Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership with Ruth Haley Barton

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

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

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!  

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!  

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

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.