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Drawing on the imagery of the natural rhythms of the created order,
Sacred Rhythms explores the practices that spiritual seekers and
growing disciples have used throughout history to grow closer to
God. In a similar way, the disciplines of the spiritual life are
the basic components of the rhythm of intimacy that feeds the soul,
keeping Christians open and available to God's surprising
initiative in their lives. In this six session video-based study
(DVD/digital video sold separately), Ruth Haley Barton provides
guidance for you and your group in a way that links the disciplines
of the Christian faith to the most compelling desires of the human
soul. Each of the following sessions offers specific practices that
allow you to experience each discipline and incorporate it into
your life. Sessions include: Longing for More Creating Space for
God Engaging the Scriptures Flesh and Blood Spirituality Bringing
My Whole Self to God A Rule of Life Designed for use with the
Sacred Rhythms Video Study (sold separately).
Ruth Haley Barton believes sabbath saved her. In her book Embracing
Rhythms of Work and Rest, Ruth traces the need for, barriers to,
and beauty available in this gift. Sabbath Journal offers selected
wisdom from the book, blank spaces for written responses, and
fifty-two prompts to launch divine dialogue. Ruth says, "What you
write here does not have to be profound; it just needs to be true.
And even after you have finished reading the book, you can keep
using this journal as a sacred space to 'say something true to God'
as part of your sabbath practice." As you intentionally develop the
habit of pausing, use this interactive resource to reflect with
Ruth at your own pace and in your own words. This journal is your
next step in replenishment to guide your life's patterns.
In our frenzied culture, the possibility of living in balanced
rhythms of work and rest often feels elusive. This rings especially
true for pastors and leaders who carry the weight of nonstop
responsibility. Most know they need rest but might be surprised to
find within themselves a deep resistance to letting go and resting
in God one day a week, let alone for longer seasons of sabbatical.
The journey to a meaningful sabbath practice is slow and gradual,
and it is a journey we need to take in community. Sharing her own
story of practicing sabbath for the past twenty years, Ruth Haley
Barton offers hard-won wisdom regarding the rhythms of sabbath,
exploring both weekly sabbath keeping as well as extended periods
of sabbatical time. Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest grounds us
in God's intentions in giving us the gift of sabbath, providing
practical steps for embedding sabbath rhythms in churches and
organizations. Each chapter concludes with "What Your Soul Wants to
Say to God," an opportunity to reflect and engage God around your
own journey with the material. Sabbath is more than a practice-it
is a way of life ordered around God's invitation to regular rhythms
of work, rest, and replenishment that will sustain us for the long
haul of life in leadership. Includes a conversation guide for small
groups and communities.
Winner of a 2006 Logos Book Award Do you long for a deep,
fundamental change in your life with God? Do you desire a greater
intimacy with God? Do you wonder how you might truly live your life
as God created you to live it? Spiritual disciplines are activities
that open us to God's transforming love and the changes that only
God can bring about in our lives. Picking up on the monastic
tradition of creating a "rule of life" that allows for regular
space for the practice of the spiritual disciplines, this book
takes you more deeply into understanding seven key disciplines
along with practical ideas for weaving them into everyday life.
Each chapter includes exercises to help you begin the
practices--individually and in a group context. The final chapter
puts it all together in a way that will help you arrange your life
for spiritual transformation. The choice to establish your own
sacred rhythm is the most important choice you can make with your
life.
When we experience frustrations in daily life, many of us hold
ourselves to blame. Self-criticism is often our default setting.
But we can have a more gracious posture toward ourselves. We can
practice disciplines of self-kindness. Editor and spiritual
director Cindy Bunch calls us to self-care through greater
compassion for ourselves. She helps us pay attention to the
frustrations that bug us in order to identify negative thinking
about ourselves or others. As we do so, we can discern what we need
to let go. This allows us to lean into the things that bring us
joy. Each chapter is filled with spiritual practices and creative
exercises for reflection and celebration. The pages of the
appealing smaller book format are illustrated with photographs and
art from the author. Be kind to yourself. And discover new
opportunities to embrace joy.
Winner of a Christianity Today Book Award Much of our faith and
practice is about words--preaching, teaching, talking with others.
Yet all of these words are not enough to take us into the real
presence of God where we can hear his voice. This book is an
invitation to you to meet God deeply and fully outside the demands
and noise of daily life. It is an invitation to solitude and
silence. The beauty of a true invitation is that we really do have
a choice about embarking on this adventure. God extends the
invitation, but he honors our freedom and will not push himself
where he is not wanted. Instead, he waits for us to respond from
the depths of our desire. Will you say yes? This expanded edition
includes a guide for groups to use both in discussing the book
content and in learning to practice silence together.
M. Robert Mulholland Jr. defines spiritual formation as "the
process of being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of
others." Compact and solid, this definition encompasses the
dynamics of a vital Christian life and counters our culture's
tendency to make spirituality a trivial matter or reduce it to a
private affair between "me and Jesus." In Invitation to a Journey,
Mulholland helps Christians new and old understand that we become
like Christ gradually, not instantly. Not every personality is
suited to an early morning quiet time, so Mulholland frees
different personality types to express their piety differently. He
reviews the classical spiritual disciplines and demonstrates the
importance of undertaking our spiritual journey with (and for the
sake of) others. This road map for spiritual formation is
profoundly biblical and down to earth. In the finest tradition of
spiritual literature, it is a vital help to Christians at any stage
of their journey. This edition is revised and expanded by Ruth
Haley Barton with a new foreword, spiritual practices and study
guide, to provide spiritual direction for individuals and groups
seeking spiritual companionship for one another on the journey of
transformation.
Spiritual formation is the key to the survival of our faith. There
is an urgent need today for church services that are substantive
and purposeful. Stigmatized by scandal, the church in North America
and throughout Europe has been branded as useless and irrelevant.
To stem the tide of nominal Christianity, we need to get serious
about making disciples who can make other disciples. Rory Noland is
a worship leader who has led in contexts ranging from megachurches
to small retreat settings such as the Transforming Center with Ruth
Haley Barton. Combining discipleship and worship-what Noland calls
transforming worship-he offers a vision for worship as spiritual
formation. We need to reclaim our worship services as a formative
space, and through that we will become the light of Christ in a
dark world.
Best Book of Spiritual Formation, from Byron Borger, Hearts and
Minds Bookstore Have you joined a church or small group in hopes of
experiencing real life change, only to be disappointed? Have you
sat through inspiring sermons about what is possible when
Christians gather together in mutually edifying relationships, only
to recognize how cynical you have become after many failed
attempts? Community may be one of the most over-promised,
under-delivered aspects of the Christian life today. Individuals
remain selfish and stuck in their ways. Communities become
spiritually lifeless or even fall apart because we don't know how
to experience transformation together. Transforming community does
not come primarily from listening to inspiring preaching or adding
another church program. It emerges as we embrace a shared
commitment to the attitudes, practices and behaviors that open us
to Christ in our midst. And that's where Life Together in Christ
comes in. Reflecting on the story of the two disciples who meet
Christ on the Emmaus Road, Ruth Haley Barton offers this
interactive guide for small groups of spiritual companions who are
ready to encounter Christ in transforming ways-right where they are
on the road of real life.
"I'm tired of helping others enjoy God-I just want to enjoy God for
myself." With this painful admission, Ruth Haley Barton invites us
to an honest exploration of what happens when spiritual leaders
lose track of their souls. Weaving together contemporary
illustrations with penetrating insight from the life of Moses,
Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership explores topics such as
responding to the dynamics of calling facing the loneliness of
leadership leading from your authentic self cultivating spiritual
community reenvisioning the promised land discerning God's will
together Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your
soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a
life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for
yourself and for those you lead. This expanded edition includes the
popular "How Is It with Your Soul?" assessment for leaders and a
flexible six- or twelve-week guided experience for groups.
There's a difference between praying and living prayerfully. This
book guides you through three time-proven ways that millions of
Christians throughout history have discovered make a difference.
You, too, will see your prayer life spill over into everything you
do so that your entire life becomes prayerful. As the author shares
his own personal stories and passes along wisdom on prayerful
living from other Christians of today and the past, you will sense
God's invitation to you to live prayerfully by praying with other
people's words, praying without words, and praying with your own
words. Included are explorations of these three ways of prayer and
guides for readers to experience them.
In the quiet places of your heart, do you ever yearn for something
more? Many Christian women, if we are honest, feel discontented
about aspects of our lives. Some of us long to be married, while
others long to escape from marriage. Some of us struggle with our
roles in the church, wondering why God would give us gifts that are
not allowed to flourish. Some of us feel we have no voice. Others
of us have no idea what we would say if we did. Ruth Haley Barton
believes that what lies underneath all our confusion is a longing
for freedom--not the freedom to do as we please, but the freedom to
discover our full identity in Christ and use our gifts to serve
God. With wisdom and charity Barton's exhilarating book explores
the many areas of a woman's life that need the freeing touch of
Christ such as vocation, relationships, spirituality, identity,
sexuality, singleness, marriage and motherhood. Avoiding both
feminist and fundamentalist trappings, she affirms our longings as
important markers which point us toward God's renewing love.
Barton's honesty, biblical insight, practical examples and loving
encouragement combine to form a powerful, empowering book that will
transform the way you live out your identity and purpose in God's
kingdom.
Although women have unprecedented opportunities and options today,
their lives are still often filled with the mundane, the difficult,
the downright tragic. And the challenges of life become even more
difficult when there doesn't seem to be any purpose for them.
Without a sense of purpose, our lives can become unmanageable and
unfulfilling. These studies will help you discover God's purposes
in your life--in your creation, your salvation, and your
giftedness; in your work and home life--and will give you the
framework you need to live a purposeful life that brings glory and
honor to him.
As you journey deeper in the Christian pilgrimage, you come to
realize that the Christian life is more than merely replicating
particular spiritual disciplines or practices. You begin to
understand that at the core of Christian faith is the
transformation of your very identity. M. Robert Mulholland Jr.
exposes the false selves that you may be tempted to hide behind and
helps you to instead discover the true self that comes from being
hidden with Christ in God. If the goal of the Christian journey is
Christlikeness, then you must reckon with the unhealthy ways that
you root your sense of being in things other than God. Along the
way, you will discover a growing sense of intimacy and abandonment
to God. Not only will you encounter the joy of discovering your own
self, you will also find a greater love for others and compassion
for the world. The expanded edition includes a study guide for
individual reflection or group discussion.
2013 Logos Book of the Year in Spirituality/Devotional Meetings can
sap our energy, rupture community and thoroughly demoralize us.
They can go on forever with no resolution. Or they can rush along
without consensus just to "get through the agenda." What if there
was another way? Church boards and other Christian leadership teams
have long relied on models adapted from the business world. Ruth
Haley Barton, president of the Transforming Center, helps teams
transition to a much more suitable model--the spiritual community
that discerns God's will together. In these pages you will discover
personal and group practices that will lead you into a new way of
experiencing community and listening to God together.
"Ruth Haley Barton offers much wise, sane, concrete help for people
who are ready for the 'more' of God amidst their busy lives, and
want a better way to arrange their lives to receive God's
transforming presence. She clearly spells out an excellent rhythm
of classical spiritual practices that can keep us open and
available to God's transforming actions in and among us. She
grounds these practices in our own deepest desires, connecting
those desires with God's desire for our well-being. She shares some
of her own personal experiences as a sometimes struggling Christian
in an honest and inspiring way. She gives very helpful guidelines
for using the book within a group of people who are seeking to
create better conditions in their lives to receive God's
transforming presence.
Women and men are designed to work together in fulfilling God's
mission on earth. Yet God's original intent for equal partnership
has been so distorted that churches and organizations continually
struggle to foster healthy mixed-gender ministry collaboration. Is
it even possible to return to the Genesis ideal of co-laborers in
today's contexts? Longtime ministry leader Rob Dixon knows it's
possible-though it takes intentionality, courage, and wisdom. Based
on qualitative field research among ministry practitioners,
Together in Ministry offers a prophetic roadmap for individuals and
communities as they seek to develop flourishing ministry
partnerships for women and men. Organized around the key domains of
inner life, community culture, and intentional practices, this
model identifies ten key attributes of partnerships that are both
personally satisfying and missionally effective. For each attribute
Dixon presents research findings and biblical examples, along with
benefits, barriers, and practical next steps. With plenty of
real-life stories from ministry leaders and reflection questions in
each chapter, Together in Ministry casts a compelling-and
encouraging-vision for flourishing partnerships and equips teams
and individuals with next steps for making that vision a reality.
Best Book of Spiritual Formation, from Byron Borger, Hearts and
Minds Bookstore Have you joined a church or small group in hopes of
experiencing real life change, only to be disappointed? Have you
sat through inspiring sermons about what is possible when
Christians gather together in mutually edifying relationships, only
to recognize how cynical you have become after many failed
attempts? Community may be one of the most over-promised,
under-delivered aspects of the Christian life today. Individuals
remain selfish and stuck in their ways. Communities become
spiritually lifeless or even fall apart because we don't know how
to experience transformation together. Transforming community does
not come primarily from listening to inspiring preaching or adding
another church program. It emerges as we embrace a shared
commitment to the attitudes, practices and behaviors that open us
to Christ in our midst. And that's where Life Together in Christ
comes in. Reflecting on the story of the two disciples who meet
Christ on the Emmaus Road, Ruth Haley Barton offers this
interactive guide for small groups of spiritual companions who are
ready to encounter Christ in transforming ways-right where they are
on the road of real life.
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