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Book Cover for: Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, Ruth Haley Barton

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry

Ruth Haley Barton

Spiritual Practices for Burnt Out Leaders

"I'm tired of helping others enjoy God--I just want to enjoy God for myself."

With this painful admission, Ruth Haley Barton invites spiritual leaders into an honest exploration of what happens when they lose track of their souls. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership weaves together contemporary illustrations with penetrating insights from the life of Moses to help ministry leaders care for their own souls so that they may in turn minister well to others.

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership explores topics including:

  • responding to the dynamics of calling
  • facing the loneliness of leadership
  • leading from your authentic self
  • cultivating spiritual community
  • discerning God's will together

Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Barton shows that forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead.

What's New in the Expanded Edition

This expanded edition includes the popular "How Is It with Your Soul?" assessment for leaders and a flexible six- or twelve-week guided experience for groups.

Start Your Journey to Spiritual Health

Don't wait to transform the way you approach leadership. Discover how to lead from a place of spiritual health with Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership.

Book Details

  • Publisher: IVP Formatio
  • Publish Date: Apr 3rd, 2018
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: Enlarged/Expand - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.70in - 1.10in - 0.95lb
  • EAN: 9780830846450
  • Categories: Christian Living - Spiritual GrowthChristian Living - Leadership & MentoringChristian Ministry - Pastoral Resources

About the Author

Haugen, Gary a.: -

Gary A. Haugen is founder and CEO of International Justice Mission, a human rights organization based in Washington, DC. Prior to founding IJM he worked in the civil rights division of the US Department of Justice and was director of the United Nations genocide investigation in Rwanda. He is also the author of Good News About Injustice (IVP).

Ford, Leighton: -

Leighton Ford is President of Leighton Ford Ministries, which seeks to help young leaders worldwide to lead more like Jesus and more to Jesus. For many years, Ford communicated Christ around the globe through speaking, writing and media outreach, addressing millions of people in thirty-seven countries on every continent. He served from 1955 until 1985 as Associate Evangelist and later Vice President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and was featured as the alternate speaker to Billy Graham on the Hour of Decision broadcast. Ford describes his current mission to be "an artist of the soul and a friend on the journey." He served for nearly twenty years as chairman of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, an international body of Christian leaders. He chairs the Sandy Ford Fund and has served as a board member for World Vision U. S., the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He received the 1990 Two Hungers Award, recognizing his contributions to addressing the physical and spiritual hungers of people around the world. In 1985 he was selected as Clergyman of the Year by Religious Heritage of America and TIME Magazine singled him out as being "among the most influential preachers of an active gospel."The author or co-author of numerous books, includingTransforming Leadership and The Attentive Life, Ford lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife Jean.

Barton, Ruth Haley: -

Ruth Haley Barton is founder of the Transforming Center and a seasoned spiritual director. She is the author of many books including Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, Sacred Rhythms, and Invitation to Solitude and Silence.

Praise for this book

"Ruth Haley Barton's book Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership is a must-read for all those in ministry."--Larry Magnuson, YouthWorker Journal, January/February 2010
"The most significant book I read in 2008 . . . is a call to inspect one's inner life and motives for leadership with neither guilt nor obsession, allowing God to tweak and morph it at will."--Danette Matty, YouthWorker Journal, January/February 2009
"It may seem hard to believe, being a pastor or other religious leader can be very draining on one's faith. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership answers a real problem that many may not realize exists for their pastors and priests."--James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review, December 2008
"At times Barton's words were a needed wake-up call and at other times they were a source of refreshment. I'm thankful for both."--Mike Bonem, Leadership Network (books.leadnet.org), August 30, 2008
"This beautiful cross between Ordering Your Private World and Celebration of Discipline isn't a book you merely read; rather, [it's] one you process with the Holy Spirit, with passages that call to be re-read and swallowed slowly. Definitely not 'a glorified self-help project.'"--Danette Matty, YouthWorker Journal, September/October 2008
"Ruth Haley Barton has had a huge influence on the way I walk with God and walk with others. Her books and the Transforming Community experience have helped me begin to hold the inward life and outward life together in meaningful and sustainable ways. We don't have to choose to be either exhausted activists or isolated contemplatives, and Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership offers both biblical vision and time-tested rhythms to help us become contemplatives in action. Leadership does not require losing our souls. Thank God! This book will help you live into this good news."--Aaron Niequist, author of The Eternal Current
"In the same spirit in which Henri Nouwen wrote The Return of the Prodigal Son, Ruth Haley Barton has captured the soul of Moses and has revealed him to us as a seeker of truth, wisdom, and vulnerability."--Glandion W. Carney, Chaplain of the Christian Legal Society
"There are many valuable books that teach leadership as a skill or even as an art. But leadership, both in civic and in church circles, is best understood when set within a spirituality. Competence is only truly effective when it issues forth from a mature soul. What ultimately grounds sound leadership? This is what Ruth Haley Barton articulates in Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. This book does for leadership what Parker Palmer's book To Know as We Are Known does for education. It sets skill, competence, and dedication into their proper horizon--spirituality. It is a wonderful balance of insight, faith, and maturity. Ruth Haley Barton is a trustworthy mentor."--Ronald Rolheiser, president of Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, TX, author of The Holy Longing
"In a landscape littered with leadership books that tinker at the margins of what really matters, Ruth Haley Barton offers us practical guidance to the core of life-changing leadership: spiritual authenticity and health. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership lays bare the ancient truth that great leadership comes from the inside out, and provides a helpful road map for examining and seeking God's transformation of that largely unexamined inner core from which true leadership proceeds. This is a powerful resource for me and my own leadership team."--Gary Haugen, president, International Justice Mission, and author of Good News About Injustice
"Barton has written a book which could serve as a prescription for people in ministry who have come to the end of themselves. I recommend this book for leaders who have experienced a glance toward the dark night of the soul but have found themselves working harder, trusting less, and growing weary in order to avoid the transforming work of the soul."--Susan Reese, Journal of Spiritual Formation Soul Care, 2009
"There are many books that help sharpen our leadership skills, but this one brings challenging insights to strengthen our souls which will transform our leadership."--Kerry Clarensau, Enrichment Journal, Fall 2009
"Ms. Barton relies heavily on the life of Moses as a window into the different aspects of leadership in which we might learn to seek God and allow God to strengthen us to provide spiritual leadership to others. The book is not just for those already in leadership roles, but also for those who are seeking leadership."--Marlyne Seymour, The Living Church, January 4, 2009