Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership with Ruth Haley Barton

This week concludes our conversations with Curt Thompson, MD. Ruth and Curt examine what makes for a safe community. Why is it important to experience places of tension, hurt, and repair in the community? They also discuss the meaning of a hope that does not disappoint or put to shame. And as we turn our attention to Holy Week, they wonder: What is a psychologically healthy way to understand the concept of taking up the cross? Over on Patreon, Curt leads us in a practice to help us vulnerably give ourselves away to others in a safe and psychologically healthy way.

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

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

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 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

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

This week we are taking a break from our conversations with Curt and his book The Deepest Place to talk about a different aspect of suffering: the communal, unmerited suffering that comes from oppression. Friend of the Transforming Center, Leo Ayala, is back with us to discuss this important topic. Leo and Ruth talk about the suffering his community in Puerto Rico has suffered as a part of the colonization and oppression of his country. Leo shares how no one taught him how to suffer in a Christian way and the particular problem of a faith without lament. Finally, Leo gives us practices and processes that help this kind of collective suffering form durable hope.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Leo Ayala served as a family pastor for over 15 years and later as lead pastor. For four years, he has been recovering from burnout, anxiety disorder, and depression. On his journey to heal his soul and develop new life rhythms, he completed Transforming Communities 15 and 18 with the Transforming Center. He is finishing a DMin. in Spiritual Formation on the topic of spirituality during seasons of disorientation. He is a liaison pastor for the Caminando Juntos (Urban Strategies) program, where he looks to

improve the holistic well-being of Latino pastors.

Mentioned in the Episode:

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

Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times by Soong-Chan Rah

Season 19: Lent Week 6 episode with Soong-Chan Rah

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 Sacred Head, Now Wounded 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

What does God’s glory have to do with our suffering? How do we wrestle with the crucifixion of Christ and the issue of atonement as it relates to suffering and God’s anger? How do we determine when we are the cause of our own suffering, when it’s someone else’s doing or when we are being invited by God to join in the suffering of Jesus? Ruth and Curt tackle these questions and more in today’s episode. Over on Patreon, Curt guides us through a practice designed to help us discern the cause or invitation of an aspect of our own suffering and hold it with God.

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

“God was in Christ reconciling all things to himself”—II Corinthians 5:18,19 (NJKV)

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

Mourn from Lent Music in Solitude

Returning 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

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

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

Lent is upon us again. In this special bonus episode, Ruth shares her remarks from our recent live, virtual event designed to help us prepare for Lent. Lent is for everyone, but it has a special application for spiritual leaders, providing a needed opportunity to “fashion our own wilderness” (Henri Nouwen) and return to God with all our hearts. On this Ash Wednesday, we invite you to take some time to prepare your heart and mind to enter the Lenten season.

Our next podcast season begins next week. Psychiatrist, speaker, and author Dr. Curt Thompson joins us all season 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

Lent A Season of Returning by Ruth Haley Barton

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 Sacred Head, Now Wounded 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.

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.

See the image discussed in today’s episode HERE.

Ruth, Scott, and Charity continue their journey through Advent with a conversation around Scott’s pieces, Sacred and Mighty. With these images, they explore where God is in our humanity, in our broken, imperfect bodies, and in the mightiness God displayed when he came to earth in the form of a tiny baby, choosing to go through the world in all his humanness, just as we do. They discuss how to make the ordinary sacred and the invitation to pause and notice our experiences in our very human bodies this Advent, searching for what they reveal about God.

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

Good is the Flesh by Brian Wren (a poem)

The Wisdom of Your Body by Hillary McBride

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

A Light Unto My Path 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.

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.

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.

Advent is upon us again. 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? 

In today’s episode, Ruth and Charity introduce us to Scott. He shares why he wrote Honest Advent, what he was trying to convey with the images in the book and what he means by this idea of “Honest Advent.” They all discuss what longing and waiting look like in this church season, why it’s important to honestly hold both, and how the hope that God might still be doing something deeper, bigger, and truer than we can see keeps them present to what could be.

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

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as seasons past. 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.

Ruth sits down with producer Colleen to wrap up season 20 of the podcast. They share their learnings and highlights from these conversations and Ruth answers a listener's question about how to bring transformative worship to your congregation if you are not a part of the planning process. To close Ruth gives us a few key takeaways to help us understand and embody transformative worship. 

This season we’re focusing on worship, particularly worship that is transformative. Our season long guest is Rory Noland and we will be working with his book, Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered. In addition to Ruth and Rory, we will also be bringing other guests into the conversations about worship with spiritual formation at its core. This season is for all who worship, not just pastors and leaders who plan the weekly services!

Advent is just around the corner! Our guest this season will be author, artist and speaker Scott Erickson. Ruth, Scott and Transforming Center team member Charity McClure (whose voice you’ll recognize from this season!) will be exploring the themes from Scott’s book, Honest Advent. This season starts Friday, November 24. Purchase Honest Advent wherever you buy books and let’s discover how an honest Advent leads to an honest hope!

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.

Mentioned in the episode:

Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered by Rory Noland

Kelly Latimore Icons

Honest Advent by Scott Erickson

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive bonus conversations, extra content and guided practices relating to Rory’s book.  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!

David, Charity, and Leo return with Ruth to continue their conversation from last week. In an episode that could have been titled, “Confessions of Professional Christians,” these four vulnerably and candidly share their own struggles with perfectionism at the cost of transformation. David gives us incredible insight into the difference between a diverse community and a reconciling community. Charity shares what has mattered most to her young family as they looked for a place to worship and Leo reveals his experience as a children’s pastor when the children ruined all his well intentioned plans with their beautiful human-ness. What does it look like to make space for worship that changes us?

This season we’re focusing on worship, particularly worship that is transformative. Our season long guest is Rory Noland and we will be working with his book, Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered. In addition to Ruth and Rory, we will also be bringing other guests into the conversations about worship with spiritual formation at its core. This season is for all who worship, not just pastors and leaders who plan the weekly services!

David Bailey is a public theologian, culture maker, and catalyst focused on building reconciling communities. David is the founder and Chief Vision Officer of Arrabon, a spiritual formation ministry that equips the American Church to actively and creatively pursue racial healing in their communities. He is the co-author of the study series, A People, A Place, and A Just Society, and the executive producer of the documentary 11 am: Hope for America's Most Segregated Hour and the Urban Doxology Project. David is rooted at East End Covenant Fellowship, serving on the preaching team, and his greatest honor is to be married to his wonderful wife, Joy.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Leo Ayala served as a family pastor for over 15 years and later as lead pastor. For four years, he has been recovering from burnout, anxiety disorder, and depression. On his journey to heal his soul and develop new life rhythms, he completed two years with the Transforming Center (TC15 and now TC19). He is finishing a DMin. in Spiritual Formation on the topic of spirituality during seasons of disorientation. He is a liaison pastor for the Caminando Juntos (Urban Strategies) program, where he looks to improve the holistic well-being of Latino pastors.

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.

Rory Noland is the director of Heart of the Artist Ministries, an organization dedicated to serving artists in the church. He mentors worship leaders, speaks at churches and conferences, leads retreats for artists, and consults with churches in the areas of worship and the arts. Rory is also a trained spiritual director, a published songwriter and has authored five books, including the best-seller, The Heart of the Artist: A Character-Building Guide For You and Your Ministry Team. Rory earned a Doctoral Degree from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. He was part of TC2 and led worship for the The Transforming Center for fifteen years.

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.

Mentioned in the episode:

Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered by Rory Noland

Arrabon

Urban Doxology

Theology of the Womb by Christine Angelle Bauman

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Anthem from Music in Solitude

Purge Me from Urban Doxology

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive bonus conversations, extra content and guided practices relating to Rory’s book.  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 full house for today’s episode! Ruth and Rory are joined by David Bailey, Leo Ayala, and Charity McClure. Sunday morning continues to be the most segregated hour of the week and many of us find ourselves longing to worship alongside a community that reflects a beautiful diversity of age, race, gender, socioeconomic status and more. In this episode our brave participants discuss how little resources exist for multi ethnic worship, the ways in which worship planners can prepare services with only some members of their congregation in mind and how important it is to allow a variety of people to bring their whole selves and voices to the worship planning and execution. They also share a beautiful experience they all had together in community that gave them a glimpse of what it might look like to worship on earth as in heaven.

This season we’re focusing on worship, particularly worship that is transformative. Our season long guest is Rory Noland and we will be working with his book, Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered. In addition to Ruth and Rory, we will also be bringing other guests into the conversations about worship with spiritual formation at its core. This season is for all who worship, not just pastors and leaders who plan the weekly services!

David Bailey is a public theologian, culture maker, and catalyst focused on building reconciling communities. David is the founder and Chief Vision Officer of Arrabon, a spiritual formation ministry that equips the American Church to actively and creatively pursue racial healing in their communities. He is the co-author of the study series, A People, A Place, and A Just Society, and the executive producer of the documentary 11 am: Hope for America's Most Segregated Hour and the Urban Doxology Project. David is rooted at East End Covenant Fellowship, serving on the preaching team, and his greatest honor is to be married to his wonderful wife, Joy.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Leo Ayala served as a family pastor for over 15 years and later as lead pastor. For four years, he has been recovering from burnout, anxiety disorder, and depression. On his journey to heal his soul and develop new life rhythms, he completed two years with the Transforming Center (TC15 and now TC19). He is finishing a DMin. in Spiritual Formation on the topic of spirituality during seasons of disorientation. He is a liaison pastor for the Caminando Juntos (Urban Strategies) program, where he looks to improve the holistic well-being of Latino pastors.

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.

Rory Noland is the director of Heart of the Artist Ministries, an organization dedicated to serving artists in the church. He mentors worship leaders, speaks at churches and conferences, leads retreats for artists, and consults with churches in the areas of worship and the arts. Rory is also a trained spiritual director, a published songwriter and has authored five books, including the best-seller, The Heart of the Artist: A Character-Building Guide For You and Your Ministry Team. Rory earned a Doctoral Degree from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. He was part of TC2 and led worship for the The Transforming Center for fifteen years.

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.

Mentioned in the episode:

Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered by Rory Noland

All music in this episode is featured on the Transforming Resource, The Lord is In Our Midst CD

Urban Doxology

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Chasing Butterflies from Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive bonus conversations, extra content and guided practices relating to Rory’s book.  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 back! This season we’re focusing on worship, particularly worship that is transformative. Our season long guest is Rory Noland and we will be working with his book, Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered. In addition to Ruth and Rory, we will also be bringing other guests into the conversations about worship with spiritual formation at its core. This season is for all who worship, not just pastors and leaders who plan the weekly services!

In today’s episode Ruth and Rory are joined by Aaron Damiani, an Anglican pastor, to discuss the worship practice of Communion. Ruth and Rory share about their own painful experiences trying to celebrate the eucharist across denominations in the early days of Transforming Community and the three talk about how to wade into the places of tension the Lord’s table can hold. They also tackle why the eucharist is an important part of transforming worship and how to make communion transformative if it’s become a rote practice.

Aaron Damiani serves as the Rector (Lead Pastor) of Immanuel Anglican Church in Chicago and is the author of The Good of Giving Up: Discovering the Freedom of Lent (Moody, 2017) and Earth Filled With Heaven: Finding Life in Liturgy, Sacraments, and other Ancient Practices of the Church (Moody, 2022). Aaron writes and speaks regularly about spiritual formation, leadership and recovering the gifts of the ancient church for today's challenges. Aaron and his wife Laura live with their four kids in Chicago's Irving Park neighborhood.

Rory Noland is the director of Heart of the Artist Ministries, an organization dedicated to serving artists in the church. He mentors worship leaders, speaks at churches and conferences, leads retreats for artists, and consults with churches in the areas of worship and the arts. Rory is also a trained spiritual director, a published songwriter and has authored five books, including the best-seller, The Heart of the Artist: A Character-Building Guide For You and Your Ministry Team. Rory earned a Doctoral Degree from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. He was part of TC2 and led worship for the The Transforming Center for fifteen years.

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.

Mentioned in the episode:

Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered by Rory Noland

All music in this episode is featured on the Transforming Resource, The Lord is In Our Midst CD

Earth Filled With Heaven: Finding Life in Liturgy, Sacraments, and other Ancient Practices of the Church  by Aaron Damiani

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Springs of Living Water from Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive bonus conversations, extra content and guided practices relating to Rory’s book.  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 back! This season we’re focusing on worship, particularly worship that is transformative. Our season long guest is Rory Noland and we will be working with his book, Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered. In addition to Ruth and Rory, we will also be bringing other guests into the conversations about worship with spiritual formation at its core. This season is for all who worship, not just pastors and leaders who plan the weekly services! 

This week Ruth and Rory brought in podcast producer Colleen Powell to discuss the problem of Sunday morning. Is it even possible to experience transformative worship in a one hour Sunday morning (or Saturday evening) service? Should you stay at a church where you are not experiencing transformative worship? And what is the secret to services that are transformative? This conversation was challenging and hopeful all at the same time. 

Rory Noland is the director of Heart of the Artist Ministries, an organization dedicated to serving artists in the church. He mentors worship leaders, speaks at churches and conferences, leads retreats for artists, and consults with churches in the areas of worship and the arts. Rory is also a trained spiritual director, a published songwriter and has authored five books, including the best-seller, The Heart of the Artist: A Character-Building Guide For You and Your Ministry Team. Rory earned a Doctoral Degree from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. He was part of TC2 and led worship for the The Transforming Center for fifteen years.

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.

Mentioned in the episode:

Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered by Rory Noland

All music in this episode is featured on the Transforming Resource, The Lord is In Our Midst CD

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

The Lord is In Our Midst from The Lord is in Our Midst

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive bonus conversations, extra content and guided practices relating to Rory’s book.  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 back! This season we’re focusing on worship, particularly worship that is transformative. Our season long guest is Rory Noland and we will be working with his book, Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered. In addition to Ruth and Rory, we will also be bringing other guests into the conversations about worship with spiritual formation at its core. This season is for all who worship, not just pastors and leaders who plan the weekly services!

In today’s episode Aaron Niequist joins Ruth and Rory to discuss the practices that make up Transforming Worship. They discuss how Covid revealed just how little participation was required in most church services, the temptation leaders face to create emotional experiences rather than allow space for the Holy Spirit to do its work, and what’s wrong with how most of us pray in worship settings. This conversation is full of thoughtful dialogue and practical advice.

Aaron Niequist is a liturgist, writer, and pastor who recently graduated from General Theological Seminary in NYC. After leading worship at Mars Hill Church (Grand Rapids, MI) and Willow Creek Church (Barrington, IL), he created A New Liturgy - a collection of modern liturgical worship recordings. He then curated a discipleship-focused, formational, ecumenical, practice-based community at Willow Creek called “The Practice”. Aaron released a book called The Eternal Current: How a Practice-based Faith can Save us from Drowning, and continues to create resources to help others flesh it out. He currently serves at St Peter’s Episcopal Church in Chelsea and helps lead Pastors, Priests and Guides retreats around the country. The best part of his life is his wife Shauna, and their sons Henry and William.  Aaronniequist.com

Rory Noland is the director of Heart of the Artist Ministries, an organization dedicated to serving artists in the church. He mentors worship leaders, speaks at churches and conferences, leads retreats for artists, and consults with churches in the areas of worship and the arts. Rory is also a trained spiritual director, a published songwriter and has authored five books, including the best-seller, The Heart of the Artist: A Character-Building Guide For You and Your Ministry Team. Rory earned a Doctoral Degree from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. He was part of TC2 and led worship for the The Transforming Center for fifteen years.

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.

Mentioned in the episode:

Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered by Rory Noland

All music in this episode is featured on the Transforming Resource, The Lord is In Our Midst CD

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive bonus conversations, extra content and guided practices relating to Rory’s book.  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!

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’re back! This season we’re focusing on worship, particularly worship that is transformative. Our season long guest is Rory Noland and we will be working with his book, Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered. In addition to Rory and Ruth, we will also be bringing other guests into the conversations about worship with spiritual formation at its core. This season is for all who worship, not just pastors and leaders who plan the weekly services!

This week Ruth and Rory discuss how this idea of transforming worship grew from their time together in Transforming Community. They share the necessity of making space for the Holy Spirit in worship that is transformative, the importance of one’s own private worship in the public worship setting, and the sacred cows of Sunday morning worship. 

Rory Noland is the director of Heart of the Artist Ministries, an organization dedicated to serving artists in the church. He mentors worship leaders, speaks at churches and conferences, leads retreats for artists, and consults with churches in the areas of worship and the arts. Rory is also a trained spiritual director, a published songwriter and has authored five books, including the best-seller, The Heart of the Artist: A Character-Building Guide For You and Your Ministry Team. Rory earned a Doctoral Degree from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. He was part of TC2 and led worship for the The Transforming Center for fifteen years.

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.

Mentioned in the episode:

Transforming Worship: Planning and Leading Sunday Services as If Spiritual Formation Mattered by Rory Noland

All music in this episode is featured on the Transforming Resource, The Lord is In Our Midst CD

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Support the podcast! This season, patrons will receive bonus conversations, extra content and guided practices relating to Rory’s book.  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 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!

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!

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!

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 16: Transforming Leadership: Managing Anxiety Within our Communities.

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

Sometimes our greatest anxieties can surround areas of stuckness, places where we know what we are doing isn’t working, but we can’t seem to find our way out. This week, Ruth and Steve will discuss second order change and how we can recognize and dissolve our stuck patterns. How does paying attention to process over content help us with this? And how can changing our own behaviors actually change the behaviors of others? Find out all this and more in this episode.

Helpful to this episode:
Everything Isn’t Terrible by Dr. Kathleen Smith

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 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!

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

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.

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!

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. Then take a moment to be with Jesus in the biblical story as you find him and 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

Support the podcast! This season, in addition to receiving overflow conversation from the episode, patrons at all levels will receive weekly reflection questions intended to help them journey through Lent with both the podcast and the resource A Just Passion! 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 focusing on justice as an aspect of spiritual formation and we believe Lent to be the perfect season to explore this connection. Using A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and the lectionary, we will look at various aspects of justice, its importance to God and why the modern church has often regrettably failed to live out God’s call to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.”

As we head into Holy Week Ruth is joined by Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah to discuss the importance of Lament as a part of justice work. What is lament and why is it important? How does it help us to counter American Christianity’s penchant for triumphalism? How does lament move us to justice and right action? Then, Ruth gives us some guidance as we walk through Holy Week toward Easter.

Lectionary scripture for this week:

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Psalm 31:9-16

Philippians 2:5-11

Matthew 26:14-27:66

or

Matthew 27:11-54

Mentioned in this episode:

Prophetic Lament by Soong-Chan Rah

Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah is Robert B. Munger Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary and the author of many books including Prophetic Lament. Rah is formerly the founding Senior Pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), a multi-ethnic church living out the values of racial reconciliation and social justice in the urban context. He has previously served on the boards of World Vision, Sojourners and the Christian Community Development Association.

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

The Way of The Cross from Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season, in addition to receiving overflow conversation from the episode, patrons at all levels will receive weekly reflection questions intended to help them journey through Lent with both the podcast and the resource A Just Passion! 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 focusing on justice as an aspect of spiritual formation and we believe Lent to be the perfect season to explore this connection. Using A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and the lectionary, we will look at various aspects of justice, its importance to God and why the modern church has often regrettably failed to live out God’s call to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.”

Our dream team from episode one returns this week to discuss communal suffering and the Paschal Mystery. Ruth is joined again by David Bailey and Tina Harris to explore these topics. How do oppressed people experience the Paschal Mystery? What is redemptive suffering? How do we determine where we are in the cycle of suffering, death, burial and resurrection and how can we discern if God might be calling us towards the next movement in this cycle?

Lectionary scripture for this week:

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Psalm 130

Romans 8:6-11

John 11:1-45

Mentioned in this episode:

Martin & Malcolm & America by Dr. James Cone

David Bailey is a public theologian, culture maker, and catalyst focused on building reconciling communities. David is the founder and Chief Vision Officer of Arrabon, a spiritual formation ministry that equips the American Church to actively and creatively pursue racial healing in their communities. He is the co-author of the study series, A People, A Place, and A Just Society, and the executive producer of the documentary 11 am: Hope for America's Most Segregated Hour and the Urban Doxology Project. David is rooted at East End Covenant Fellowship, serving on the preaching team, and his greatest honor is to be married to his wonderful wife, Joy.

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

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

Support the podcast! This season, in addition to receiving overflow conversation from the episode, patrons at all levels will receive weekly reflection questions intended to help them journey through Lent with both the podcast and the resource A Just Passion! 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 focusing on justice as an aspect of spiritual formation and we believe Lent to be the perfect season to explore this connection. Using A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and the lectionary, we will look at various aspects of justice, its importance to God and why the modern church has often regrettably failed to live out God’s call to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.”

Ruth is joined by Gary Haugen on today’s episode. Gary Haugen has spent most of his career fighting injustice at the systemic level as a lawyer and founder of International Justice Mission. Ruth and Gary discuss the moment Gary realized he’d grown up his whole life in the church never once hearing a message about how much God cared about justice. They talk about the ways in which the poor are chronically vulnerable to violence, how the church often isn’t doing work that addresses this issue, and how, at IJM, attention to their own spiritual formation is crucial in sustaining their justice work.

Lectionary scripture for this week:

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Psalm 23

Ephesians 5:8-14

John 9:1-41

Mentioned in this episode:

Just Courage by Gary Haugen

The Locust Effect by Gary Haugen

Gary Alan Haugen is an American attorney who is the Founder, CEO, and former President of International Justice Mission, a global organization that protects the poor from violence throughout the developing world. Gary has been recognized by the U.S. State Department as a Trafficking in Persons “Hero” – the highest honor given by the U.S. government for anti-slavery leadership.  He is the author of several books, including Good News About Injustice (Intervarsity Press) and, most recently, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence (Oxford University Press).

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

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded from Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season, in addition to receiving overflow conversation from the episode, patrons at all levels will receive weekly reflection questions intended to help them journey through Lent with both the podcast and the resource A Just Passion! 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 focusing on justice as an aspect of spiritual formation and we believe Lent to be the perfect season to explore this connection. Using A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and the lectionary, we will look at various aspects of justice, its importance to God and why the modern church has often regrettably failed to live out God’s call to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.”

This week, Ruth and Tina are joined by Sheila Wise Rowe to discuss racial trauma and collective healing. What exactly is racial trauma and what is the long term impact of this trauma on people of color? How can the church play a part in the healing of this trauma? And why is this healing work a part of justice work? The three women also look at the lectionary reading this week from John, the story of the Samaritan woman.

Lectionary scripture for this week:

Exodus 17:1-7

Psalm 95

Romans 5:1-11

John 4:5-42

Mentioned in this episode:

Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience by Sheila Wise Rowe

Young, Gifted, and Black: A Journey of Lament and Celebration by Sheila Wise Rowe

First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament

Sheila Wise Rowe is a truth-teller who is passionate about matters of faith and emotional healing. She advocates for the dignity, rights, and healing of abuse and racial trauma survivors, and racial conciliation.  In 2020 Sheila authored the award-winning book, Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience released by InterVarsity Press (IVP), and recently Young, Gifted, and Black: A Journey of Lament and Celebration. Sheila lives in Massachusetts with Nicholas, her husband of 31 years and near their adult children; a daughter, a son and a daughter-in-law. 

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

A Prayer for Healing from Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season, in addition to receiving overflow conversation from the episode, patrons at all levels will receive weekly reflection questions intended to help them journey through Lent with both the podcast and the resource A Just Passion! 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 focusing on justice as an aspect of spiritual formation and we believe Lent to be the perfect season to explore this connection. Using A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and the lectionary, we will look at various aspects of justice, its importance to God and why the modern church has often regrettably failed to live out God’s call to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.”

In week two, Ruth and Transforming Center team member Tina Harris sit down with Terry Wildman, translator of the First Nations Version of the New Testament. The three discuss the tragic impact colonialism has had on indigenous people, the part Christianity has played in it and how he sees the First Nations Version translation as an act of justice. Terry also reads his translation of the lectionary reading in his own voice. This conversation is incredibly powerful and insightful. 

Lectionary scripture for this week:

Genesis 12:1-4a

Psalm 121

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

John 3:1-10 or Matthew 17:1-9

Mentioned in this episode:

First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament

Terry M. Wildman, of Ojibwe and Yaqui ancestry, is the Lead Translator and Project Manager of the First Nations Version. He serves as the Director of Spiritual Growth and Leadership Development for Native InterVarsity. He’s also the founder of Rain Ministries and has previously served as a pastor and worship leader. Together they are the GRAMMY-nominated and Nammy award-winning musical duo and recording artists known as RainSong.

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

Returning from Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season, in addition to receiving overflow conversation from the episode, patrons at all levels will receive weekly reflection questions intended to help them journey through Lent with both the podcast and the resource A Just Passion! 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 focusing on justice as an aspect of spiritual formation and we believe Lent to be the perfect season to explore this connection. Using A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and the lectionary, we will look at various aspects of justice, its importance to God and why the modern church has often regrettably failed to live out God’s call to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.”

In week one, Ruth brings back Transforming Center team member Tina Harris, and guest Dominique DuBois Gilliard to look at the theme of confession. The three discuss the relational nature of justice, how our silence, inaction, and indifference to injustice breeds relational death, how our privilege can keep us disconnected from the pain of others and more. 

Lectionary scripture for this week:

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Psalm 32

Romans 5:12-19

Matthew 4:1-11

Mentioned in this episode:

Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores by Dominique DuBois Gilliard

Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege by Dominique DuBois Gilliard

Dominique DuBois Gilliard is the Director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation for the Love Mercy Do Justice(LMDJ) initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). He is the author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores, and Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege. Dominique has served in pastoral ministry in Atlanta, Chicago, and Oakland as an ordained minister. Dominique earned an MDiv from North Park Theological Seminary, where he currently serves as an adjunct professor teaching courses in the fields of Christian ethics, theology, missiology, and reconciliation.

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

The Way of the Cross from Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season, in addition to receiving overflow conversation from the episode, patrons at all levels will receive weekly reflection questions intended to help them journey through Lent with both the podcast and the resource A Just Passion! 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 focusing on justice as an aspect of spiritual formation and we believe Lent to be the perfect season to explore this connection. Using A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and the lectionary, we will look at various aspects of justice, its importance to God and why the church has often regrettably failed to live out God’s call to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.”

For this Ash Wednesday episode Ruth sits down with David Bailey and Tina Harris to examine the connections between Lent and pursuing justice as a spiritual practice. They name areas of injustice and do some definitional work around exactly what God’s call to justice is. The three also speak candidly on why the white church has often failed to focus on this call, in both word and deed.

To end they look at Matthew 6 for inspiration on practices and postures we can all have this Lenten season as we look to pursue justice as a part of our spiritual formation.

David Bailey is a public theologian, culture maker, and catalyst focused on building reconciling communities. David is the founder and Chief Vision Officer of Arrabon, a spiritual formation ministry that equips the American Church to actively and creatively pursue racial healing in their communities. He is the co-author of the study series, A People, A Place, and A Just Society, and the executive producer of the documentary 11 am: Hope for America's Most Segregated Hour and the Urban Doxology Project. David is rooted at East End Covenant Fellowship, serving on the preaching team, and his greatest honor is to be married to his wonderful wife, Joy.

Tina Harris is ordained in the United Methodist Church and holds a Master of Divinity from St. Paul School of Theology. She has served the church in a variety of roles, including Lead Pastor of Grand Avenue Temple UMC and Director of Mission, Service and Justice Ministries in the Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church. Tina is passionate about community engagement and has served and/or actively supported several civic organizations and ministries. As an attorney and diversity leader, a common thread in her work is to gather individuals into communities, challenge comfort zones and invite those whom society has overlooked to take their place at the table.

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

Isaiah 58 from Urban Doxology featuring Amena Brown

Support the podcast! This season, in addition to receiving overflow conversation from the episode, patrons at all levels will receive weekly reflection questions intended to help them journey through Lent with both the podcast and the resource A Just Passion! 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 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!

Are sabbaticals just for pastors? This week, Ruth sits down with guest Andy Crouch to talk about sabbatical from an everyman perspective. Andy has taken full responsibility for his own rhythm of regular sabbaticals by saving up and risking the need to find a new job at the end of his time away. Ruth and Andy also talk about the place of trust sabbaticals take us, the rhythms Andy sees happen when you start to take a regular sabbatical, and of course, since it’s Andy Crouch, we’re going to talk about technology

Andy Crouch is partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organization that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship. His writing explores faith, culture, and the image of God in the domains of technology, power, leadership, and the arts. He is the author of five books including The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place, and Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

We’re wrapping up our sabbath season with a solo episode. Ruth is on the mic to help us discern the something we can do to start our sabbath journey. What are your invitations and resistances? What are the obstacles you face as you attempt to “return to rest?” At the end of the episode producer Colleen and the two share what their souls each want to say to God at the end of this podcast season.

In January we’ll continue the conversation with a short season focused on sabbatical. We have more incredible guests and practical help for you in planning and executing a sabbatical.  

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!

As we’ve camped out around this idea of a “sabbath community” the last few weeks, we’ve explored the possibility and very real struggles of what that kind of commitment to sabbath looks like for pastors. This week we’re speaking with a pastor whose community is living out that practice in a variety of ways. In Ruth’s conversation with pastor Rich Villodas, he speaks about the power of a community oriented around sabbath and the ideas his church members are exploring as they try to make rest available to all, and not just the privileged few. 

Rich Villodas is the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large, multiracial church in Elmhurst, Queens, whose congregants represent more than seventy-five countries. He is also a key speaker for Emotionally Healthy Discipleship—a movement that has touched hundreds of thousands of people. His award-winning book, The Deeply Formed Life, was released in September 2020; followed by his second book, Good and Beautiful and Kind, in July 2022. He and his wife, Rosie, have two beautiful children and reside in NYC.

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

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!

Today’s conversation is an honest and vulnerable one about the challenges of leading communities in the ways of the sabbath. Ruth sits down with Christine Lee who leads a busy church in New York City. Christine shares her own journey of practicing sabbath herself and the struggles she sees to “lead a sabbath community.” She also speaks tenderly about the fear that is stirred when she considers letting things lie dormant in service to making space for her congregation to experience the sabbath.

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 they became pandemic dog parents to their rescue puppy, Baxter. She 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. 

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

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!

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!

In this episode we continue discussing how each season or stage of life presents its own challenges and opportunities with regard to sabbath keeping. Today we’re joined by two guests, Phaedra Blocker and Vicki Degner.

In the first half Phaedra and Ruth talk about sabbath keeping in seasons of singleness. Phaedra shares the ways in which the church can often fail to support single people in the practice, and what she does to make the day feel special and set apart. She also shares her own perspective on the notion that the sabbath is a privileged concept.

Then we hear from Vicki, who shares about her experience with sabbath during seasons of intense caregiving. Vicki has an adult son with special needs as well as two aging parents and she and Ruth discuss very practical ways in which they still strive to keep sabbath during this difficult season.

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. 

Vicki Degner is trained and certified through Christos Center for Spiritual Formation as a spiritual director, and has been practicing for 18 years. She serves the Transforming Center as the Coordinator of Spiritual Direction Ministries and also on the TC board. She is married to Gerry, has two adult children, and two grandchildren that are the light of her life.

Purchase Ruth’s new book! Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest comes out on October 11, 2022. It 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

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!

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!

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 [email protected] 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!

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 [email protected] 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!

We had so much goodness in our conversations around the idea of sabbath as resistance that we decided to release them as separate episodes. In this episode, Ruth and guest Cole Arthur Riley continue the discussion with a conversation around whether or not sabbath is just for the privileged few. Cole shares how she experiences rest in honor of her ancestors who were not allowed to do so, and the two discuss the tender places sabbath can take us.

Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet. She is the author of the NYT bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Guernica, and The Washington Post. Cole is also the creator and writer of Black

Liturgies, a project that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body.

Mentioned in this episode: 

This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley

Beloved by Toni Morrison

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

Tender Moment 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 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’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!

We can't wait for you to hear this encouraging conversation between Ruth and Glenn Packiam, a pastor and author of The Resilient Pastor: Leading Your Church in a Rapidly Changing World. Glenn and Ruth shared their thoughts on why it's so hard for pastors to prioritize their life with God, performing our spirituality vs. cultivating a spiritual life, challenges facing pastors and the church, and what we’re learning about pastors' spirituality.

We hope this conversation encourages you today.  Check out The Resilient Pastor and Glenn's podcast, "The Resilient Pastor Podcast."

You can preorder Ruth's next book, Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again! Want to be a part of the book launch? Learn more.

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Innocence from Music in Solitude

Support the podcast!  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.

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 [email protected]. 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!

This week we invited two additional guests to tackle this tender and challenging topic. Ruth and Steve are joined by Pastor Tina Harris, a former pastor and lawyer and currently Transforming Center’s Cultivator of Community and Connection, and Pastor Marvin Williams, the pastor of Trinity Church in Lansing, MI, and a doctoral candidate doing his work in Systems Theory in Non- Majority spaces. These four pastors and teachers sit down to discuss whether Systems Theory is just a white person thing. They touch on code switching as it pertains to differentiation and the difference between chronic anxiety and real trauma, particularly generational racial trauma. They wonder what happens when majority culture is spreading an anxiety that non-majority culture has to carry, and how can System Theory help us to manage our anxiety and do better in the conversations around race that we so desperately need to have right now? This conversation is honest, challenging, and ultimately, hopeful.

Mentioned in this episode:

A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman

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 Ruth and Tina will continue the conversation with thoughts about Systems Theory across gender and race. 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!

Sometimes our greatest anxieties can surround areas of stuckness, places where we know what we are doing isn’t working, but we can’t seem to find our way out. This week, Ruth and Steve will discuss second order change and how we can recognize and dissolve our stuck patterns. How does paying attention to process over content help us with this? And how can changing our own behaviors actually change the behaviors of others? Find out all this and more in this episode.

Helpful to this episode:
Everything Isn’t Terrible by Dr. Kathleen Smith

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 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!

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!

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!

This week, Ruth and Steve delve into the topic of family of origin and its impact on leadership. Why do we need to do the messy work of untangling our childhood issues? How do we carry childhood wounds into our leadership? How can genograms help us do this work? Ruth and Steve share their thoughts on these questions and more in today’s episode.

This week’s practice invites you to sit with the following questions: What’s a family trait that was an asset to you? What is a family trait that was a liability?  We encourage you to explore genograms, as well. Check out Steve's genogram key
and questions to use with the key.

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 more personal conversation with Ruth and Steve about parenting and 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!

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!

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!

We couldn’t leave you hanging in the darkness of Good Friday, so to wrap up season 15 of the podcast we are concluding with a conversation about Easter and the Resurrection. Ruth and Steve discuss the story of Mary and the empty tomb and what it reveals about the new order Jesus wants to bring. They marvel at the ways that Jesus cares for each of the disciples exactly as they need it most. Ruth encourages us to ask, what do we need from Jesus at this point? Are we willing to ask for it, or can we recognize the ways that Jesus is already meeting us in these needs? Join us for this discussion that invites us into the Easter season.

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus from Lent Music In Solitude

Mentioned in the episode:

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

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. 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 guide us into Holy Week with the reminder of the importance of keeping vigil and a discussion on the temptation to fall asleep. In what ways do we turn our gaze away from that which is difficult to see? What does it mean to keep vigil with Jesus and how is it an expression of our intimacy with Him? This conversation will prepare us for Holy Week and the work of walking with Jesus until the end.

It’s not too late to join us for a VIRTUAL Stations of the Cross service on Friday, April 15 at 12 pm CST. Details and sign up here.

Lectionary Readings for Holy Week

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Mentioned in the episode:

The Book of Common Prayer

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. 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 arrived at Palm Sunday and this week Ruth and Steve discuss the disorienting swing the people create between hailing Jesus as King and calling for his crucifixion in a matter of days. It brought us to wonder, in what ways do we create our own agendas to put on Jesus, and how do we fall into the temptation to make Jesus the King we want him to be rather than allow ourselves to be challenged by the King he actually is? As we move into Holy Week, this conversation will challenge us to consider the ways we make Jesus into our own image and provide practices to combat that tendency.

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

• Liturgy of the Palms: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29  •  Luke 19:28-40
• Liturgy of the Passion: Isaiah 50:4-9a  •  Psalm 31:9-16  •  Philippians 2:5-11  • Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49

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

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus from Lent Music In Solitude

Mentioned in the episode:

Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan 

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

(These were not mentioned in the episode but are excellent resources for studying the historical Jesus.)

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 some thoughts on challenging scripture passages about Jesus that we often dismiss and a lectio practice for one of those passages. 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 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!

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!

What is it about leaders that we seem to struggle so much with the temptation to take matters into our own hands and “help” God out when we distrust His plans or when we are impatient with His timing? And what is our transformational moment when we realize we’ve been pushing our own agenda and trying to take back control? This week Ruth and Steve discuss this temptation to impose our own will onto God’s will and the opportunity Lent provides to practice letting go of our own plans and surrendering to God’s will deep within. 

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

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18  • Psalm 27  •  Philippians 3:17-4:1  •  Luke 13:31-35 or Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Prayer for Healing from Lent Music In Solitude

Mentioned in the episode:

The Human Condition by Thomas Keating

Iona Abbey Worship Book

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 Centering 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!

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!

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!

Please enjoy this bonus episode, a conversation between Ruth Haley Barton and Aaron Niequist, recorded at the Becoming A Transforming Church retreat. Ruth and Aaron discuss Aaron's experience as both a participant and worship leader of Transforming Communities and the ways in which worship and fixed hour of prayer contributed to his journey in community.

If you feel drawn by God to get on a new kind of journey we hope you would consider Transforming Community 18. We are still accepting applications. TC18 begins February 20-22, 2022.

Find more information about Transforming Community 18 HERE.

Music Credit: 

May Your Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

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. 

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.

For this last episode of our Advent season, we wanted to give all our listeners an opportunity to engage with a lectionary reading through the practice of Lectio Divina. Ruth shares some thoughts on Christmas as the culmination of the Advent season and then guides listeners through a Lectio Divina reading of John 1:1-5, 14 with the help of other staff members. We invite you to listen to this in a quiet space where you can make yourself fully present to God and respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

We are praying this is fruitful practice for you during this week leading up to Christmas.

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.

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. 

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 invitation to repentance in this Advent season. Ruth reframes the idea of repentance as more than just confession and turning from sin but also a posture of openness towards the changing of one’s mind or ideas and the staff discusses what that stirred up in them and the hope they may or may not have in it. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder 

How I Changed my Mind About Women in Leadership edited by Alan Johnson

Music credit:

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus from Advent Music in Solitude

Journey 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.

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 discuss what it looks like to “prepare” for Advent, particularly with regard to the “rough edges” that need to be smoothed to make way for the coming of Jesus and Ruth concludes with a poem called “The Waters of Insurrection.”

Mentioned in this episode:

Invitation to Silence and Solitude by Ruth Haley Barton

God Speaks Through Wombs by Drew Jackson

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.

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

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.

Season 14 of the podcast invites leaders to walk through Advent by engaging with the lectionary Scripture readings for the New Year of the church calendar and listening for what God might want to say to us through them. In each episode, Ruth will sit down with members of the Transforming Center staff to read and reflect on the themes of Cycle C of the Revised Common Lectionary for Advent. 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.

Patrons at all levels received a bonus conversation this month 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.

Please join us when the new season of the podcast begins on November 22

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.

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 [email protected]

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!  

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!  

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!  

This week Ruth and Adele discuss God’s invitation to wait. They process the difference between good waiting and bad waiting and ask what waiting exposes in us? The two also examine when waiting is avoidance, particularly as it pertains to justice and how to discern when to wait and when to act. Finally, they also look at what invitations to wait God might have for the church as we come out of the pandemic. 

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:

Springs of Living Water: 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!  

The invitation to forgive is one of our most weighty invitations, as Ruth and Adele will explore. In this conversation, they will put some definitions around forgiveness, reconciliation, and how our narratives and facts are involved when it comes to the process of forgiveness. They share wisdom for when forgiveness is needed but not offered and close with tangible support for pastors to enter into their own process of forgiveness as they untangle the many wounds they may have received in this difficult season. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun

The Soul of Shame by Curt Thompson 

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!  

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!  

In this week’s episode, Ruth and Adele discuss God’s invitation to weep. Listen as the two cover the gift of tears, as well as what makes it hard to weep. As we come out of the pandemic it may be easy to miss this invitation in favor of celebrating our ability to return to the many things lost in the last year. Why should leaders create awareness and space to name these losses and mourn them? What practical things can we do to help us grieve? 

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!  

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!  

This week Ruth and Adele are breaking down the invitation to practice the presence of people. What does it mean to “shine your face upon someone” and why is our physical presence so important? Listen as Ruth and Adele tackle the notion of “relationship quotas” and share their thoughts on how to respond to this invitation in relationships that have been fractured by all that has happened during the last year and a half.

Mentioned in this episode: 

Dr. Edward Tronick Still Face Experiment (YouTube)

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! 

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.

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!  

In this episode, Ruth and Adele discuss chapter 1, Invitation to Participate in Your Own Healing. Ruth and Adele cover everything from the particular wounds we have encountered societally over the past year and a half to how to identify participation in healing versus passively waiting for something to happen to us. Learn what happens when we ignore this invitation and become transmitters of pain and what practices help us to respond to this invitation. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

The Six-Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism (mereorthodoxy.com)

Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun

Become a patron and check out 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:
Anthem: 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 13! Ruth is spending this season with her dear friend and fellow spiritual director, Adele Calhoun, discussing Adele’s book Invitations from God. The invitations outlined in this book are particularly relevant to us now, as we emerge from what has been a life-shaping season. In this first episode listen as Ruth and Adele discuss what attending and responding to God’s invitations does inside each of them and the ways freedom and invitations are deeply interconnected.

If you sign up to become a patron in the month of June you will receive a free ebook of Adele’s book Invitations From God, as a thank you for your support.  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:
Anthem: 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!  

Season 13 of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership podcast is just around the corner! Join us on June 23 as we kick off a new season with Ruth’s friend and fellow spiritual director Adele Calhoun. In this special teaser episode hear Ruth and Steve share what’s in store for season 13 and learn about our revamped patron program!

If you sign up to become a patron in the month of June you will receive a free ebook of Adele’s book Invitations From God, the subject of season 13 of the podcast, as a thank you for your support.  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:
Anthem: 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!

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!

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!

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.
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!

Episode 4 starts with some very good news if you are feeling trapped by your false self. This episode raises up some theological questions and Robert Mulholland's perspective as a New Testament theologian. Good news for those who are struggling with being stuck. Maybe God is knocking. A rich episode that will challenge and encourage you, and a practice to help become more open to the activity and presence of God in your life.

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!

Ruth names it – this is the most convicting part of the book for any of us who are Christians – especially for Christian leaders. Steve and Ruth have different reasons it is difficult to acknowledge their religious false self. If anyone thought we were done with the attributes of the false self in the last episode be warned – Mulholland brings up the list again.  There is no doubt, our religious false is very dangerous and it is alive and well in all of us. Ruth ends with sharing Mulholland's penetrating questions that conclude chapter 3. 

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.

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!

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 ITUNES

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!

We are excited to be back with our first season of 2021. Ruth launches the season by connecting Robert Mulholland's book, The Deeper Journey with the season of Lent and discussing the Examen and leadership. Is the goal of the Christian life to become like Christ? Listen to the first episode to find out the surprising answer. 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/

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!

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!

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

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!

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 7:31.

Scriptures only for Advent Cycle B Fourth 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!

Join Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins are definitely keepin' it real. Listen and discover what is so far in the rear view mirror for Ruth. Based on this year's Advent Reflections (Cycle B), 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 7:15.

Scriptures only for Advent Cycle B Third Sunday of Advent

SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

Listen to other episodes from Season 11Access 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!

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!

Happy New Year! Advent marks the beginning of the church year. 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 7:19.

Scriptures only for Advent Cycle B

SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES

You can also access podcast on Google Play or Stitcher.

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!

Our next podcast season is designed to help leaders carve out some time to make Advent a season of transformation for themselves. Join Ruth and Steve for spiritual encouragement with an episode for each week of Advent. Based on this year's Advent Reflections (Cycle B), you can enhance your Advent practice when you follow along with a digital version of this popular resource. It is yours free, when you become a patron at any level. Visit transformingcenter.org/patron today. Our first episode launches on Monday November 23. 

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.

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

What is the body of Christ? If you think it is only the church little “c” you will want to listen to this episode. Frustrated with your local church? Ruth Haley Barton and Steve Weins have some bad news for you and it will likely surprise you. Join them for an expanding conversation about corporate spirituality.

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

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.

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
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

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 Haley Barton and Steve Weins move to looking at the four classic Christian stages of spiritual journey – awakening, purgation, illumination, union. Mulholland makes a valuable contribution to our understanding with five aspects of purgation. Steve and Ruth discuss current events and why we shouldn't shy away from the sin of omission in regards to systematic racial injustice and the role the church has played it in.

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

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.

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

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

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