A great book for your own spiritual growth

Several months ago, I started reading a book that I've been recommending to everyone I know in Christian leadership.

After reading just one chapter, I raved about it. It's that good.

After reading two chapters, I ordered it as gifts for some folks who were helping me in a leadership meeting. It's that good.

I finally finished the book this week. I think it's one of the best books on Christian leadership out there. It's that good.

It's called Strenthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton.

It won't give you five steps to transform your church or ministry. It won't offer quick fixes to complex problems in the congregation. It doesn't promise solutions to burnout. fact, it doesn't promise anything.

It does, however, force you to take an honest look at your own soul as a leader and challenges you to get before God.

Rather than give a review, I've decided to share some excerpts and quotes that I'm still mulling over.

"Before I could censor my thoughts, I heard myself saying, 'I'm tired of helping other people enjoy God; I just want to enjoy God for myself.'"

(How many of us would be honest enough to say that???)

"What would it look like for me to lead more consistently from my soul—the place of my own encounter with God—rather than leding primarily form my head, my unbridled activism, or my performance-oriented drivenness? What would it be like to find God in the context of my leadership rather than miss God in the context of my leadership?"

(Have you ever felt like you were spending so much time planning ministry activities that you wondered where God was in the midst of it all?)

"One of the primary functions of solitude is to settle into ourselves in God's presence. This is not easy and it takes time. But it is the answer to the heart cry that erupts when we have been distracted for too long by surface concerns. 'I have lost myself!' we cry. Solitude is the only way to find ourselves again. And the longer we have lost to ourselves, caught up with external stiumlation, the longer it takes to find our way home again."

(How often have you thought, I have lost myself!")

"All of us have a shadow side to our leadership. Most of us start out with a desire to do good things to make a difference; however, as McIntosh and Rima point out, 'the personal insecurities, feelings of inferiority, and the need for...approval (among other dysfunctions) that compel people to become successful leders are often the very same issues that precipitate their failure...Only those who have been brave enough to ride their own monsters of anger and greed, jealousy and narcissism, fear and violence all the way down to the bottom will find a truer energy with which to lead. Only those who have faced their own dark side and be trusted to lead others toward the Light."

(How many times have you tried to run from the "shadow side" of your leadership rather than face it, name it, and deal with it on a regular basis?)

"God is not in any particular hurry to get us to the Promised Land. He is much more concerned about the transforming work He is doing in us to prepare us for greater responsibilities of freedom living."

(How many times have you thought, are we there yet?—and you weren't in a car?)

"Our free will is something that Jesus honors with us, and it is something that we must honor with others...I have had to learn that someone else's personal choice does not necessarily mean that I have failed as a leader or that the community has failed. Being able to distinguish between our own issues (for which we must take responsibility) and others' issues (which are not our responsibility) is something we have to work through very hard with God in person self-examination and in trustworthy community."

(Ouch! Here's one even more painful to read...)

"When we refuse to live within our limits...we wear out ourselves and those who lead with us. We compromise the quality of realtionshiops with God and the people around us. We compromise our effectiveness at doing the things we have been called to do. To live within our limits is to live humbly as the creature and not the Creator. Only God is infinite; the rest of us need to be very clear about what we are to be about in any given moment and say no to everything else."

Let me know if you decide to pick up this book. I'd love to know your thoughts. I hope it challenges you (and steps on your toes) as much as it did me. I don't want to be the only one running around with sore feet.

Have you read this book? How did it impact you?