Archive for 2010
Christmastide: From Waiting to Wonder
Lectionary for Christmas Eve: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14 (15-20) Lectionary for Christmas Day: Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12); John 1:1-14 Tonight marks the end of Advent and the official beginning of the Christmas season. Throughout this evening, in various candlelight services and intimate family gatherings around the world, we…
Read MoreThe Example of Jesus Christ: Solitude and Silence
To celebrate the launch of the expanded edition of Invitation to Solitude and Silence we’ve posted a series of video clips from an interview done at Mountain Christian Church. In this expanded edition of the award-winning book, Invitation to Solitude and Silence, spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton guides individuals on a step-by-step journey into solitude and silence and NOW also…
Read MoreAdvent 4: Joseph and the Walk of Faith
Lectionary readings for December 19, 2010: Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7; 17-19; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25 “Sooner or later, if we follow Christ we have to risk everything in order to gain everything. We have to gamble on the invisible and risk all that we see and taste and feel. But we know the risk is…
Read MoreAdvent 3: Gifts in the Wilderness
For December 12, 2010 Ruth Haley Barton “The desert of which I speak is a desert of the spirit: a place of revelation, conversion, and transformation. A true revelation is a very disturbing event because it demands a response; and to respond means some kind of inner revolution. It involves being ‘made over,’ being made…
Read MoreAdvent 2: Necessary Preparations
For December 12, 2010 Ruth Haley Barton “Our spiritual life depends on His perpetual coming to us, far more than our going to him. Every time a channel is made for Him He comes; every time our hearts are open to him He enters, bringing a fresh gift of His very life, and on that…
Read MoreAdvent 1: The Importance of Staying Awake
“You will find the living God in the pages of the Bible. You will find him also just exactly where you are.” Mother Frances Dominica Guidance for your Lectionary reading, November 28, 2010 Print off the following Scriptures so that you can move away from your desk and settle into a place that is conducive…
Read MoreBeginning Again… With Advent
When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.” – Eugene Peterson I can still remember the first time I heard…
Read MoreSpiritual Formation and the Merchants of Cool
Spiritual Formation and the Merchants of Cool Rev. Mark Werner A short time ago I was invited to join other pastors and ministry leaders at a local church addressing the concept of spiritual formation within the church. A well known national speaker was brought in to share his understanding of spiritual formation and what he is observing…
Read MoreChristian Busyness and Solitude and Silence
To celebrate the launch of the expanded edition of Invitation to Solitude and Silence we are going to post a series of video clips from an interview done at Mountain Christian Church. In this expanded edition of the award-winning book Invitation to Solitude and Silence, spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton guides individuals on a step by step journey into solitude and…
Read MoreWhat is solitude and silence?
To celebrate the launch of the expanded edition of Invitation to Solitude and Silence we are going to post a series of video clips from an interview done at Mountain Christian Church. We will start by defining what solitude and silence is. Enjoy. A special thanks goes out to Kelly Kastens for inviting Ruth to do this interview…
Read MoreStrengthening the Souls of Youth Pastors
Ruth Haley Barton is a general session speaker at the Simply Youth Conference presented by Group and Doug Fields on March 4-7 2011 in Chicago, IL . The conference created by youth workers for youth workers is about helping youth workers learn, connect, and recharge. Along with a general session, Ruth will be leading a pre-conference retreat…
Read MoreSolitude, Community and Leadership
“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and to the community…But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Only in the fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to…
Read MoreStudy highlights the fact that Christian leaders neglect self-care
This article was linked in a recent eReflections, but we thought it was worth highlighting it here. Read the article on the Associated Baptist Press website. Does the finding ring true in your own heart? How do you care for yourself in ministry?
Read MoreA Blessing For One Who is Exhausted
The Transforming Center exists to guide pastors and Christian leaders into life rhythms that will help them be healthy and vibrant for long haul of ministry. If you recognize that you are coming into the fall season still exhausted, we offer this blessings and encourage you to take O’Donohue’s wisdom to heart. It will be…
Read MorePraying with a Back-Up Plan
“Cowardice keeps us ‘double minded’—hesitating between the world and God. In this hesitation, there is no true faith—faith remains an opinion. We are never certain, because we never quite give in to the authority of an invisible God. This hesitation is the death of hope. We never let go of those visible supports which, we…
Read MoreLet Me Live Grace-fully
For many pastors and Christian leaders, the beginning of summer signals a change of pace (hopefully a slower one!) and time for rest and replenishment. On this, the first day of summer, we bless you and encourage you to receive every good gift of God that summer brings. Thank you, Lord, for this season of…
Read MoreHow the Spiritual Formation of the Pastor Affects Spiritual Formation in the Congregation
“It you attempt to act and do for others or for the world without deepening your own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love, you will not have anything to give others. You will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of your own obsessions, your aggressivity, your ambitions, your delusions and ends and means…”…
Read MoreArranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation
I remember the first time I noticed that some people arrange their lives to see sunsets. It was summertime in the Gulf of Florida when the days were hot and the nights were balmy. During the day, crowds of people were lying in the sun and playing noisily on the beach, but in the early…
Read MoreA Powerful Model for Leadership Transformation: A Two-Year Experience of Spiritual Formation for Leaders
Wheaton, IL–First there were 12. Then 25, then 38—and now 70. Those numbers testify to the quiet-but-steady growth of a spiritual transformation movement specifically designed for those who serve in demanding roles as pastors, spiritual leaders, and business leaders. The initial group of 12—the first Transforming Community®—was formed in 2002. They gathered for eight quarterly…
Read MorePracticing Lent: Preparing for Holy Week
Editor’s note: In this article, guest author Peter Giersch reflects on some of the oldest traditions of the Church for celebrating Holy Week. As he describes the various ways that the Church gathers during these holy days, we are reminded that Easter is not just a day. It is a season of remembering and entering…
Read MorePracticing Lent: Rain at Winter’s End
?Look, a little cloud no bigger than a person’s hand is rising out of the sea!?? ~I Kings 18:44 I love the way the rain comes at winter’s end to hose down the sooty earth, and wash away the dirt that comes from who-knows-where. Oh God, I need a cleansing rain in my life, dirty…
Read MorePracticing Lent: Receiving Forgiveness
“While the truth that we cannot escape God’s all-seeing eye may weigh us down at times, it is finally the only remedy for our uneasiness…Only under God’s steady gaze of love are we able to find the healing and restoration we so desperately need.” Marjorie Thompson, Soulfeast Confession is good for the soul because it…
Read MorePracticing Lent: True Confessions
“The things we cannot accept in ourselves we project upon others. If I do not admit my shadow side, I will unconsciously find another who will carry my shadow for me. Once this projection is made, then I need not be upset with myself. My problems are now outside and I can fight them “out…
Read MorePracticing Lent: Cleaning Our Messy House
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” Psalm 51: 10 In her book Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris tells the story of working as an artist-in- residence at a parochial school, teaching children how to write poetry using the psalms as a model. One little boy…
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