaders and the surprising win that resulted for his team — transformation. Circling back to an earlier episode on spiritual direction, Ruth gets clear on the role of spiritual direction in the life of a spiritual leader. Facing a big decision? Listen to episode 7 of Season 1 of Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader.

Mentioned in the podcast:

Pursuing God’s Will Together, Ruth Haley Barton

Glittering Images by Susan Howatch (Caution: contains some explicit content)

Transforming Center

Ever had a conversation you wish didn’t have to end? The two disciples were so stirred by their conversation that “they urged Jesus strongly to stay.” And it was in the staying that the disciples recognized Jesus’ transforming presence as they shared a meal together. The practice of stability is not a strength of western Protestantism, but are we missing something when we are so quick to walk away. What is the essence of a transforming community? Listen to episode 8 and discover the heart of spiritual community.

 

In this podcast:

• Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leaders by Ruth Haley Barton
• Spirituality For Everyday Living: An Adaptation of the Rule of St. Benedict by Brian C. Taylor

Are you a missional or a formational organization? Steve and Ruth take on this dualism. As usual, the conversation begins with looking at Scripture, showing the cause and effect relationship between our formation and the ability to discern the will of God. Ruth finally gets around to defining spiritual transformation and puts a stake in the ground – mission cannot be discerned and cannot be sustained without spiritual transformation. International Justice Mission gets a shout out for their commitment to connecting spiritual transformation and mission. Do you believe you can either have a healthy life or you can live your life for the sake of others, but you can’t have both? There is a third way. Lots to think about in episode 8 of Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader.

Digging Deeper into this topic:

Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership, Ruth Haley Barton

Invitation to Journey, M. Robert Mulholland, Jr.

Transforming Center

The final episode of Season 1: Sacred Rhythms in the Life of the Leader. Ruth and Steve wrap up season 1 with a lively discussion of how to put it all together in your own sacred rhythms. Ruth confesses her true feelings about rules before she defines a rule of life and shares why it is so important for leaders to have one. Do you put sabbath keeping in the too hard file?  Ruth did until she got run over by a car! Ruth’s final words of season 1 will launch you on a great new journey!

Mentioned in the podcast:

Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Mueller

Transforming Center

As we conclude season two, the disciples on the Emmaus Road are so excited about what has happened in and through their encounter with Jesus on the Emmaus Road that they jump up from dinner and turn right around to go back to Jerusalem to share what has happened with the other disciples. The trauma of all they had been through has been redeemed and their spiritual journey now leads them to discern the mission Jesus has for them.  Ruth and Steve discuss the creative tension in the spiritual life between mission and formation. Steve offers us an advice freebie and Ruth brings the season to a close by highlighting how mission cannot be discerned or sustained apart from commitment to an ongoing process of spiritual transformation.

 

In this podcast:

• Spirituality of Imagination with Martin Sheen
• Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation by M. Robert Mulholland, Jr.
• Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community by Ruth Haley Barton

As we continue to discuss the idea of a sabbath practice and the very practical ways one can incorporate it into one’s life, we want to acknowledge that each season or stage of life presents its own challenges and opportunities with regard to sabbath keeping. In the next two episodes we’re going to speak with a variety of guests in different seasons of life about their own sabbath practices.

 

This week we’re joined by Kyle and Charity McClure, Ruth’s eldest daughter and son-in-law. Kyle and Charity are parents to three school-aged children and began carving out a sabbath practice when their kids were all very small. In this conversation they share how they reframed their posture towards the day in a season where life at home was anything but restful, how sabbath has shaped what they look for in a church and the ways in which it allows them to give their kids a different kind of presence on that day. Plus, they ask Ruth some tough questions about how she gave her own children the space to fall in love with sabbath on their own.

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest comes out on October 11, 2022. You can preorder now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org). If you buy it directly from our publisher, Intervarsity Press, you can get it before October 11th! If you pre-order the book be sure to sign up to attend our Release Day Virtual Celebration!

 

You can also pre-order the Sabbath Journal, which will be available sometime in January 2023.

 

This season of our podcast is sponsored by GoodKind. GoodKind is all about helping people cultivate the GoodKind of habits and holiday practices that allow them to engage with God and one another throughout the year. They have a great tool for Advent, a Sabbath Box to help you practice unplugging, and more. To learn more about them and the products they make, you can find them at goodkind.shop 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Led by the Spirit from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  This week’s installment will be available to everyone, regardless of whether or not they are a patron.

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Finally, we’ve arrived at the head center! Ruth and Erin will discuss the 5s, 6s, and 7s of this triad and their special relationship to fear. Erin and Ruth cover all the aspects we’ve been discussing this season as they apply to the head center: the instincts and their impact on the numbers, what unique challenges and transformation opportunities exist in this triad, and how to love our 5s, 6s, and 7s well. Ruth also asks Erin some broader enneagram questions about wings and arrows (and you’ll hear producer Colleen chime in with some clarifying questions here) and what spirituality she applies to the enneagram. Erin also briefly gives us an overview of a few enneagram theories, including the rules of 1, 3, and 7. Over on Patreon, Erin continues to share journal prompts for 5s, 6s, and 7s as well as guidance specific to the unique challenges for head center folks as they work through those questions. Additionally, she elaborates on those enneagram theories that we could only briefly touch on in the episode.

This season we are using the framework of the enneagram, and in particular the ways the 3 instinctual subtypes impact each enneagram number, to help people do the necessary inner work of knowing themselves and managing anxiety, triggers, and stuck patterns so that they can lead others well. This season, we are moving beyond the basics of describing each number type to look at our instincts and what motivates our behaviors. Special guest Erin Baute, a leadership behavior strategist with over 20 years of experience in behavior change and professional development, joins us all season long to help us do this important work.

 

Erin Baute is a professional business coach and leadership behavior strategist with over 20 years of experience in behavior change and professional development, working with individuals and teams. She has a bachelor’s degree in Human Development, a Master of Public Health and a PhD in Organizational Psychology, with a focus on personal and professional development using personality as a framework underway. She has been studying and using Enneagram for 14 years and is a Certified Enneagram Teacher and Trainer and an Accredited Enneagram Professional from the International Enneagram Association (IEA). You can find more information about Erin on her website, https://livingtheenneagram.com/, or follow her on Instagram, @livingtheenneagram!

Helpful Enneagram Resources:

We are diving straight into the deep end of the enneagram this season. If you need some introductory resources to the Enneagram, we highly recommend the following:

Self to Lose, Self to Find by Marilyn Vancil

The Road Back To You by Suzanne Stabile and Ian Cron

The Story of You by Ian Cron

The Enneagram for Black Liberation by Chichi Agorom

The Enneagram A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr

Support the Transforming Center! Right now you can double the impact of your gift through a $25,000 challenge gift from an alum. Donate today and receive our Good Things ‘zine!

 

Join our Patreon Book Club this summer! Patrons at all levels will have the opportunity to read and discuss Ashlee Eiland’s newest book, Say Good: Speaking Across Hot Topics, Complex Relationships, and Tense Situations. We will meet twice over Zoom, once in July and once in August (with special guest, author Ashlee Eiland! ), to dialogue about the book and our own experiences speaking across difficult topics and conversations. Visit our Patreon page for more information and to sign up today!

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Anthem from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes that will help take these conversations deeper. We have journal prompts for each of the 9 numbers, guidance from Erin on how to determine your instinct or subtype, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

Ruth and Steve begin the second episode defining terms – expanding on Mulholland's definition of the false self. A lot of what is happenings in churches is superficial tinkering, and the reality is that not everyone in the church is on the same journey. The Bible doesn't call it the narrow way for nothing. Steve and Ruth work their way through the basic attributes of the false self. The episode ends with a discussion of the role of community in wrestling with the false self because one is often choosing between good and good and Ruth's reminder of the role of the spirit.

Support the podcast now and immediately receive our Lent bonus

Podcast patrons at any level will receive our brand new revised digital download of Ruth Haley Barton's Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes all the scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

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You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 12 Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: The Deeper Journey: The Spirituality of Discovering Your True Self, M. Robert Mulholland Jr. Lent: A Season of Returning, Ruth Haley Barton

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders! Become a patron at any level during Lent and immediately receive our new digital edition of Lent: A Season of Returning when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: Lent: Music in Solitude CD (Available soon in our online store)

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Join us for Season 15, Lent for Leaders: With God in the Wilderness.  Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins will journey through Lent with a spirit of self-examination and desire for intimacy with God. Each episode will highlight a particular temptation found in one of the passages from Cycle C of the Revised Common Lectionary for Lent that is relevant for leaders today and Ruth and Steve will provide practices to combat those temptations.

 

In week one, Ruth and Steve examine the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4. How do we see these temptations to be relevant, spectacular, and powerful show up in our own lives? How can the practice of hiddenness be the antidote to this? What does it look like to fashion our own wilderness? We’ll discuss all this and more in today’s episode.

 

Lectionary readings for the first Sunday of Lent, Cycle C:

Deuteronomy 26:1-11  •  Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16  • Romans 10:8b-13  • Luke 4:1-13

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Returning from Lent Music In Solitude

 

Mentioned in the episode:

The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen

Lectio Divina for Luke 4: This week we are giving all listeners a chance to hear what happens over in our Patreon community. Please enjoy this guided Lectio Divina reading of the scripture used in this week’s episode,  available to everyone on our Patreon page.

 

Ruth wrote a reflection for Ash Wednesday over on our Beyond Words blog.

Support the podcast! Patrons at the $10 level will receive a digital download of Ruth Haley Barton’s Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes Cycle C scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. This season $10 patrons will also receive guided spiritual practices like Lectio Divinas and Examens that correspond with each week’s episode. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

What does suffering have to do with our transformation? That is the question Ruth and Curt explore this season on the podcast! In today’s episode, they discuss how the Christian story is the only one that honors suffering, the difference between suffering and pain, what shame has to do with it, and how suffering differently can lead to durable hope. On patreon, Curt leads us in a practice that helps us to name our suffering.

 

This season, psychiatrist, speaker, and author Dr. Curt Thompson joins us to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves by Curt Thompson

Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Kyrie Eleison (Lord, Have Mercy) from Lent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

Hello! We’re popping in the podcast feed with a little “State of the Podcast” announcement (don’t worry! It’s not ending!). Ruth gives a peak behind the curtain as to what is happening over at the Transforming Center this year and shares about our Alumni Retreat in July. Then, we’ll hear from some Transforming Community alumni about their experiences applying for and participating in a Transforming Community. It’s not too late to sign up for TC19, which starts in June!

 

As an added bonus we’re offering to waive the application fee for podcast listeners who apply to Transforming Community 19. Simply go to the application page for TC19 and use the code TC15CVL45 at checkout!

 

Alumni! Come join us on retreat! We’re having a special Sabbath retreat exclusively for alumni on July 9-11, 2023. Sign up today!

 

Interested in learning more about the Digital Capture Project and how to support this work? Check out what we’re doing!

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Support the podcast! Patrons receive exclusive bonus content and other perks! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

On this last episode of season 13, listen as Ruth and Adele discuss God’s invitation to the most excellent way: love. Using 1 Corinthians 13 as a guide, they examine the counterfeits of love as well as love’s litmus tests.  We close with an opportunity to reflect on all the invitations covered in this season and ponder which one God might be nudging you to explore more deeply.

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun

 

 

Support the podcast by joining our revamped patron program over on Patreon. Patrons will now also receive regular bonus content as well as opportunities to hear Ruth answer their questions. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

 

SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS

You can also access the podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

Music Credit:

Yesterday Today Forever: Music in Solitude CD (Available soon in our online store) 

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!  

Welcome to Season 16, Transforming Leadership: Managing Anxiety Within Our Communities. This season we will be exploring Systems Theory, also called Family Systems Theory. Many of us have seen the troubling Barna research about the extreme levels of burnout pastors are experiencing right now. As we look at Systems theory, we will be examining how it relates to and can transform our lives in leadership. 

 

In today’s episode Ruth welcomes our season-long guest, Steve Cuss, a pastor and author of Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs. Steve and Ruth dive into the deep end of Systems Theory as they discuss the most powerful leadership tool: diagnosing and diffusing anxiety. What is chronic anxiety? How does anxiety spread throughout a group? How can leaders attend to their own anxiety in healthy ways? Ruth and Steve answer all this and more in this week’s conversation.

 

Steve Cuss Resources:

Steve’s website

Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss

Calm, Aware, Present Journal kickstarter campaign

 

General Resources for Systems Theory:

Season 9 Episode 6 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Season 9 Episode 7 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Family Systems and Congregational Life: A Map for Ministry by R. Robert Creech

Lombard Mennonite Peace Center

Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue by Edwin H. Friedman

Extraordinary Relationships: A new Way of Thinking about Human Interactions by Roberta M Gilbert

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive exclusive bonus content that includes conversations with Ruth and Steve that delve into episode topics a little deeper. This week we will be sharing a conversation with Ruth and podcast producer Colleen where Colleen gets to ask Ruth her questions about Systems Theory. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We seem to be turning a corner during this week of Lent! Ruth and Steve discuss the lectionary readings for the fifth Sunday of Lent and the call to prepare ourselves for whatever new things God desires to do in us. This requires us to resist the temptation to cling to the past. In this conversation Ruth and Steve also ask us to consider how to discern when it’s time to put things behind us, how we perceive the new thing God is doing and lean into it, and what it means to move into divine forgetfulness when the situation calls for it.

 

Lectionary Readings for the fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle C:

Isaiah 43:16-21  • Psalm 126  •  Philippians 3:4b-14  • John 12:1-8

 

Join us for a VIRTUAL Stations of the Cross service on Friday, April 15 at 12pm CST. Details and sign up here.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Returning from Lent Music In Solitude

 

Mentioned in the episode:

“Help Me to Believe in Beginnings” from Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder

Support the podcast! Patrons at the $10 level will receive a digital download of Ruth Haley Barton’s Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes Cycle C scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. This season, $10 patrons will also receive guided spiritual practices, like the Lectio Divina and Examen, that correspond with each week’s episode. This week we will be providing a guided printable journaling exercise in PDF form. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

This season we are walking through Invitation to a Journey, part of the Transforming Resources collection published by InterVarsity Press. We encourage you to get a copy of the book, and now more than ever is a great way to support a local book store, or you can buy it directly from the publishers website. IVP is even offering Invitation to A Journey at 30% off — Visit them at Ivpress.com and use code: SOUL30. Offer expires on July 15, 2020.

Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: New Way to Live written by Joel Hanson. I am New written by Joel Hanson and Jason Gray. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist.

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You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

In this final episode of the season, we are joined by none other than the author of 'Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent’ herself, Enuma Okoro!! Enuma joins Charity, Colleen, and Jeff to share the inspirations behind her book, personal insights on faith, the significance of untold stories in the Bible, and the challenges of maintaining faith. Continuing with our Advent story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, they discuss the challenges and blessings of waiting on God's “inconvenient timing.” The four also reflect on God's presence in everyday life and the importance of recognizing divine manifestations in people and situations we least expect.

 

This season, as Advent falls on the heels of a contentious election season here in America and amidst the reality of war and violence around the world, we here at the Transforming Center wanted to approach the Advent podcast season with the awareness that many people are deeply in need of space and hope right now. TC staff member Charity McClure and ministry partners Jeff James and Colleen Powell will be walking listeners through Advent with the intention of broadening and deepening the practice and experience of silence as a way to hold that space. Using Enuma Okoro’s book 'Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, which highlights the story of Elizabeth and Zachariah, for inspiration and wisdom, Charity and Jeff will be joined by guests as they explore themes of lament, barrenness, waiting, dependence on God, community, friendship, and hope.

 

Enuma Okoro is a Nigerian-American author, writer, lecturer, curator, and arts and culture critic. Her globally read column, “The Art of Life,” reflects her broader research and writing interests: how the intersection of art, philosophy, spirituality, ecology and culture can speak to the human condition and interrogate how we live with ourselves and one another, and how we relate to the more-than-human. She has contributed to a number of different publications and is the author of Reluctant Pilgrim and Silence and other Surprising Invitations of Advent. You can find more from her over on her substack A Little Heart to Heart, Letters about life and living, art and spirit, and staying curious and courageous.

Mentioned in this episode:

Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent by Enuma Okoro (You can also purchase this resource through The Upper Room!)

Enuma’s Substack A Little Heart to Heart

Poem reference:  Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Journey from Advent Music in Solitude

Help us expand our online and digital presence so that we can make teaching, practices and experiences more accessible for you as you continue to seek God in your life and leadership! To contribute towards our year end fundraising efforts, you can GIVE HERE.

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes that take the conversation deeper with a practice or continued dialogue.  Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

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Is the Holy Spirit moving us towards a spirituality that is practice-based and practice-oriented rather than faith-based and belief-oriented? This week, Ruth and Fr. Michael Sparough sit down to discuss this question and their own experiences with a practice-based spirituality. Fr. Michael shares the ecumenical spiritual practices that have been the most transformative and the power he finds in praying and acting together across different faith traditions. They also discuss the ways in which a belief-oriented faith leaves us feeling responsible to defend the faith and God above all else.

This season we are exploring the future of Christian spirituality. Based on her own experience and the lives of people she accompanies on the journey, Ruth has been naming what she is noticing and observing regarding the future of Christian spirituality– how the Spirit is moving and how we can align ourselves to participate in the future God is leading us into. Elements she is naming include respect for the role of desire; emphasis on spiritual direction; welcoming and inclusive; committed to justice; and more. This season Ruth will sit down with thoughtful Christian leaders to discuss their thoughts on one of these elements, as it has to do with the future of Christian spirituality. This season was inspired by the Beyond Words series by the same name. Check out those posts here.

 

Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ, is a retreat director, storyteller, itinerant preacher, poet, and spiritual director at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington.  He is also the President of Heart to Heart: A Catholic Media Ministry.  He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a Doctor of Ministry from St Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL.  A prolific writer and speaker, Fr. Michael has published extensively on prayer. His latest co-authored book is What’s Your Decision?  An Ignatian Approach to Decision Making  and is published by Loyola Press.  Each week he sends out a weekly video homily that can be seen on-line at: HtoH.US

Join us for our upcoming Online Oasis: When the Road is Dark and Dim:  Navigating the Dark Night, Depression, and Grief on the Spiritual Journey. In this Online Oasis event, Dr. Bob Watson, a licensed clinical psychologist, joins Ruth to explore the differences and the overlaps between the dark night of the soul, depression, and the experience of grief on the spiritual journey. Whether you are wondering about this for yourself,  for someone you love, or  someone you are accompanying as a pastor, psychologist or spiritual director, this conversation will equip you to more wisely discern what is really going on, help you learn how to welcome God’s presence into this aspect of the journey, and identify the appropriate resources for each.    It is ideal for:  pastors, spiritual directors, psychologists, individuals, spiritual friends. Join us on Wednesday, October 30 from 12-1:30 CST. Learn more and register HERE.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Dusk from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes with each guest, guiding listeners on how to pray into these different topics. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

Happy New Year! We are ringing in the new year by talking about sabbatical! Friend of the Transforming Center Rick McCall is back with us, and he and Ruth are sharing their experiences with sabbaticals, what ways Ruth sees it as an extension of sabbath, and why it’s so important for the church to build in sabbatical plans in pastors’ job descriptions.

 

If you are a pastor or a church congregant, we think this topic of sabbatical is so important to the health and survival of churches and their leaders and the new year is a great time to start thinking about what that might look like in your organization.

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest is out now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org).

 

You can also order the Sabbath Journal, meant to accompany you on your sabbath journey and give you space to share what your soul wants to say to God.

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Led By the Spirit from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

This season we invite you to walk through Advent by engaging with the lectionary Scripture readings and listening for what God might want to say through them. In each episode, Ruth and members of the Transforming Center staff will read and reflect on the themes of Cycle C of the Revised Common Lectionary for Advent together.

 

In this conversation, we wondered what it looked like to “lift your soul to God” in the midst of so many difficult realities, how we bring our anger and despair to God, and Ruth’s practice of watching for the light each day. Ruth concluded with the poem “For the Darkness of Waiting” by Janet Morely. 

 

Mentioned in this episode:

Invitation to Silence and Solitude by Ruth Haley Barton

Bread of Tomorrow: Prayers for the Church Year by Janet Morely

This podcast season is designed to be a companion to this year’s updated Advent Reflections, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come: Walking Through the Advent Season Together, Year C.”  The Advent Bundle includes both the softcover and digital edition of the Advent Reflections and a set of 5 corresponding Advent Liturgies to print out and pray as a family or with others. It is available now in our online store.

This month, patrons at all levels received a bonus conversation between the creator of the Advent Liturgies, Charity McClure, and podcast producer, Colleen Powell where they discussed their experience using these liturgies with their families. Become a Patron today to hear that conversation and all of our other bonus content.

This season we invite you to walk through Advent by engaging with the lectionary Scripture readings and listening for what God might want to say through them. In each episode, Ruth and members of the Transforming Center staff will read and reflect on the themes of Cycle C of the Revised Common Lectionary for Advent together.

 

In this conversation, we discussed the prayers for and of indifference and how we are personally wrestling with them, particularly as we engage with the story of Mary and Elizabeth this week. Ruth uses another one of Drew Jackson’s poems to spark conversation about God’s practice of speaking through the disgraced and marginalized members of society.

 

Mentioned in this episode:

God Speaks Through Wombs by Drew Jackson

For more on discernment and the Prayer of Indifference see chapter 7 of Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton or Season 1 Episode 7 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast, The Art and Practice of Spiritual Discernment.

 

Music credit:

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus from Advent Music in Solitude

Mary’s Song of Praise from Advent Music in Solitude

 

This podcast season is designed to be a companion to this year’s updated Advent Reflections, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come: Walking Through the Advent Season Together, Year C.”  The Advent Bundle includes both the softcover and digital edition of the Advent Reflections and a set of 5 corresponding Advent Liturgies to print out and pray as a family or with others. It is available now in our online store.

 

This month, $10 Patrons receive a weekly guided audio Lectio Divina practice with one of the passages of scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary. Become a Patron today to receive these practices.

 

Interested in going further with your own spiritual transformation? We are still accepting applications for Transforming Community 18. 

We jump into the deep weeds in episode 8 and begin with a paradox and Romans 8:10. Note there is a dead body in this episode, and neither Ruth Haley Barton or Steve Weins want to talk about it. In Mulholland's work, he talks about silence, solitude and prayer as postures and not just practices – inviting us into a deeper journey where only God can do the work. Very inviting and very challenging.

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You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 10 | Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland Invitation to Solitude and Silence, Ruth Haley Barton

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: I am New by Joel Hanson. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Welcome to season 23! This season we are using the framework of the enneagram, and in particular the ways the 3 instinctual subtypes impact each enneagram number, to help people do the necessary inner work of knowing themselves and managing anxiety, triggers, and stuck patterns so that they can lead others well. This season, we are moving beyond the basics of describing each number type to look at our instincts and what motivates our behaviors. Special guest, Erin Baute, a leadership behavior strategist with over 20 years of experience in behavior change and professional development, joins us all season long to help us do this important work.

 

Today, Ruth kicks off the season with a solo episode. She gives an introduction to the season ahead, an overview of how she uses the enneagram as a tool, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, for self-examination and confession, and some guidance for interacting with the enneagram well. We conclude this episode with the Welcoming Prayer, a prayer Ruth often uses as a way to pray into the new things we discover about ourselves as we work with the enneagram.

 

Mentioned in the episode:

Erin Baute, our guest this season. Find more info at her website or follow her on instagram!

 

Helpful Enneagram Resources:

We are diving straight into the deep end of the enneagram this season. If you need some introductory resources to the Enneagram we highly recommend the following:

Self to Lose, Self to Find by Marilyn Vancil The Road Back To You by Suzanne Stabile and Ian Cron The Story of You by Ian Cron The Enneagram for Black Liberation by Chichi Agorom The Enneagram A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr

 

Interested in our live virtual event: SPIRITUAL DIRECTION: An Essential Practice for Transforming Leaders? Visit our Online Oasis Information page to learn more and sign up today!

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Chasing Butterflies from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes that will help take these conversations deeper. We have journal prompts for each of the 9 numbers, guidance from Erin on how to determine your instinct or subtype, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

This is a replay of a previous episode of The Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast. While we take a small hiatus from normal programming to attend to the work of The Transforming Center as well as a special Digital Film Capture project we invite you to revisit some of our previous seasons. Please enjoy this episode from Season 6: Invitation to Retreat.

 

Please visit our website to learn more about the work of The Transforming Center and our Digital Capture project!

Human beings are made with rhythms and for rhythms. A beautiful conversation ensues about the beauty of rhythms, and how to find and recognize rhythms. In the Christian tradition tears are always a gift. Ruth provides a great encouragement to let the tears come. We end this episode with Ruth sharing a personal story of how the rhythm of retreat opened up space for God to speak to her.

Go deeper with this content and purchase Ruth's newest book, Invitation to Retreat: The Gift and Necessity of Time Away with God.

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to Retreat, Ruth Haley Barton Transforming Community

Exploring Further: Music in Solitude Ruth Haley Barton Steve Wiens

Become a patron:  Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We have gotten fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more content. We need you! Become a patron and receive exclusive bonuses and our gratitude. 

Music Credit: The intro and outro by Aaron Niequist.

For this special bonus episode, we wanted to give all of our listeners a peek into what is happening over on Patreon. This is a short sample of our bonus “Ask Ruth” series where patrons get the opportunity to ask Ruth questions and hear her responses in an exclusive to patrons episode. In this episode, hear Ruth speak to the issue many Christians are facing as they figure out how to return to a church that may have revealed itself to hold very different views on what it means to be a follower of Christ in regards to power, racial justice, etc. over the last year. As expected, Ruth’s response is full of wisdom, grace, and insight.

 

The Ask Ruth series is available to patrons at both the $5 and $10 levels. Patrons at the $10 a month level also receive regular Beyond the Episode content when the podcast is in season. These episodes come out after the main feed episode has been released and contain conversations that relate to the main episode but are more extensive or personal than what is covered in the main episode.

 

If you are interested in what we provide our patrons, head over to our Patreon page and become a patron today to support our podcast ministry.

This is a replay of an episode we released only to patrons of The Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast. While we take a small hiatus from normal programming to attend to the work of The Transforming Center as well as a special Digital Film Capture project we invite you to revisit some of our previous seasons. 

 

Please visit our website to learn more about the work of The Transforming Center and our Digital Capture project!

 

For our patrons during the Lent season we recorded a special conversation with Sandra Van Opstal. Sandra sat down with Ruth and Tina to discuss why lent is so significant to someone who was formed in a Latina Roman Catholic tradition, how the Transforming Center helped make the bridge to a reforma-costal BIPOC pastoral space as well as why diverse spiritual practices lead us to solidarity and mutuality. 

This conversation was insightful and important for us all as we seek to be leaders doing God's important justice work.

Sandra Maria Van Opstal is a second-generation Latina and the executive director of Chasing Justice. She is an author, pastor, and activist reimagining the intersection of faith and justice. Her work centers on chasing justice under the mentorship of the global church, for the mobilizing of the next generation of leaders. Sandra has given leadership in global movements such as Lausanne, The Justice Conference, and Urbana Missions Conference. She has also had a strong domestic presence as an executive pastor at Grace and Peace Church and as an activist on the west-side of Chicago. Sandra serves as a board member for CCDA. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is currently pursuing doctoral work in urban leadership and transformation. She is a contributor to the New York Times Bestselling book A Rhythm of Prayer and she's also the author of The Next Worship.

If you’d like to hear more content like this, become a patron! Patrons receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

In this episode, Ruth and Curt dive all the way into the deep end as they discuss attachment, attunement, and internal family systems. The pair also tackle the importance of embodiment in this healing work of suffering and durable hope. Curt also has some thoughtful questions for Ruth about the role suffering has played in her life and leadership. Over on Patreon, Curt introduces an exercise that combines the concept of internal family systems with a breathing practice.

 

This season, psychiatrist, speaker, and author Curt Thompson, MD joins us to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves by Curt Thompson

Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson

Season 16 Transforming Leadership:Managing Anxiety Within our Communities (Systems Theory Season of Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership.

Boundaries for Your Soul by Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Breathe (Longing for You) from Lent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

This is a replay of an episode we released only to patrons of The Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast. While we take a small hiatus from normal programming to attend to the work of The Transforming Center as well as a special Digital Film Capture project we invite you to revisit some of our previous seasons. 

 

Please visit our website to learn more about the work of The Transforming Center and our Digital Capture project!

Over on patreon we close out every podcast season with a special Ask Ruth episode, where Ruth answers patron’s questions about the season. This episode includes Ruth and Transforming Center staff member Tina answering questions about our most recent season, A Just Lent: Learning to Love What God Loves. These questions were thoughtful and challenging and we hope they serve to round out our most recent season.

 

If you’d like to hear more content like this, become a patron! Patrons receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Charity, Jeff, and Colleen are joined this week by the Transforming Center’s ambassador and resident theologian, David Hughes. David brings a depth of wisdom and experience to this conversation. The four continue to explore the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah, exploring the importance of finding safe spiritual companionship, the interplay between wilderness and community in spiritual growth, and the promises of hope and joy during Advent. They emphasize the need for vulnerability, acceptance, and spiritual community, whether within or beyond traditional church settings, to navigate transformative experiences.

 

This season, as Advent falls on the heels of a contentious election season here in America and amidst the reality of war and violence around the world, we here at the Transforming Center wanted to approach the Advent podcast season with the awareness that many people are deeply in need of space and hope right now. TC staff member Charity McClure and ministry partners Jeff James and Colleen Powell will be walking listeners through Advent with the intention of broadening and deepening the practice and experience of silence as a way to hold that space. Using Enuma Okoro’s book 'Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, which highlights the story of Elizabeth and Zachariah, for inspiration and wisdom, Charity and Jeff will be joined by guests as they explore themes of lament, barrenness, waiting, dependence on God, community, friendship, and hope.

 

Mentioned in this episode:

Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent by Enuma Okoro (You can also purchase this resource through The Upper Room!)

Howard Thurman’s prayer “Lord, Open Unto Me”

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

O Come O Come Emmanuel from Advent Music in Solitude

Help us expand our online and digital presence so that we can make teaching, practices and experiences more accessible for you as you continue to seek God in your life and leadership! To contribute towards our year end fundraising efforts, you can GIVE HERE.

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes that take the conversation deeper with a practice or continued dialogue.  Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

In this special bonus episode, we are sharing a conversation with Biz Gainey, a pastor and long-time Transforming Community alum, about his experience leading a Transforming Church. The Becoming a Transforming Church Retreat has equipped him and his team to foster a community that gathers around the presence of Christ for the purpose of spiritual transformation so that they can discern and do the will of God. Biz shares the practices and disciplines his church uses for spiritual formation and how they have served him and his congregation in the midst of challenges facing many churches today.

 

If you are interested in attending the upcoming Becoming a Transforming Church retreat on November 1-3 find out more here.

 

To sign up and receive special promotional pricing exclusive for podcast listeners email podcast@transformingcenter.org

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Ruth and guest Steve Cuss continue to explore Systems Theory. This week they look at leadership, anxiety, and the false self. What are some examples of false selves and false beliefs and how do they relate to anxiety? What is the calm presence? Ruth and Steve’s conversation covers all this and more, including an invitation to participate in the practice of the Welcoming Prayer.

Steve Cuss Resources:

Steve’s website

Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss

Calm, Aware, Present Journal kickstarter campaign

 

General Resources for Systems Theory:

Season 9 Episode 6 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Season 9 Episode 7 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Family Systems and Congregational Life: A Map for Ministry by R. Robert Creech

Lombard Mennonite Peace Center

Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue by Edwin H. Friedman

Extraordinary Relationships: A new Way of Thinking about Human Interactions by Roberta M Gilbert

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive exclusive bonus content that includes conversations with Ruth and Steve that delve into episode topics a little deeper. This week we will offer some thoughts on the Welcoming Prayer. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We have a special bonus episode for you today to mark Epiphany.

 

We dusted off our podcasting microphones to have a conversation about Epiphany. Epiphany celebrates the coming of the Magi to the manger to visit and worship the baby Jesus. In this discussion, Ruth and members of the Transforming Center staff discuss the mystery and meaning of Jesus choosing to come to earth in such an imperfect setting, what we took from the Magi’s story and the invitation to adventure and risk that God may be giving in the new year. Ruth closes with two poems that cap off these reflections and mark the end of the Christmas season.

 

Mentioned in this episode:

Epiphany No. 16 by Kate Compston from Bread of Tomorrow: Prayers for the Church Year by Janet Morely

The Work of Christmas from The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations by Howard Thurman

Music credit:

Joy to the World from Christmastide Music in Solitude

A Light Unto My Path from Advent Music in Solitude

Interested in going further with your own spiritual transformation? We are still accepting applications for Transforming Community 18. 

Welcome to Season 16, Transforming Leadership: Managing Anxiety Within Our Communities. This season we will be exploring Systems Theory, also called Family Systems Theory. Many of us have seen the troubling Barna research about the extreme levels of burnout pastors are experiencing right now. As we look at Systems theory, we will be examining how it relates to and can transform our lives in leadership. Ruth welcomes guest Steve Cuss, pastor and author of Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs, to help us unpack Systems Theory.

 

In today’s episode Ruth is flying solo to give us an introduction to Systems Theory. She lays the groundwork for the season by detailing Bowen’s 8 concepts, while also giving us a general idea of Systems Theory and how it relates to anxiety and leadership. We think this introductory episode is just what we need to help us dive into the deep end with Ruth and Steve.

Resources used in today’s episode: 

Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss

Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue by Edwin H. Friedman

Extraordinary Relationships: A new Way of Thinking about Human Interactions by Roberta M Gilbert

 

General Resources for Systems Theory:

Season 9 Episode 6 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Season 9 Episode 7 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Family Systems and Congregational Life: A Map for Ministry by R. Robert Creech

Lombard Mennonite Peace Center

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive exclusive bonus content that includes conversations with Ruth and Steve that delve into episode topics a little deeper. This week we will be sharing a conversation with Ruth and podcast producer Colleen where Colleen gets to ask Ruth her questions about Systems Theory. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Listen in to learn what creation gifts are and how they relate to our spiritual journey. Make no mistake, this journey is not about self actualization. Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Wiens discuss why Mulholland uses Myers-Briggs. A relevant conversation in a time when the Enneagram is overhyped.

SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 10 | Access past podcast seasons

This season we are walking through Invitation to a Journey, part of the Transforming Resources collection published by InterVarsity Press. We encourage you to get a copy of the book, and now more than ever is a great way to support a local book store, or you can buy it directly from the publishers website. IVP is even offering Invitation to A Journey at 30% off — Visit them at Ivpress.com and use code: SOUL30. Offer expires on July 15, 2020.

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: I am New by Joel Hanson. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

If a greater understanding and awareness of our own desires is part of the future of Christian spirituality, then today’s topic, spiritual direction, is a necessary companion in that journey of discovery. In this episode, Ruth shares some of her thoughts on what spiritual direction is and is not, why she thinks it is an important part of the future of Christian spirituality, and some of her own personal experience as a director and a directee. Then she shares a conversation with Transforming Center friend and alumn, Reverend Dr. David Hughes, about his experience as a high-level pastor and leader who found himself with a surprising invitation to spiritual direction. David shares about how strange and even uncomfortable the practice was initially and why he thinks it’s especially important for men to enter into spiritual direction.

This season we are exploring the future of Christian spirituality. Based on her own experience and the lives of people she accompanies on the journey, Ruth has been naming what she is noticing and observing regarding the future of Christian spirituality– how the Spirit is moving and how we can align ourselves to participate in the future God is leading us into. Elements she is naming include respect for the role of desire; emphasis on spiritual direction; welcoming and inclusive; committed to justice; and more. This season Ruth will sit down with thoughtful Christian leaders to discuss their thoughts on one of these elements, as it has to do with the future of Christian spirituality. This season was inspired by the Beyond Words series by the same name. Check out those posts here.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Chasing Butterflies from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes with each guest, guiding listeners on how to pray into these different topics. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

BONUS: Ask Ruth #3 Excerpt

 

In this bonus episode, we want to share another excerpt from our most recent Ask Ruth episode.  Every month we release bonus content to our patrons through Patreon. In our Ask Ruth series, patrons get the opportunity to submit questions for Ruth to answer. Ask Ruth #3 covered questions specific to season 13 of The Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast | Invitations from God. In this excerpt, you can hear Ruth share what she thinks are the most important invitations for pastors to respond to right now.

 

The Ask Ruth series is available to patrons at both the $5 and $10 levels. Patrons at the $10 monthly level also receive regular Beyond the Episode content when the podcast is in season. These episodes take the conversations from The Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast to deeper and more personal places.

 

We would love for you to join us over on Patreon! You can go to our Patreon page to sign up to become a patron and support our podcast ministry.

This is a replay of a previous episode of The Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast. While we take a small hiatus from normal programming to attend to the work of The Transforming Center as well as a special Digital Film Capture project we invite you to revisit some of our previous seasons. Please enjoy this episode from Season 10: Invitation to a Journey

 

Please visit our website to learn more about the work of The Transforming Center and our Digital Capture project!

We begin this episode by redeeming the word “disciplines" by offering up the word “practices” and looking at disciplines through the lens of desire and about opening ourselves up to God, reminding us that we are not in charge of our spiritual journey. Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins discuss four practices: prayer, spiritual readings, lectio divina, and liturgy. They sound familiar, but be prepared for some refreshing ideas on how to use them to open yourself up to God. SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 10 | Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer!

Music Credit: I am New by Joel Hanson. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

The invitation in this episode may be our most challenging yet: God’s invitation to admit I might be wrong. Why is it so hard to admit that we may be wrong and how does shame keep us from this invitation? Ruth and Adele discuss the invitation to teachability, confession, discerning when to allow space to be wrong and when to speak up for what is right, and more.

 

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun

 

Support the podcast by joining our revamped patron program over on Patreon. Patrons will now also receive regular bonus content as well as opportunities to hear Ruth answer their questions. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

 

SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS

You can also access the podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!  

A great conversation with long-time friend Steve Wiens, pastor of Genesis Covenant Church, about sexuality and gender that will surprisingly leave you encouraged. Ruth defines spirituality, sexuality, sex, gender and asks the question: How can we redeem our sexuality?  We need to do the work of #metoo #churchtoo, but there is hope on the other side. Dallas Willard brings it home… “the opposite of lust is ______?  

SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Mentioned in this podcast: The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality Ronald Rolheiser Shining Like the Sun: Seven Mindful Practices for Rekindling Your Faith by Steve Wiens.

Exploring Further: Transforming Community Ruth Haley Barton

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron during Lent and receive our Lent: A Season of Returning!

Music Credit: New Way to Live written by Joel Hanson. I am New written by Joel Hanson and Jason Gray.

How is the Holy Spirit leading us to engage with scripture in new and fresh ways? That’s what Ruth and guest Esau McCaulley discuss this week. Esau shares about his work editing The New Testament in Color: A Multi-Ethnic Commentary on the New Testament. They discuss how we need each other, reading and interpreting across all kinds of different cultures and contexts in order to best discern the mind of Christ, how differently we can view a biblical story depending on which character’s shoes we put ourselves in, and the importance of relinquishing control when it comes to a broader reading of scripture.

This season we are exploring the future of Christian spirituality. Based on her own experience and the lives of people she accompanies on the journey, Ruth has been naming what she is noticing and observing regarding the future of Christian spirituality– how the Spirit is moving and how we can align ourselves to participate in the future God is leading us into. Elements she is naming include respect for the role of desire; emphasis on spiritual direction; welcoming and inclusive; committed to justice; and more. This season Ruth will sit down with thoughtful Christian leaders to discuss their thoughts on one of these elements, as it has to do with the future of Christian spirituality. This season was inspired by the Beyond Words series by the same name. Check out those posts here.

 

Esau McCaulley, PhD, is an author and The Jonathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology at Wheaton College. His writing and speaking focus on New Testament Exegesis, African American Biblical Interpretation, and Public Theology. He has authored numerous books including, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope. Esau also served as the editor of New Testament in Color: A Multi-Ethnic Commentary on the New Testament. On the popular level, Esau’s recent memoir, How Far to the Promised Land, was named by Amazon as a top five non-fiction book of 2023. He has also penned works for children, including Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit and Andy Johnson and the March for Justice. Esau is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and senior editor for Holy Post Media as well as the host of a new podcast with the Holy Post that debuts this fall. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley

Josie Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit by Esau McCaulley

Andy Johnson and the March for Justice by Esau McCaulley

The New Testament in Color edited by Esau McCaulley, Janette H. Ok, Osvaldo Padilla and Amy Peeler

How Far to the Promised Land by Esau McCaulley

The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Innocence from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes with each guest, guiding listeners on how to pray into these different topics. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

This season, as Advent falls on the heels of a contentious election season here in America and amidst the reality of war and violence around the world, we here at the Transforming Center wanted to approach the Advent podcast season with the awareness that many people are deeply in need of space and hope right now. TC staff member Charity McClure and ministry partner Jeff James will be walking listeners through Advent with the intention of broadening and deepening the practice and experience of silence as a way to hold that space. Using Enuma Okoro’s book 'Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, which highlights the story of Elizabeth and Zachariah, for inspiration and wisdom, Charity and Jeff will be joined by guests as they explore themes of lament, barrenness, waiting, dependence on God, community, friendship, and hope.

 

In this first episode, Charity and Jeff are joined by podcast producer Colleen Powell to delve into the themes of grief, longing, and waiting during the Advent season. They explore insights from Enuma Okoro's book 'Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent,' spotlighting Elizabeth and Zachariah's deep desires and unanswered prayers. The group also discusses the importance of maintaining faith amid turmoil, communal lament, and the transformative power of silence and spiritual practices. 

 

Mentioned in this episode:

Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent by Enuma Okoro

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Joseph's Prayer from Advent Music in Solitude

A Light Unto My Path from Advent Music in Solitude

 

Help us expand our online and digital presence so that we can make teaching, practices and experiences more accessible for you as you continue to seek God in your life and leadership! To contribute towards our year end fundraising efforts, you can GIVE HERE.

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes that take the conversation deeper with a practice or continued dialogue.  Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

See the image discussed in today’s episode HERE.

 

We’ve reached the end of our Advent journey. Ruth, Scott, and Charity come together one last time to wonder where God is in the darkness, the unfolding, and the journey. Scott shares a story of God’s intimate revelation during his own pilgrimage, and the three ponder how we move from revelation to participation. They also discuss the Magi’s journey and what God reveals about light and darkness in their story.

 

This season, we’ve invited artist, author, and speaker Scott Erickson to join us. Transforming Center team member Charity McClure is also on the microphone. Together with Ruth, the three will discuss how an honest Advent leads to honest hope. Using images from his book, Honest Advent, they will explore issues of vulnerability, humanity, and uncertainty, all while wondering where is God in these things? 

Scott Erickson is an artist, author, performance speaker, and creative curate who mixes autobiography, mythology, and aesthetics to create art and moments that speak to our deepest experiences. He is the writer and performer of two one man shows, “We Are Not Troubled Guests”  and his current show, "Say Yes: A Liturgy of Not Giving Up On Yourself”. He is the co-author of Prayer: Forty Days of Practice and May It Be So, the author of Honest Advent and Say Yes , a Spiritual Director and a professional dishwasher for his food blogging wife. Scott lives in Vancouver, WA and is most loved by his wife Holly and his children Anders, Elsa, and Jones.

 

Charity McClure has served the Transforming Center in several capacities over the past 10 years, most recently as Director of Strategy and Communications. During this time her work has deepened her own longing, not only for a way of life that works, but a way of life that creates space for beauty, purpose and meaningful connection with those around her. Charity is a tentative writer, an optimistic traveler and a committed bruncher. She lives in Glen Ellyn, IL with her husband Kyle and our three children Finn, Rhys and Elin.

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

Honest Advent by Scott Erickson

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Advent 2023 can be found HERE. If you’d like to listen to our previous season on Cycle B you can go back to Season 11 of the podcast, Advent Reflections (Cycle B).

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

O Come O Come Emmanuel from Advent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons at all levels will have access to unedited video replays of the episodes and at the $10/month level you will also receive guided Visio Divina practices to accompany the artwork discussed in the episodes.  Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

We find ourselves again beginning a new Christian year with Advent. This year the lectionary finds us in Cycle A. In this episode Ruth helps us prepare for advent with an invitation to use this season as actual space to practice sabbath keeping. She shares some of the greater themes we find in Advent and helps connect them to what we’ve explored in our understanding of the sabbath. Finally, she closes with some reflections on a poem by David Adam. 

 

Our hope is that this episode helps prepare your heart for Advent. While we will not be releasing weekly episodes during Advent this year, we invite you to return to season 8 of the podcast Advent and Christmas Reflections (Cycle A) which walks through the Cycle A scriptures. Additionally, we will be providing weekly guidance, which will include spiritual practices, to our patrons. Sign up at the $10 level to ensure you receive every weekly offering.

Cycle A Scripture:

Week 1

• Isaiah 2:1-5   
•  Psalm 122  
•  Romans 13:11-14  
•  Matthew 24:36-44

 

Week 2

• Isaiah 11:1-10   
•  Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19  
•  Romans 15:4-13  
•  Matthew 3:1-12

 

Week 3

• Isaiah 35:1-10   
•  Psalm 146:5-10 or Luke 1:46b-55  
•  James 5:7-10  
•  Matthew 11:2-11

 

Week 4

• Isaiah 7:10-16  
•  Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19  
•  Romans 1:1-7  
•  Matthew 1:18-25

 

Christmas Eve and Christmastide

• Isaiah 9:2-7  
•  Psalm 96  
•  Titus 2:11-14  
•  Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)

 

Also mentioned in the episode

Eternal Seasons: A Liturgical Journey with Henri J.M. Nouwen ed by Michael Ford

Tides and Seasons: Modern Prayers in the Celtic Tradition by David Adam

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

O Come O Come Emmanuel from Transforming Center Resource Advent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Over on Patreon, we concluded season 16 with our fifth installment of our Ask Ruth series. This episode included questions specific to this past season on Transforming Leadership: Managing Anxiety Within Our Communities with Steve Cuss. Patrons submitted questions that arose from their listening of the podcast, and Ruth provided her trademark thoughtfulness, wit and wisdom in answering them. Today, we wanted to share an excerpt from this episode with all of our podcast listeners.

The Ask Ruth series is available to patrons at both the $5 and $10 monthly levels. Patrons at the $10/month level also receive regular Beyond the Episode content when the podcast is in season. These episodes include conversations that go further or deeper than what was on the main feed episode or guided spiritual practices.

We'd love for you to join us over on Patreon! You can sign up to become a patron and support our podcast ministry over on our Patreon page.

A custom of our Christian tradition is to keep vigil with Christ at different times and in different ways during Holy Week. One of the places from which we draw this custom is Jesus’ request to his disciples to keep watch while he prayed and agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane. We also know that there were those few—including Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ mother Mary, and the apostle John—who stayed near the cross and kept watch as Jesus suffered and died. Despite the horror of what was taking place, those most intimate with Jesus stayed with him to the end.

Walking and praying through the stations of the cross is one way we can keep vigil with Christ during these holy days. Traditionally, there are fourteen Stations of the Cross—most of them taken directly from Scripture, along with a few that have been passed down in Christian tradition.

This episode is based on An Invitation to Walk with Christ: Stations of the Cross Prayer Guide by Ruth Haley Barton. Special thanks to Steve Wiens for the production of the bonus episode.

Enhance your experience and pray along with us… 

SOME IDEAS TO HELP YOU PREPARE: 

• Plan for the service to take about an hour and fifteen minutes, including a 15 minute meditation on the practice of praying the stations of the cross, along with a few simple instructions. 
• Review the comments below to gain a sense of who you are praying with;  add your own name if you wish, letting us know where you will be praying. It is a strength and an encouragement to know we are praying with so many from around the world.
• Consider creating a simple “altar” with a cross, a candle you can light before beginning the service,  and any other symbol you that might be meaningful to you and your family.
• If you would like to participate in the prayers and responses, receive a downloadable Order of Service (text only) when you make a donation of any amount.*
• In order to avoid awkwardness, make a decision ahead of time with your group about whether or not you will join in the singing of the hymns. Lyrics are included and we have intentionally chosen versions that are simple and easy to follow.
• The service will conclude in an open-ended way with the extinguishing of the candle. Decide ahead of time who will do this and how your group will conclude. For example, you could agree that all will leave silently in order to spend time alone in quiet and even journaling about Jesus has said to them at each station. Or it could be that there was one station individuals want to return to and linger with for awhile.

*Due to the fact that our online store is currently closed, we are offering these resources for a donation to cover our costs.

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You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Exploring Further: Transforming Resources; Lent Resources Transforming Community Ruth Haley Barton

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! 

Music Credit: Lead me to Calvary performed by Don Moen, from the album Hymns of Hope Were you There, performed by The Vigil Project (featuring Andrea Thomas), from the album  Vigil, Series 1 When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, performed by Sandra McCracken, from the album She Reads Truth: Hymns New Way to Live written by Joel Hanson. I am New written by Joel Hanson and Jason Gray.

 

©Ruth Haley Barton, 2020. Adapted from An Invitation to Walk with Christ: Stations of the Cross Prayer Guide.

We’re back! This season we are celebrating the launch of Ruth’s newest book, Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again. Ruth has invited a number of friends to come on the show to discuss the themes found in her book. These episodes are for pastors and leaders who are tired and longing for new rhythms of rest and work.

 

This week, Ruth has invited her friend, Pastor Rick McCall. Ruth and Rick discuss why creating a regular Sabbath practice can be so difficult; why Ruth is unabashedly addressing church leaders in her book; how Sabbath can be transformational, and more. 

 

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest comes out on October 11, 2022. You can preorder now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org). If you buy it directly from our publisher, Intervarsity Press, you can get it before October 11th!

 

This season of our podcast is sponsored by GoodKind. GoodKind is all about helping people cultivate the GoodKind of habits and holiday practices that allow them to engage with God and one another throughout the year. They have a great tool for Advent, a Sabbath Box to help you practice unplugging, and more. To learn more about them and the products they make, you can find them at goodkind.shop 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Chasing Butterflies from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

This week’s temptation may bring us to the hardest, deepest places of Lent. We are talking about the temptation to be silent about our sin and the power of the practice of confession. Why are leaders especially tempted to hide our wrongdoings, and how can we use confession carefully, lovingly and honestly in our lives? Ruth and Steve use the story of the prodigal son and Psalm 32 to have an honest conversation about the importance and challenge of confession.

 

Lectionary Readings for the fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle C:

Joshua 5:9-12  •  Psalm 32  • 2 Corinthians 5:16-21  •  Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Prayer for Healing from Lent Music In Solitude

 

Mentioned in the episode:

The Prayer Tree by Michael Leunig

Join us for a VIRTUAL Stations of the Cross service on Friday, April 15 at 12 pm CST. Details and sign up here.

 

Support the podcast! Patrons at the $10 level will receive a digital download of Ruth Haley Barton’s Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes Cycle C scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. This season, $10 patrons will also receive guided spiritual practices, like the Lectio Divina and Examen, that correspond with each week’s episode. This week we will be providing a conversation about the ministry of reconciliation. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Ruth and Steve conclude this season with some practical advice and discussing a persistent practice for leaders. How do we detach ourselves from all that is not God to attach ourselves to all that is God? A powerful conclusion for leaders who long to be in God for the world. We are grateful for Bob Mulholland's deeply theological and practical spiritual formation resource and encourage you to read this Transforming Resource. Pick up a copy of the Deeper Journey at your local bookstore or you can purchase in our new online store.  

Support the podcast now and immediately receive our Lent bonus

Podcast patrons at any level will receive our brand new revised digital download of Ruth Haley Barton's Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes all the scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS

You can also access podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

Listen to other episodes from Season 12 Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: The Deeper Journey: The Spirituality of Discovering Your True Self, M. Robert Mulholland Jr. Lent: A Season of Returning, Ruth Haley Barton

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders! Become a patron at any level during Lent and immediately receive our new digital edition of Lent: A Season of Returning when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: Lent: Music in Solitude CD (Available soon in our online store)

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

 

Listen as Ruth and Adele use the invitation from chapter two of Invitations from God to examine the ways following and leading are connected in the life of Christ and what it means to steward your role as a follower well. What do we do when the leaders we follow disappoint and how does this invitation to follow fall differently on people groups depending on their historic ability or lack thereof to lead in their own right? 

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun

 

Support the podcast by joining our revamped patron program over on Patreon. Patrons will now also receive regular bonus content as well as opportunities to hear Ruth answer their questions. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

 

SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS

You can also access the podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!  

We’re here this week to talk about the elephant in the sabbath room… technology. Ruth and guest, Tiffany Shlain, talk all about how our technology impacts our ability to truly rest, why a “tech Shabbat” has been a lifeline for Tiffany, and the nitty gritty details of how Tiffany goes completely screen-free (and we mean completely) for 24 hours each week. We also hear from one of the founders of our sponsor, Good Kind, Chris Pappalardo, about the Sabbath Boxes they created to help people really unplug on the sabbath.

 

Tiffany Shlain is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, filmmaker, and public speaker. Her work explores the relationship between humanity and technology; the future of work, digital wellbeing and happiness; gender and women's rights; and neuroscience and creativity.

​Honored by Newsweek as one of the "Women Shaping the 21st Century," Tiffany is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and author of the national bestselling book 24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection.

 

Chris Pappalardo is editor at The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He is the author and co-founder of GoodKind, an organization that cultivates practices that draw people to God and to one another. He is married to Jenn and is the proud dad of Lottie, who wants to save the planet, and Teddy, who wants you to read him another book.

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection by Tiffany Shlain

GoodKind Sabbath Boxes

 

Win a GoodKind Sabbath Box! Share the show on social media or with a friend to be eligible!  If you share on social media and tag us, you will be immediately entered to win. If you share via text or email, simply screenshot the conversation and email it to podcast@transformingcenter.org for an entry into the giveaway. You have from September 27- October 4 to submit your entry and be eligible. The winner will be notified via email on October 5, 2022.

 

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest comes out on October 11, 2022. You can preorder now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org). If you buy it directly from our publisher, Intervarsity Press, you can get it before October 11th! If you pre-order the book be sure to sign up to attend our Release Day Virtual Celebration!

 

You can also pre-order the Sabbath Journal, which will be available sometime in January 2023.

 

This season of our podcast is sponsored by GoodKind. GoodKind is all about helping people cultivate the GoodKind of habits and holiday practices that allow them to engage with God and one another throughout the year. They have a great tool for Advent, a Sabbath Box to help you practice unplugging, and more. To learn more about them and the products they make, you can find them at goodkind.shop 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Reflection from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We were so lucky to have Scott Erickson on the podcast this season! Not only did he share his wisdom and thoughtfulness, but he also shared his art and his spiritual director expertise! Over on Patreon each week we chose one of the pieces of art discussed in the episode and Scott walked us through a Visio Divina practice with that image. As a Christmas gift to all our listeners we wanted to share the first visio divina practice from episode one.   First you'll hear Ruth introduce you to the practice of Visio Divina and help you to settle in. Then at 5:35 you'll hear Scott begin the practice. We've left lots of room at the end to give you time and space to continue your practice.   As always we encourage you to do this in a set apart time, free from distraction and noise. You can find the image HERE (it's the first image from episode 1, the picture of Mary holding her belly), or you can find this same image at the beginning of Chapter 11, Assumptions, on page 88, of Scott's book, Honest Advent.   Let us know how this practice was for you! We'll be doing this each week during Advent. Praying for you as you open yourself to the unseen work of God this Advent season.

We have been deep in theological waters in this season. In this episode  we are going to look at abandoning our false self through the lens of the Enneagram. This is not going to be a deep dive, but it is aligned with what the purpose of the enneagram – a tool to help us recognizing our own besetting sin.  

Support the podcast now and immediately receive our Lent bonus

Podcast patrons at any level will receive our brand new revised digital download of Ruth Haley Barton's Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes all the scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

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You can also access podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

Listen to other episodes from Season 12 Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: The Deeper Journey: The Spirituality of Discovering Your True Self, M. Robert Mulholland Jr. Self to Lose, Self to Find: Using the Enneagram to Uncover Your True, God-Gifted Self, Marilyn Vancil  Lent: A Season of Returning, Ruth Haley Barton

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders! Become a patron at any level during Lent and immediately receive our new digital edition of Lent: A Season of Returning when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: Lent: Music in Solitude CD (Available soon in our online store)

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins continue their discussion of holistic spirituality, and they finish their discussion of the personality types. You will want to catch Part 1 to fill out the discussion.

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You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 10 Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: I am New by Joel Hanson. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

There is a tension between personal holiness and social holiness. This last episode is a helpful conclusion to the season and serves to protect us from dangers on the spiritual journey, and sadly, once again Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins have to deal with the issue of control. There are some radical demands of a vital relationship with God. Wow.

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You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 10 | Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: I am New by Joel Hanson. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Join Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins for spiritual encouragement based on this year's Advent Reflections (Cycle B) with an episode for each week of Advent. This podcast season is designed to help leaders (and everyone) carve out time to make Advent a season of transformation. If you would like to make listening to the scriptures each day a spiritual practice for this season, there is a link below. The podcast conversation begins at 8:00.

Scriptures only for Advent Cycle B Christmastide

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Listen to other episodes from Season 11 Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Advent Reflections: Revive Restore Reveal Revised Common Lectionary and guidance on how to use the lectionary

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders.  We need you! Become a patron at any level through December 31 and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: Advent: Music in Solitude CD (this is currently not available for purchase. New store coming January 2021)

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

See the image discussed in today’s episode HERE.

 

This week, as Ruth, Scott, and Charity examine Scott’s “cover” of Sister Grace Remington’s beautiful painting Mary and Eve, they delve into womanhood, mothering, and the invitation to embrace vulnerability this advent. Why is it so scandalous to talk about God as a mother? What does the vulnerability of God coming into the world as a baby have to teach us about our own vulnerability? How does our obsession with meritocracy (defined in this conversation as the earning of God’s good grace by our deeds, awards, and success) rob us of actual grace and love?

 

This season, we’ve invited artist, author, and speaker Scott Erickson to join us. Transforming Center team member Charity McClure is also on the microphone. Together with Ruth, the three will discuss how an honest Advent leads to honest hope. Using images from his book, Honest Advent, they will explore issues of vulnerability, humanity, and uncertainty, all while wondering where is God in these things? 

Scott Erickson is an artist, author, performance speaker, and creative curate who mixes autobiography, mythology, and aesthetics to create art and moments that speak to our deepest experiences. He is the writer and performer of two one man shows, “We Are Not Troubled Guests”  and his current show, "Say Yes: A Liturgy of Not Giving Up On Yourself”. He is the co-author of Prayer: Forty Days of Practice and May It Be So, the author of Honest Advent and Say Yes , a Spiritual Director and a professional dishwasher for his food blogging wife. Scott lives in Vancouver, WA and is most loved by his wife Holly and his children Anders, Elsa, and Jones.

 

Charity McClure has served the Transforming Center in several capacities over the past 10 years, most recently as Director of Strategy and Communications. During this time her work has deepened her own longing, not only for a way of life that works, but a way of life that creates space for beauty, purpose and meaningful connection with those around her. Charity is a tentative writer, an optimistic traveler and a committed bruncher. She lives in Glen Ellyn, IL with her husband Kyle and our three children Finn, Rhys and Elin.

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

Honest Advent by Scott Erickson

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Advent 2023 can be found HERE. If you’d like to listen to our previous season on Cycle B you can go back to Season 11 of the podcast, Advent Reflections (Cycle B).

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

There is Room from Advent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons at all levels will have access to unedited video replays of the episodes and at the $10/month level you will also receive guided Visio Divina practices to accompany the artwork discussed in the episodes.  Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

What is Holistic Spirituality? How does one nurture the whole person along with answering this question: What does love require of me? Because insisting on "being myself” is really not holistic spirituality. Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Wiens discuss both the positive and negative expressions of each of the Myers-Briggs personality types.

SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access this episode on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 10 Access past podcast seasons

This season we are walking through Invitation to a Journey, part of the Transforming Resources collection published by InterVarsity Press. We encourage you to get a copy of the book, and now more than ever is a great way to support a local book store, or you can buy it directly from the publishers website. IVP is even offering Invitation to A Journey at 30% off — Visit them at Ivpress.com and use code: SOUL30. Offer expires on July 15, 2020.

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: I am New by Joel Hanson. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

In this episode, Ruth is joined by our guest this season, Erin Baute! Erin and Ruth discuss the three subtypes or instincts, how they show up in all of us developmentally, and why they are so important to our conversations about developing our own sense of internal safety. They also discuss what it truly means to feel safe and how people have weaponized it to detract from their own behaviors. Over on Patreon, Erin and Colleen sit down to have a conversation that delves deeper into instinct theory, how to determine your own instinct preferences, and what it means to be the “countertype” of your number.

 

This season we are using the framework of the enneagram, and in particular the ways the 3 instinctual subtypes impact each enneagram number, to help people do the necessary inner work of knowing themselves and managing anxiety, triggers, and stuck patterns so that they can lead others well. This season, we are moving beyond the basics of describing each number type to look at our instincts and what motivates our behaviors. Special guest Erin Baute, a leadership behavior strategist with over 20 years of experience in behavior change and professional development, joins us all season long to help us do this important work.

 

Erin Baute is a professional business coach and leadership behavior strategist with over 20 years of experience in behavior change and professional development, working with individuals and teams. She has a bachelor’s degree in Human Development, a Master of Public Health and a PhD in Organizational Psychology, with a focus on personal and professional development using personality as a framework underway. She has been studying and using Enneagram for 14 years and is a Certified Enneagram Teacher and Trainer and an Accredited Enneagram Professional from the International Enneagram Association (IEA). You can find more information about Erin on her website, https://livingtheenneagram.com/, or follow her on Instagram, @livingtheenneagram!

 

Mentioned in the episode:

The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge by Beatrice Chestnut

The Gottman Institute

 

Helpful Enneagram Resources:

We are diving straight into the deep end of the enneagram this season. If you need some introductory resources to the Enneagram, we highly recommend the following:

Self to Lose, Self to Find by Marilyn Vancil

The Road Back To You by Suzanne Stabile and Ian Cron

The Story of You by Ian Cron

The Enneagram for Black Liberation by Chichi Agorom

The Enneagram A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr

 

Interested in our live virtual event: SPIRITUAL DIRECTION: An Essential Practice for Transforming Leaders? Visit our Online Oasis Information page to learn more and sign up today!

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Springs of Living Water from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes that will help take these conversations deeper. We have journal prompts for each of the 9 numbers, guidance from Erin on how to determine your instinct or subtype, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

In this episode, Ruth and Adele respond to God’s invitation to rest. They acknowledge the fears and cultural rewards that keep us from resting and examine what freedoms we might have found during the pandemic that we want to carry with us into a new season as it pertains to rest. And finally, they discuss soft addictions that prevent true rest and provide practical disciplines to help us respond to this very important invitation.

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Barna article about groups returning to church (or not) after pandemic (barna.com)

Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun

 

Support the podcast by joining our revamped patron program over on Patreon. Patrons will now also receive regular bonus content as well as opportunities to hear Ruth answer their questions. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

 

SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS

You can also access the podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!  

In this week’s conversation, Ruth and Adele explore the invitation to remember. They discuss how we remember, the forces that shape our narratives around our memories, God’s invitation to allow our memories to uncover truths about the present day, and the discipline of remembering God’s goodness and faithfulness. God’s invitation to remember, both the good and the bad, can be a catalyst for healing in our lives.

 

 

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun

The Healing Presence by Leanne Payne

 

Support the podcast by joining our revamped patron program over on Patreon. Patrons will now also receive regular bonus content as well as opportunities to hear Ruth answer their questions. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

 

SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS

You can also access the podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!  

Our guest this week is Rabbi Evan Moffic, a rabbi leading a congregation in the Chicago suburbs who also teaches and writes about the Jewishness of Jesus. He and Ruth discuss the importance of the sabbath and its roots in the Jewish faith, the communal aspect of the practice, and how the activities we engage in on the sabbath can shape our “sabbath character.”

 

(A note- the audio quality for this episode is not what we usually like to have, but we felt the content of the episode was more than worth it and too important to leave out.)

 

Rabbi Moffic is a Rabbi sharing Jewish wisdom, stories, and inspiration with people of all faiths. A graduate of Stanford University, Rabbi Moffic leads a congregation in the Chicago suburbs and teaches across the world. 

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus by Rabbi Evan Moffic

 

Win a copy of Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest! Leave a review of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Screenshot your review and email it to podcast@transformingcenter.org for an entry into the giveaway. You have from September 20-27 to submit your entry and be eligible. The winner will be notified via email on September 28, 2022. (Need help knowing how to leave a podcast review? This article will help!)

 

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest comes out on October 11, 2022. You can preorder now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org). If you buy it directly from our publisher, Intervarsity Press, you can get it before October 11th! If you pre-order the book be sure to sign up to attend our Release Day Virtual Celebration!

 

This season of our podcast is sponsored by GoodKind. GoodKind is all about helping people cultivate the GoodKind of habits and holiday practices that allow them to engage with God and one another throughout the year. They have a great tool for Advent, a Sabbath Box to help you practice unplugging, and more. To learn more about them and the products they make, you can find them at goodkind.shop 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Dusk from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

In this special episode, Ruth wraps up our season on suffering and the formation of hope and ushers us into the last few days of Holy Week. Holy Week allows us to practice true unity with Jesus, the “at-one-ment” she and Curt talked about this season. What does Jesus’ suffering mean for us- for our lives and our own suffering? How does it help us to make sense of our own stories? We’ve spent all season discussing how suffering can lead to true and durable hope, and how we can walk with Jesus in His suffering as a way of deep transformation for ourselves. Finally, Ruth guides us through a lectio divina practice with Romans 5:1-5, the scripture we have been sitting with all season. We encourage you to listen to this episode in a quiet setting, free from distraction, so that you can listen deeply to what the Holy Spirit might be saying to you through these verses.

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

An Invitation to Walk with Christ: Stations of the Cross Prayer Guide by Ruth Haley Barton (Transforming Resource)  

The Book of Common Prayer

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Prayer for Healing from Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

Welcome to season 24! This season we are exploring the future of Christian spirituality. Based on her own experience and the lives of people she accompanies on the journey, Ruth has been naming what she is noticing and observing regarding the future of Christian spirituality– how the Spirit is moving and how we can align ourselves to participate in the future God is leading us into. Elements she is naming include respect for the role of desire; emphasis on spiritual direction; welcoming and inclusive; committed to justice; and more. This season Ruth will sit down with thoughtful Christian leaders to discuss their thoughts on one of these elements, as it has to do with the future of Christian spirituality. This season was inspired by the Beyond Words series by the same name. Check out those posts here.

In this episode, Ruth sits down with Father Ron Rolheiser. This topic for this season was born out of an invitation from Ron to Ruth in 2019. Ruth was invited to speak at a conference honoring Ron’s time at the Oblate School. The conference theme was the future of Christian spirituality. This idea has captivated Ruth, and she has been thinking and writing about it ever since. In today’s episode, Ruth and Father Ron discuss their thoughts on the future broadly. They discuss theology vs. spirituality, how going deeper into our own denominations brings us toward unity, and how God is like a GPS that never tires. The two close with their thoughts on how the future of Christian spirituality is Christocentric and what that looks like in practice. 

Did the audio quality make it difficult to hear episode 1? You were not alone. Ronald Rolheiser’s audio quality was not great and yet what he said was worth the extra effort. We have transcribed the episode in the hopes it  would help you digest this great content. Find the transcript HERE.

Ronald Rolheiser is a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He is President Emeritus of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, and a Professor of Spirituality there. He is a community builder, lecturer, and writer. Along with his academic knowledge in systematic theology and philosophy, he has become a popular speaker in the areas of contemporary spirituality, religion, and secularity.

Mentioned in this episode:

Our Secular Age by Charles Taylor

The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser

Befriending our Desires by Philip Sheldrake

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Tender Moment from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive special bonus episodes with each guest, guiding listeners on how to pray into these different topics. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

When the student is ready the teacher appears. Ruth begins by sharing the story of her friendship with Bob Mulholland and how the Transforming Center has come to stewards some of his works. As always, we start with definitions and Bob’s definition in Ruth's estimation is the greatest and full of grace! Self compassion and patience is needed for this journey as we are products of a culture that is all about instant gratification. Spiritual formation is the great reversal. It requires more of us than anything that we can do in the world. Join Ruth Haley Barton and her conversation partner, Steve Wiens, as we begin a new journey.

SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Access past podcast seasons

———————————————

This season we are walking through Invitation to a Journey, part of the Transforming Resources collection published by InterVarsity Press. We encourage you to get a copy of the book, and now more than ever is a great way to support a local book store, or you can buy it directly from the publishers website. IVP is even offering Invitation to A Journey at 30% off — Visit them at Ivpress.com and use code: SOUL30. Offer expires on July 15, 2020.

———————————————

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: I am New by Joel Hanson. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

This week, Ruth and Steve are talking about differentiation. What is differentiation and how does it differ from individualism? Steve shares his framework of the Four Spaces and explains how paying attention to these spaces can help us differentiate and understand what is happening in a group. As we wrapped up, Steve shared a few practices that can help us with differentiation.

 

Mentioned in this episode: CODA (Apple +)

 

Steve Cuss Resources:

Steve’s website

Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss

Calm, Aware, Present Journal kickstarter campaign

 

General Resources for Systems Theory:

Season 9 Episode 6 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Season 9 Episode 7 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Family Systems and Congregational Life: A Map for Ministry by R. Robert Creech

Lombard Mennonite Peace Center

Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue by Edwin H. Friedman

Extraordinary Relationships: A new Way of Thinking about Human Interactions by Roberta M Gilbert

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive exclusive bonus content that includes conversations with Ruth and Steve that delve into episode topics a little deeper. This week we will offer a conversation about universal sources of anxiety. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We’re nearing the end of our season on Systems Theory and leadership anxiety! In this last episode with Ruth and Steve together, the two give really practical help with concrete tools that can help diffuse anxiety. These tools range from personal to relational, and they are rooted in deep care for the soul of the leader. Finally Ruth and Steve discuss how Systems Theory informs and aids transformational leadership. Next week, Ruth will wrap up the season with one final solo episode of closing thoughts and wisdom on this important topic.

Steve Cuss Resources:

Steve’s website

Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss

 

General Resources for Systems Theory:

Season 9 Episode 6 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Season 9 Episode 7 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Family Systems and Congregational Life: A Map for Ministry by R. Robert Creech

Lombard Mennonite Peace Center

Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue by Edwin H. Friedman

Extraordinary Relationships: A new Way of Thinking about Human Interactions by Roberta M Gilbert

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive exclusive bonus content that includes conversations with Ruth and Steve that delve into episode topics a little deeper. This week Steve takes control of the mic and asks Ruth and last week’s guest, Tina Harris, what systems theory looks like within the culture of the Transforming Center. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We are exploring the body triad this week! Containing the enneagram 8s, 9s, and 1s, these folks have to work to manage their relationship with anger. Ruth and Erin discuss the different relationships each number has with anger and how the subtypes impact that. They also explore what safety looks like for 8s, 9s, and 1s, as well as the unique invitations towards transformation for each number. Over on Patreon, Erin is sharing a worksheet that helps us reclaim our own sense of safety and transformational journal questions for the body center numbers. She’s also providing some guidance specific to the unique challenges of 8s, 9s, and 1’s as they work through those questions.

This season we are using the framework of the enneagram, and in particular the ways the 3 instinctual subtypes impact each enneagram number, to help people do the necessary inner work of knowing themselves and managing anxiety, triggers, and stuck patterns so that they can lead others well. This season, we are moving beyond the basics of describing each number type to look at our instincts and what motivates our behaviors. Special guest Erin Baute, a leadership behavior strategist with over 20 years of experience in behavior change and professional development, joins us all season long to help us do this important work.

 

Erin Baute is a professional business coach and leadership behavior strategist with over 20 years of experience in behavior change and professional development, working with individuals and teams. She has a bachelor’s degree in Human Development, a Master of Public Health and a PhD in Organizational Psychology, with a focus on personal and professional development using personality as a framework underway. She has been studying and using Enneagram for 14 years and is a Certified Enneagram Teacher and Trainer and an Accredited Enneagram Professional from the International Enneagram Association (IEA). You can find more information about Erin on her website, https://livingtheenneagram.com/, or follow her on Instagram, @livingtheenneagram!

Helpful Enneagram Resources:

We are diving straight into the deep end of the enneagram this season. If you need some introductory resources to the Enneagram, we highly recommend the following:

Self to Lose, Self to Find by Marilyn Vancil

The Road Back To You by Suzanne Stabile and Ian Cron

The Story of You by Ian Cron

The Enneagram for Black Liberation by Chichi Agorom

The Enneagram A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr

 

Interested in our live virtual event: SPIRITUAL DIRECTION: An Essential Practice for Transforming Leaders? Visit our Online Oasis Information page to learn more and sign up today!

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Anthemr from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes that will help take these conversations deeper. We have journal prompts for each of the 9 numbers, guidance from Erin on how to determine your instinct or subtype, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

As we mark the first week of Advent we are examining the Annunciation. How do we define a revelation and what does it expose in us? What does a revelation do to our plans and certainty? Where is God in the midst of it all? Ruth, Charity and Scott discuss Mary’s response to the news of what God was doing in her, how we know when God is doing a new thing and why we can sometimes feel crazy when we sense a sacred revelation in the middle of our very ordinary existence.

 

This season, we’ve invited artist, author, and speaker Scott Erickson to join us. Transforming Center team member Charity McClure is also on the microphone. Together with Ruth, the three will discuss how an honest Advent leads to honest hope. Using images from his book, Honest Advent, they will explore issues of vulnerability, humanity, and uncertainty, all while wondering where is God in these things? 

 

See the image discussed in today’s episode HERE.

 

Scott Erickson is an artist, author, performance speaker, and creative curate who mixes autobiography, mythology, and aesthetics to create art and moments that speak to our deepest experiences. He is the writer and performer of two one man shows, “We Are Not Troubled Guests”  and his current show, "Say Yes: A Liturgy of Not Giving Up On Yourself”. He is the co-author of Prayer: Forty Days of Practice and May It Be So, the author of Honest Advent and Say Yes , a Spiritual Director and a professional dishwasher for his food blogging wife. Scott lives in Vancouver, WA and is most loved by his wife Holly and his children Anders, Elsa, and Jones.

 

Charity McClure has served the Transforming Center in several capacities over the past 10 years, most recently as Director of Strategy and Communications. During this time her work has deepened her own longing, not only for a way of life that works, but a way of life that creates space for beauty, purpose and meaningful connection with those around her. Charity is a tentative writer, an optimistic traveler and a committed bruncher. She lives in Glen Ellyn, IL with her husband Kyle and our three children Finn, Rhys and Elin.

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

Honest Advent by Scott Erickson

 

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Advent 2023 can be found HERE. If you’d like to listen to our previous season on Cycle B you can go back to Season 11 of the podcast, Advent Reflections (Cycle B).

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Journey from Advent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons at all levels will have access to unedited video replays of the episodes and at the $10/month level you will also receive guided Visio Divina practices to accompany the artwork discussed in the episodes.  Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

We are revisiting last year's Easter Monday episode because we found the reflections to still be so timely with the themes we discussed during this season of the podcast. We hope it encourages and blesses you on this Easter Monday.

 

He is Risen, indeed! Happy Easter Monday, friends. Today, Ruth helps us celebrate the Risen Christ with five stories of post-resurrection encounters with Jesus. In each story she helps us consider our own invitations to transforming encounters with Jesus that God might have for us. Which story resonates most profoundly with you and what healing or transformation is God wanting to bring as you sit with God and these stories? We invite you to take some time today to listen to these stories reflectively, imagining yourself in them and to take a moment to be with Jesus right there in the biblical story as you find him there and as you find yourself there.

 

Transforming Post-Resurrection Encounters with Jesus  

Weeping in the Garden (John 20:11-18) 

Encountering Jesus’ Behind Locked Doors (John 20:19-22)

Being with Jesus in the Midst of our Doubts (John 20:24-29)

The Emmaus Road: Encountering Jesus on the Road between the Now and the Not Yet (Luke 24:13-35)

Breakfast on the Beach:  Resurrecting Relationships  (John 21:1-19) 

 

Journey with us this Lent! Our season is inspired by A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and many of our guests are contributors to this resource. 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Yesterday Today Forever from Music in Solitude

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Church leaders seldom crash and burn because they fail at preaching or ministering. Christian leaders often burn out because they don’t know how to manage themselves and what they’re experiencing. In the first episode of a two-part conversation we lay the groundwork for understanding how human relationships work and our part in those relationships referencing the eight concepts of family systems theory developed by Murray Bowen.  Ruth is joined by a new friend R. Robert Creech (PhD, Baylor University), an experienced pastor and seminary teacher to discuss the first three concepts.  Robert is the director of pastoral ministries at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University, in Waco, Texas and is the author of several books.   SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 9 Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Family Systems and Congregational Life: A Map for Ministry, R. Robert Creech The Leader's Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation, Jim Herrington , Trisha Taylor, and R. Robert Creech Extraordinary Relationships: A New Way of Thinking About Human Interactions, Roberta M. Gilbert

Exploring Further: Transforming Community Ruth Haley Barton

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron during Lent and receive our Lent: A Season of Returning!

Music Credit: New Way to Live written by Joel Hanson. I am New written by Joel Hanson and Jason Gray.

Our next podcast season begins next week! Season 15 will help us walk through Lent together. Steve Weins is back with Ruth and together the two will tackle this time that invites us to self-examination and intimacy with God. In this teaser episode, Ruth and Steve will share their hearts for this season of the podcast and their hope that these conversations will help you face your own temptations and provide practices that will create space to be strengthened in the wilderness with God. 

 

Season 15 begins Wednesday, March 2. Episodes will drop each Wednesday, reading into the following Sunday of Lent.

 

Mentioned in this Episode

Find all of our lent resources here.

Practicing Lent for spiritual leaders with books Ruth recommends for Lent

Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus from Lent Music In Solitude

Support the podcast! Patrons at the $10 level will receive a digital download of Ruth Haley Barton’s Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes Cycle C scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. This season $10 patrons will also receive guided spiritual practices like Lectio Divinas and Examens that correspond with each week’s episode. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!

We have two extra special guests this week! First, Ruth sits down with Christine Lee, Priest-in-Charge of St. Peter’s Chelsea in New York City. She and Ruth discuss how Christine discerned what was most important for her sabbatical and how she responded when her plan for sabbatical coincided with a challenging time for her congregation. 

 

Then, friend of the Transforming Center B.J. Woodworth joins Ruth to discuss how he structured his sabbatical in a very unique way: around brewing beer. He and Ruth discuss practically what that plan looked like and the very surprising spiritual connection he discovered to the brewing process. Ruth also shares about her own sabbatical planning process when she took her first sabbatical.

 

Both guests provide real life, practical examples of what the sabbatical planning process looks like and the challenges and opportunities pastors and churches face when they embark on this journey.

Christine Lee is the Priest-in-Charge of St. Peter's Chelsea, an Episcopal Church in New York City. She is married to Jimmy, her husband of 19 years, and served as Vicar of All Angels' Church before coming to St. Peter's in October 2019 with a team as part of a church revitalization effort in the Diocese of New York.

 

BJ Woodworth has served in the PCUSA for the last 28 years as a teacher, church planter, pastor, and spiritual guide. Currently he is the part time Director of Spiritual Life and Taizé Ministries at East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Previously he served for 15 years as the founding and lead pastor of the Open Door, Presbyterian Church.

 

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest is out now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org).

 

You can also order the Sabbath Journal, meant to accompany you on your sabbath journey and give you space to share what your soul wants to say to God.

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Yesterday Today Forever from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We begin this episode by redeeming the word “disciplines" by offering up the word “practices” and looking at disciplines through the lens of desire and about opening ourselves up to God, reminding us that we are not in charge of our spiritual journey. Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins discuss four practices: prayer, spiritual readings, lectio divina, and liturgy. They sound familiar, but be prepared for some refreshing ideas on how to use them to open yourself up to God. SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 10 | Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders. We’ve received fantastic feedback about the podcast, and we would like to create even more episodes. We need you! Become a patron this summer and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: I am New by Joel Hanson. Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

In this episode, Ruth and Adele use the Lord’s Prayer to examine God’s invitation to prayer. They share what God is currently calling each of them to as it pertains to prayer. How does the “Our” in the opening line “Our Father” call us to “a seismic shift in orientation” and what does it mean to bring God’s kingdom to earth inside of us as we pray? Adele closes with practical ways to incorporate prayer into the margins of your life.

 

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun

Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder 

Engaging a transforming conversation around policing in America (Beyond Words Blog post)

 

Support the podcast by joining our revamped patron program over on Patreon. Patrons will now also receive regular bonus content as well as opportunities to hear Ruth answer their questions. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

 

SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS

You can also access the podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

Music Credit:

Grace and Peace: Music in Solitude CD (Available soon in our online store) 

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!  

Today we are sharing a clip from an episode that was released over on Patreon. This is a conversation between Rory and Ruth about what they both consider to be the principles of transforming worship. They draw from the ideas in Rory’s book and from their work together in Transforming Community. If you are not already a patron, may we humbly ask that you consider supporting the work of this podcast over on Patreon? Patrons receive all sorts of excellent bonus content like additional podcast conversations, guided spiritual practices, and episodes where listeners get to ask Ruth their questions. This season we have a ton of great stuff for our patrons including extras from Rory’s book, Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered, a guided practice helping us to reflect on the attributes of God, and a special conversation between Rory and Ruth about the tension between prioritizing the planning of Sunday services to edify believers or engage non-believers. 

Right now you can sign up for a free 7 day trial where you are able to check out our Patreon program and listen to the rest of the conversation that we are sharing today. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast is listener supported and runs because of our wonderful patrons. If you love what you hear on this podcast we think you’ll really enjoy all that we offer over on Patreon. Go to patreon.com/transformingcenter to take advantage of that free 7 day trial and become a patron today!

We continue to celebrate the launch of Ruth’s newest book, Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again. This week, Ruth sits down with pastor and poet Drew Jackson to discuss the idea of sabbath as resistance. Ruth and Drew discuss how the practice of sabbath itself can be a critique of a culture that does not value human beings, and the ways sabbath has helped them to in turn resist that culture. And, of course, because of their shared love of poetry, both Ruth and Drew share poems that bring language to the beautiful gift that is sabbath. 

 

Drew E. Jackson is a poet and pastor. He is the author of God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming and the forthcoming collection Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way. His work has appeared in Oneing, Made for Pax, The Journal from the Centre for Public Christianity, Fathom Magazine, and other publications.

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming by Drew Jackson

Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way by Drew Jackson

A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997 by Wendell Berry

This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems by Wendell Berry

A Small Porch: Sabbath Poems 2014 and 2015 by Wendell Berry

 

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest comes out on October 11, 2022. You can preorder now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org). If you buy it directly from our publisher, Intervarsity Press, you can get it before October 11th! If you pre-order the book be sure to sign up to attend our Release Day Virtual Celebration!

 

This season of our podcast is sponsored by GoodKind. GoodKind is all about helping people cultivate the GoodKind of habits and holiday practices that allow them to engage with God and one another throughout the year. They have a great tool for Advent, a Sabbath Box to help you practice unplugging, and more. To learn more about them and the products they make, you can find them at goodkind.shop 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Grace and Peace from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We are excited to be back with our first season of 2021. If you would like to read along with this podcast season you can purchase Robert Mulholland's book, The Deeper Journey, at your favorite place to buy books or visit our online store https://transformingcenter.christianbook.com/deeper-journey-spirituality-discovering-true-self/m-mulholland/9780830846184/pd/846184?event=Home-Pages|1015322

Support the podcast and immediately receive our Lent bonus. Podcast patrons at any level will receive our brand new revised digital download of Ruth Haley Barton's Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes all the scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry. Visit https://transformingcenter.org/patron/

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

 

How does endurance or perseverance fit into this process of having a durable hope formed in us? How do we know we are making progress in this endeavor? What do we do with the stories we tell ourselves about the parts of us that are unlovable or unwantable, and how does bringing those parts before a loving and safe community change us? Ruth and Curt tackle these questions and more in this week’s episode. Over on Patreon, Curt is giving us concrete ideas on how to cultivate a confessional community, a structure for being together, and tips for how to be safe members of the community.

 

This season, psychiatrist, speaker, and author Curt Thompson, MD joins us to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

O Lord, Hear My Prayerfrom Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

Over the next few episodes we are turning our attention from a leader’s personal sabbath practice towards how they can form and shape their communities around sabbath. We’ll be talking to a number of pastors and leaders about their efforts and challenges in leading others in the practice.

 

Today Ruth sits down with Jeanne and Jarrett Stevens. As co-pastors of a busy church in Chicago, the Stevens have been saved by rhythms of work and rest. Ruth talks with Jeanne and Jarrett about their own practices of sabbath, the ways they’ve tried to incorporate these rhythms in their church, and the challenges and opportunities presented in this as we emerge from COVID. They also pose the question, what would it look like as a leader to leave a legacy of sabbath keeping in their community?

 

Jarrett & Jeanne Stevens founded and have served as co-lead pastors of Soul City Church in Chicago, IL for the past 11 years. They have both authored several books. Jarrett wrote “The Deity Formerly Known as God,” “Four Small Words”, and his latest release, “Praying Through.” Jeanne has authored many devotionals, “Everyday Brave,” “Grit & Grace,” and “You are Enough.” She is a contributing author to “Twelve Women of the Bible” and “Real Women, Real Faith.” She has a new book released in May of 2022 called “What's Here Now?” They are both passionate about helping people wake up to the transforming love of Jesus and experience soul-level change in every area of their lives. 

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest is out now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org).

 

You can also pre-order the Sabbath Journal, which will be available sometime in January 2023.

 

This season of our podcast is sponsored by GoodKind. GoodKind is all about helping people cultivate the GoodKind of habits and holiday practices that allow them to engage with God and one another throughout the year. They have a great tool for Advent, a Sabbath Box to help you practice unplugging, and more. To learn more about them and the products they make, you can find them at goodkind.shop 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Yesterday, Today, Forever from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Inevitably, every sabbatical will meet a challenge, a place where the outside world creeps in and threatens to call you back to the work you’ve committed to set aside. When that happens, what is a leader to do? Ruth sits down with Dr. David C. Alves to discuss how to discern the necessary boundaries each individual must create for their own sabbatical, the resistance they may encounter and how congregations can help their pastors set and keep boundaries.

 

Then Ruth brings back former guest Rev. Dr. Phaedra D. Blocker to discuss their shared story of a time when they had to discern together whether or not to hold firm to the boundaries Ruth and the Transforming Center board set for Ruth’s sabbatical. This period of dormancy for Ruth and the organization coincided with the national tragedy of George Floyd’s murder and the question of if and how to respond publicly was difficult to discern.

Dr. David C Alves is a New Hampshire writer, and the author of both A Sabbatical Primer for Pastors: How to Initiate and Navigate a Spiritual Renewal Leave and A Sabbatical Primer for Churches: How to Love and Honor the Pastor God Has Given You. As well as three other books. David holds earned degrees from Asbury University and two schools of divinity. He is a past member of the Evangelical Press Association. A semi-retired pastor. And a recovering widower. He currently lives in Concord, NH. He enjoys family, friends, and an intimate relationship with, and love for, God and His creation.

 

Rev. Dr. Phaedra D. Blocker is a preacher, teacher, singer, spiritual director, and consultant. Founder and principal of Word & Wisdom, she is dedicated to empowering individuals and organizations to move toward wholeness and actualize their potential as agents of change and shalom in the world. She serves as Director of the Center for Community Care, Formation & Vitality at Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University and is Affiliate Professor in Leadership & Formation.

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest is out now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org).

 

You can also order the Sabbath Journal, meant to accompany you on your sabbath journey and give you space to share what your soul wants to say to God.

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Dusk from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

This is a replay of a previous episode of The Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast. While we take a small hiatus from normal programming to attend to the work of The Transforming Center as well as a special Digital Film Capture project we invite you to revisit some of our previous seasons. Please enjoy this episode from Season 17: Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again.

 

Please visit our website to learn more about the work of The Transforming Center and our Digital Capture project!

We’re here this week to talk about the elephant in the sabbath room… technology. Ruth and guest, Tiffany Shlain, talk all about how our technology impacts our ability to truly rest, why a “tech Shabbat” has been a lifeline for Tiffany, and the nitty gritty details of how Tiffany goes completely screen-free (and we mean completely) for 24 hours each week. We also hear from one of the founders of our sponsor, Good Kind, Chris Pappalardo, about the Sabbath Boxes they created to help people really unplug on the sabbath.

 

Tiffany Shlain is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, filmmaker, and public speaker. Her work explores the relationship between humanity and technology; the future of work, digital wellbeing and happiness; gender and women's rights; and neuroscience and creativity.

​Honored by Newsweek as one of the "Women Shaping the 21st Century," Tiffany is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and author of the national bestselling book 24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection.

 

Chris Pappalardo is editor at The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He is the author and co-founder of GoodKind, an organization that cultivates practices that draw people to God and to one another. He is married to Jenn and is the proud dad of Lottie, who wants to save the planet, and Teddy, who wants you to read him another book.

 

Mentioned in this episode: 

24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection by Tiffany Shlain

GoodKind Sabbath Boxes

 

.

 

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest is available wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org).  

You can also order the Sabbath Journal. 

This season of our podcast is sponsored by GoodKind. GoodKind is all about helping people cultivate the GoodKind of habits and holiday practices that allow them to engage with God and one another throughout the year. They have a great tool for Advent, a Sabbath Box to help you practice unplugging, and more. To learn more about them and the products they make, you can find them at goodkind.shop 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Reflection from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We are ending this season just as we started it: with Ruth going solo behind the mic. This time, she recaps Bowen’s 8 concepts, with particular emphasis on differentiation, encouraging us to reflect on what is ours to do in this work. Then, she shares about Bowen’s undeveloped 9th concept about spirituality, including some of her own ideas about the topic. What are the spiritual resources that will help us in this work of recognizing our anxiety and bringing a calm presence to our leadership? We close with a poem from our beloved Ted Loder.

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder

 

Steve Cuss Resources:

Steve’s website

Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss

 

General Resources for Systems Theory:

Season 9 Episode 6 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Season 9 Episode 7 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Family Systems and Congregational Life: A Map for Ministry by R. Robert Creech

Lombard Mennonite Peace Center

Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue by Edwin H. Friedman

Extraordinary Relationships: A new Way of Thinking about Human Interactions by Roberta M Gilbert

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Anthem (from Music in Solitude)

Chasing Butterflies (from Music in Solitude)

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive exclusive bonus content that includes conversations with Ruth and Steve that delve into episode topics a little deeper. Our next Patreon episode will be a special Ask Ruth episode all about this season of the podcast. Submit your questions to podcast@transformingcenter.org. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Join Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins for spiritual encouragement based on this year's Advent Reflections (Cycle B) with an episode for each week of Advent. This podcast season is designed to help leaders (and everyone) carve out time to make Advent a season of transformation. If you would like to make listening to the scriptures each day a spiritual practice for this season, there is a link below. The podcast conversation begins at 7:35.

Scriptures only for Advent Cycle B Second Sunday of Advent

SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 11 Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: Advent Reflections: Revive Restore Reveal Revised Common Lectionary and guidance on how to use the lectionary

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders.  We need you! Become a patron at any level through December 31 and receive our free Fixed- Hour Prayers for Families with guidance for how to get started and ideas for engaging children when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: Advent: Music in Solitude CD (this is currently not available for purchase. New store coming January 2021)

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Putting off the vices of the old self is only half the equation. We are to put off the old nature and put on the new nature. A great conversation flows around rest and sabbath, forbearance, and forgiveness. A helpful conversation for leaders today.  

Support the podcast now and immediately receive our Lent bonus

Podcast patrons at any level will receive our brand new revised digital download of Ruth Haley Barton's Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes all the scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. Become a patron today and support our podcast ministry.

SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS

You can also access podcast on Stitcher and Spotify.

 

Listen to other episodes from Season 12 Access past podcast seasons

Mentioned in this podcast: The Deeper Journey: The Spirituality of Discovering Your True Self, M. Robert Mulholland Jr. Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives, Wayne Muller Lent: A Season of Returning, Ruth Haley Barton

Become a patron: Join a growing movement of transforming leaders! Become a patron at any level during Lent and immediately receive our new digital edition of Lent: A Season of Returning when you become a patron at any level.

Music Credit: Lent: Music in Solitude CD (Available soon in our online store)

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

We are wrapping up our sabbatical season by turning our attention to the congregation; how does a congregation benefit from a pastor’s sabbatical. Ruth sits down with her brother, Pastor Jonathan Haley, to discuss the thoughtful and intentional ways he included his congregation in his sabbatical planning, how he stayed connected with them and how they, together, wrapped up the entire experience.

Then, Ruth shares some final thoughts about sabbatical, her takeaways from her conversations this season and things to think about as you go forward with the idea of a sabbatical. Finally, Ruth closes with a meditation inspired by Psalm 46:10 by Henri Nouwen.

 

Jonathan Haley -- also known as Taylor -- is a husband, father, pastor and endurance athlete. Jonathan was a part of the first Transforming Community, and has served numerous  communities, as well as served on the board of directors for the Transforming Center. Jonathan earned his D.Min. from McCormick Seminary, where he researched and reflected on how a pastor's spiritual practices shape a congregation. In 2018 he enjoyed a 3-month renewal leave, during which he biked across the country, with a personal and congregational focus on "experiencing our bodies as God's gift to us." He has served First Presbyterian Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin as pastor/head of staff for 20 years.

 

 

 

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest is out now, wherever you buy books (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org).

 

You can also order the Sabbath Journal, meant to accompany you on your sabbath journey and give you space to share what your soul wants to say to God.

 

Interested in applying to Transforming Community 19? You can review the dates and apply today!

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Springs of Living Water from Transforming Center Resource Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive an overflow of bonus content from the episodes, including exclusive conversations between Ruth and guests, clips that we couldn’t fit into the final cuts, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

This week Ruth and Steve address the temptation to invest in that which does not satisfy. So many of us leaders find ourselves turning towards escapist behaviors in our exhaustion and grief. How do we discern between what is distracting and what is satisfying? How can we abstain in order to give time to that which is most life-giving? How do we cultivate our freedom and choose our hearts' deepest desire through fasting? Ruth and Steve discuss all this and more in this episode.

 

Lectionary Readings for the third Sunday of Lent, Cycle C:

Isaiah 55:1-9  •  Psalm 63:1-8  •  1 Corinthians 10:1-13  • Luke 13:1-9

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus from Lent Music In Solitude

 

Mentioned in the episode:

Show Me the Way by Henri Nouwen

 

Additional Resources:

Fasting by Scot McKnight

Fasting: Spiritual Freedom Beyond Our Appetites  by Lynne Baab

Support the podcast! Patrons at the $10 level will receive a digital download of Ruth Haley Barton’s Lent: A Season of Returning. It includes Cycle C scriptures and space to journal your own thoughts and prayers. This season, $10 patrons will also receive guided spiritual practices, like the Lectio Divina and Examen, that correspond with each week’s episode. This week we will be providing a guided Examen to identify consolation and desolation. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

Please enjoy another bonus conversation about worship, this time with our friend and former Transforming Community worship leader, Rory Noland.  Rory has a new book out called Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as if Spiritual Formation Mattered. He and Ruth sat down to discuss the book as well as their long history and the role spiritual formation has played in their friendship. Rory gives a master class on Transforming Worship and its importance in this conversation.   Further reading: From the Transforming Center Blog: Sweet Hours of Prayer: How Fixed-Hour Prayer Nourishes the Soul Part I and Part II   Check out Rory's book Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as if Spiritual Formation Mattered.   Music Credit: The Lord is in Our Midst from The Lord is in our Midst Transforming Worship Vol. 1 New Every Morning from The Lord is in our Midst Transforming Worship Vol. 1