Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry (aff). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2008; 2nd ed. 2018. 251 pages.
Ruth Barton is the founder and CEO of the Transforming Center, an organization that seeks to strengthen pastors, Christian leaders, and the congregations and organizations they serve. She is a popular speaker and author of several other books, including Invitation to Solitude, Sacred Rhythms, Longing for More, and Pursuing God’s Will Together.
Lately, I have been drawn to books that focus on the internal dynamics of leadership. Perhaps we have been too focused on leaders’ results, and, consequently, we have a generation of spiritually and emotionally weary, discouraged, and increasingly unproductive leaders. I recently reviewed The Emotionally Healthy Leader which touched on many of the same issues this book addresses. (You can read that review here.)
At first glance, a book-length discussion on a leader’s soul seems a bit extraneous. After all, leaders are paid to get results. Focusing on a leader’s internal workings seems to be a bonus, not a fundamental. As someone who has led for more than thirty years, however, I have seen the carnage that has come to families and organizations when leaders failed to nurture their soul. I have known many well-meaning leaders who neglected themselves until they lost their joy, health, and marriage. This book is a necessary corrective to mainstream leadership teaching.
Barton claims that the soul is “. . . the part of you that is most real—the very essence of you that God knew before he brought you forth in physical form, the part that will exist after your body goes into the ground . . . It is the part of you that longs for more of God than you have right now” (13). She jokes that “Losing your soul is sort of like losing your credit card” (13). It seems as if we just had it, but it disappeared without us noticing.
She begins by asking this pressing question: “What difference does solitude and spiritual seeking make in the life of a leader—really?” (14). Barton suggests that most leaders lead from their head or emotions. But, “What would it look like for me to lead more consistently from my soul—the place of my own encounter with God—rather than leading primarily from my head, my unbridled activism, or my performance-oriented drivenness?” (25). It is an intriguing concept to consider, leading from your soul.
Barton highlights the quality of leadership people provide when they lead out of their intimate, fresh, invigorating walk with God. She says, “. . . We still have bread to offer that is warm from the oven of our intimacy with God” (29). She claims, “Leadership roles, by their very nature, give a lot of fodder to the ego” (31). Leaders who do not guard and nurture their soul might find that it has become corrupted.
Barton talks about the dark side of leadership, which reminds me of Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership by McIntosh and Rima. Barton cites the example of Bill Clinton, as do McIntosh and Rima. Some leaders who seem to be highly successful ultimately commit flagrant sins or completely fall apart, much to people’s surprise. They fail because, though impressive on the outside, they have become hollow.
Barton writes a great deal about the value of solitude. She claims, “In solitude we stop believing our own press” (51). While I agree with her for the most part, I have also known people who, by withdrawing from others, entered an echo chamber and started believing their own version of reality. If we develop the ability to hear from God in solitude, He will expose the falsehood in our lives. But if we merely listen to ourselves in solitude, we may only solidify our false impressions.
Barton uses the story of Moses as a backdrop for this book. To be honest, I found that framework a bit distracting, partly because she rarely goes very deep in her exegesis and partly because, at times, she makes statements the text does not support. I generally agree with what she says about leadership in general, but I was occasionally put off or distracted by how she derives her point from Moses’ tale.
Here are a few examples of her exegesis I found problematic. Barton suggests that after 40 years in the wilderness, Moses had become more “real” and God now had a “real” person to deal with (60). She may be correct, but perhaps more accurately, Moses was humbled. Forty years of herding sheep may not have made him any more real, but it certainly made the former prince more humble! Barton also describes Jesus “wrestling with God” in the Garden of Gethsemane (82). While this interpretation is common, I’m not sure Jesus was actually “wrestling” as much as surrendering. Barton also refers to the “fatal question,” which I’m assuming is not actually fatal (84). She states at one point, “God and Moses fought it out one more time” (156). Again, I don’t see their interaction that way. Moses knew God too well to think he could fight with Him. She states that Moses’ lifestyle was not “sane” enough to support his family until Jethro came with them to confront him (102). I would push back on this interpretation. Moses had been in Egypt endangering his life confronting Pharaoh. Moses may have left his family in his father-in-law’s care until he returned to the wilderness. His doing so does not necessarily mean his lifestyle was too crazy to sustain a family. She also writes that Moses was “angry” at God (169). Again, I disagree. In discussing Moses’ request to see God’s glory, Barton suggests that God upgraded Moses’ request and showed him his “goodness” instead, because God knew that was what he really needed (158). Again, I disagree with this interpretation. Nothing is more exalted about God than His glory. After leading a nation of complainers and critics, Moses didn’t just need to know God was good; Moses needed to know God was awesome! Finally, Barton notes that Jesus didn’t have much time to hear His disciples’ ministry reports after they returned from their preaching tour (120). Barton emphasizes that Jesus was more concerned about taking the twelve into solitude so they could rest. But her interpretation misses the point. Jesus was always trying to debrief with His disciples. The reason He took them into the wilderness was because it was impossible to teach and reflect with them among the crowds. The Bible rarely records Jesus urging His disciples to rest. But He often sought to remove them from the daily press and distraction of the crowds. The purpose of the seclusion was often not for physical rest, but so they could process with Him what they had just experienced. As these examples demonstrate, Barton handles the text a bit carelessly at times, which distracts from the important points about leadership and the soul she gets right.
I appreciated many things about this book. I enjoyed her quote of Elizabeth Barrett Browning relating to the burning bush:Earth’s crammed with heaven.
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes—
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries (64).
This quote would be great to include in Experiencing God!
I also like Barton’s declaration, “But at the heart of spiritual leadership is the capacity to notice the activity of God so we can join him in it” (68). Again, her statement resonates with Experiencing God. She goes on to write, “The practice of paying attention awakens us to what is extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary” (70).
Barton focuses a great deal on the process of coming to know who we truly are. She notes, “There is no escaping who we are. Leadership will not help us escape ourselves—it will only bring who we are into bolder relief!” (76). She adds, “. . . calling is first and foremost the calling to be yourself, that self that God created you to be” (77). And, “We are saved from being who we are not and called to be who we are” (79).
Barton writes much about recognizing our limits. She notes, “. . . to be human is to have limits. All true leaders must eventually face this reality” (107). She adds, “Oddly enough, something of the will of God is contained in the very limits that we often try to sidestep or ignore” (112).
She also makes some interesting statements about rest and finding a rhythm to leadership. She suggests that “There is nothing more crucial to the staying power of the leader than establishing rhythms that keep us replenished” (122).
Barton offers much wisdom for how leaders and their teams should make decisions. She argues that “The greater the call for decisive action, the more we must be sure that we have waited long enough to receive clear direction” (125). She suggests that, at times, a team might need to remain silent before discussing a major decision. She also suggests speakers schedule extended times of silence before and after their speaking engagements (133).
Barton makes some interesting observations about intercessory prayer as well. She claims, “. . . intercessory prayer is not primarily about thinking that I know what someone else needs and trying to wrestle it from God. Rather, it is being present to God on another’s behalf, listening for the prayer of the Holy Spirit that is already being prayed for that person before the throne of grace, and being willing to join God in that prayer” (146). She also states, “Intercessory prayer is more about not knowing than it is about knowing” (147). She suggests, pragmatically, that rather than promising people you will pray for them, promise you will pray for them every time the Holy Spirit brings them to your remembrance (148). She claims this caveat absolves you from the guilt of forgetting to follow through with prayer, and it places the responsibility on God to remind you to pray for that request.
Barton writes, “Any leader who cannot endure profound levels of loneliness will not last long” (163). I am not sure I agree with this statement. Certainly, it can be lonely at the top, but I also believe wise leaders surround themselves with trusted advisors and friends.
Finally, Barton suggests that “At the heart of spiritual leadership and spiritual journeying is discernment—the capacity to recognize and respond to the presence and the activity of God both personally and in community” (192). Barton excels in statements like these. Throughout the book, she pushes for leaders to slow down and become aware of God’s presence around and within them through solitude and rest. Such activities are not innate to most leaders.
Plenty of nuggets in this book make it a worthwhile read. Because she pushes back against conventional leadership wisdom, this book will certainly challenge your thinking and make you reflect on your leadership approach more deeply than other leadership volumes might. As I shared, I sometimes found that her exegesis seemed forced and was more distracting than helpful, but I generally agreed with her views on the importance of soul care.
Nonetheless, if you have not read any of Barton’s work or much on the soul care of a leader, I recommend that you read this book carefully.
Rating: 3
