Posts by Ruth Haley Barton
Staying Awake During Holy Week
Lectionary readings and guidance on using the lectionary Monday of Holy Week (April 14, 2025): Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 36:5-11, Hebrews 9:11-15, John 12:1-11 “Stay together, friends, don’t scatter and sleep.…
Read MoreA Leader’s Prayer During Lent
Lectionary Readings for Fifth Sunday in Lent (April 6, 2025): Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm 126, Philippians 3:4b-14, John 12:1-8 Lent Calendar (Cycle C) and guidance for using the lectionary “Lent is…
Read MoreLent Resources for Spiritual Leaders
Many of us as pastors and ministry leaders are at this very moment preparing to guide others into this most significant season of the church year. One of the great…
Read MoreEpiphany – There and Back Again: An Unexpected Journey
Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12 Epiphany (Cycle C) and guidance for using the lectionary “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” – Mary Oliver…
Read MoreThe Future of Christian Spirituality: Part 6 | Searching for Wholeness—in Christ
“In him all things hold together…and through him God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself.” Colossians 1:17, 20 Perhaps it goes without saying but it needs to be…
Read MoreThe Future of Christian Spirituality: Part 5 | Profoundly Justice Oriented
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is not a huge leap to move from welcoming the stranger to caring for the stranger—being…
Read MoreThe Future of Christian Spirituality: Part 4 | A More Welcoming Stance from a Rooted Depth
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” —Jesus As I journeyed with my desire and with a good spiritual director, something else was happening, too. Wrestling with my tradition…
Read MoreThe Future of Christian Spirituality: Part 3 | A Spirituality that is Practice-Oriented and Practice-Based
“We do not know God by thinking, but by encountering.” –John of the Cross As my director and I transitioned into a new kind of relationship I was still thinking…
Read MoreThe Future of Christian Spirituality: Part 2 | The Charism and Practice of Spiritual Direction
“A spiritual director is one who helps another recognize and follow the inspirations of grace in his life, in order to arrive at the end to which God is leading…
Read MoreThe Future of Christian Spirituality: Part 1 | The Role of Desire in the Spiritual Life
“The reason we do not see God is the faintness of our desire.” –Meister Eckhart Truth be told, it was desperation that first drew me deeper into the spiritual journey.…
Read MoreThe Future of Christian Spirituality: A Protestant’s Journey Toward a More Unified Faith
New leadership is needed for new times, but it will not come from finding more wiley ways to manipulate the external world. It will come as we … find the…
Read MoreA Prayer for the Holy Land
The Spirit helps us in our weakness…for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groaning too deep for words.” Romans 8:26…
Read MoreHow Shall I Pray? Spiritual Guidance For When Words Fail
When words fail, let silence be your prayer. Lean into the ministry of the Holy Spirit, trusting that even when we don’t know how to pray, prayer is happening. The…
Read MorePart 2: Lament that Leads to Justice: Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s Transforming Leadership
“Where do we go from here—chaos or community?” Martin Luther King, Jr. Lament is a spiritual practice that is more than mere catharsis; when practiced fully, it can be a…
Read MoreEpiphany: When the Star Beckons
Lectionary Readings for Epiphany: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12 “They set out; and there ahead of them, went the star they had seen at it’s rising,…
Read MoreYou are Made for More
We’re made for more. And yet, the road between where we are and where we want to go can feel long and uncertain and sometimes disillusioning. Many of us have…
Read MoreAdvent: Waiting for the Light
“God comes to us like the sun in the morning—when it is time.”—Carlo Carretto, The God Who Comes My favorite time of any day is the pre-dawn moments before the…
Read MoreFinding Freedom Through Sabbath Resistance
“If you aren’t resting, you are a slave to something.” – Adele Calhoun We tend to think of sabbath as being mostly about rest and replenishment—and it is!—but if that’s…
Read MoreWaking Up to the Gift of Sabbath
“God gave us the Sabbath. Jesus taught us that we weren’t made for the Sabbath but that Sabbath was made for us. Sabbath time is our time, our chance to…
Read MoreEven When the Doors are Shut: Encountering the Risen Christ
My favorite thing about the Easter story—aside from the resurrection itself—is reading the stories about Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances and how each one was different, uniquely suited to the person(s) he…
Read MoreThe Practice of Keeping Vigil
“Who can stay awake in this night of God? Who will not be as if paralyzed by it? Christ’s struggle was with God. This was his real agony. He overcame…
Read MoreLent for Leaders: With God in the Wilderness
“We have to fashion our own desert where we can withdraw every day, shake off our compulsions, and dwell in the gentle healing presence of our Lord. Without such a…
Read MorePracticing Lent for Spiritual Leaders
Many of us as pastors and ministry leaders are at this very moment preparing to guide others into this most significant season of the church year. One of the great…
Read MoreDiscovering Transforming Worship: Our Journey in Community
Rory and I go way back. We met when we were both on staff at Willow Creek in the late 90s, early 2000s, but it was on a trip to…
Read MoreSane Rhythms of Work and Rest in Your Life as a Leader
“We are blessed with inner rhythms that tell us where we are, and where we are going. No matter, then, our fifty and sixty hour work weeks, the refusing to…
Read MoreEngaging a transforming conversation about policing in America
In this ongoing series we reflect on the spiritual truths and principles that undergird the fight for racial justice, the Spirit that animates the fight and the spiritual practices that…
Read MoreEastertide: Discerning the Presence of Christ
You can also read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this series. They urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is…
Read MoreEastertide: Women and Men in Transforming Community
“Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told…
Read MoreJanuary 6, 2021: An Unexpected Epiphany
“A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what’s going on inside him- or herself, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm…
Read MoreEpiphany: A Season of Revelation
Lectionary Readings for Epiphany: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12 Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!…
Read MoreA Prayer on Election Day
O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord, Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments. We thank you for the privilege of voting that is ours– an opportunity to…
Read MorePart 1: Lament that Leads to Partnership in God’s Transforming Work
Note: In this ongoing series we reflect on the spiritual truths and principles that undergird the fight for racial justice, the Spirit that animates the fight and the spiritual practices that…
Read MoreBring rhythms of fixed-hour prayer to your family
“Fixed-hour prayer gives us a way to anchor our daily lives in rhythms of prayer, Scripture reading, and silence, ensuring that we do not get too far into any day…
Read MoreReflecting on COVID-19 through the Lens of John 9
“Surely we are not blind, are we?” John 9:40 That the Works of God Might be Revealed Here at the Transforming Center, we are John 9 people. What I mean by…
Read MoreLent and the Human Struggle
“Lent is a spiritual season which calls for greater openness to the word of God and conversion in every area of our lives. It is a time to face the…
Read MoreHolding Fast to Love and Justice—In Celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.
To mark and celebrate the life and work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is to mark and celebrate something that is very important to the God who created…
Read MoreEpiphany: A Dangerous Journey
Originally published in 2020 this reflection feels as timely as ever. “A good journey begins with knowing where we are and being willing to go someplace else.” —Richard Rohr Lectionary Calendar…
Read MoreInvitation to Advent: Leaders in Liminal Space
This week, we release our Advent podcast season of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast! If you’ve already signed up for our mailing list, you’ll get a notification for…
Read MoreFinding God’s Will in Community: Exploring a process for corporate leadership discernment
“If we’re not discerning God’s will together in fairly intentional ways, what are we doing?” —Ruth Haley Barton It was a conversation similar to many I’ve had with Christian leaders.…
Read MoreSpiritual Direction (Part 2): A Space for Rigorous Honesty
Click here to read “Spiritual Direction (Part 1): A Vital Practice for Discerning Leaders.” “The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a [person’s] life,…
Read MoreSpiritual Direction (Part 1): A Vital Practice for Discerning Leaders
“A spiritual director is one who helps another to recognize and to follow the inspirations of grace in his life, in order to arrive at the end to which God…
Read MoreLectio Divina: Engaging the Scriptures for Spiritual Transformation
Lectio Divina (translated “divine [or sacred] reading”) is an approach to the Scriptures that sets us up to listen for the word of God spoken to us in this present…
Read MoreAre You Longing for More in Church?
Eventually, someone looking for a church home will ask some variation of this question: “So, what kind of church are you?” —Kent Carlson While signing books at a conference on…
Read MoreTransformed Nonconformist: Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Transforming Center is closed today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his courageous leadership in championing racial justice and equality through the use of non-violent resistance.…
Read MoreEpiphany: Celebrating the Imperfect Journey
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed…
Read MoreChampioning a new reality for the body of Christ and its leaders
Your gift creates “ripples of transformation” in our communities and beyond. When people allow God to work in and through their lives ‘from the center out’ they are leading from…
Read MorePracticing Relinquishment: The Enneagram Goes on Retreat
“Every movement toward the humiliation of the false self, if we accept it, is a step toward freedom and inner resurrection.” – Fr. Thomas Keating Many of us have no…
Read MoreRetreat: Invitation to a Counter-Cultural Practice
“I have lived too long where I am reachable.”–Rumi It is a wonderful thing to be invited—especially when the invitation is particularly well-suited to our needs, our desires, our delights.…
Read MoreRetreat: The Gift and Necessity of Time Away with God
“If we don’t come apart for while, we will come apart after awhile.” –Dallas Willard Brad is a pastor whose church is going well. Attendance at weekend services is growing…
Read MorePart Four: Reenvisioning the Promised Land
“We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.” —Bishop Ken Untener Strengthening the soul of your leadership is a journey…
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