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Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership

Christian leaders sustain fruitful, faithful leadership only by continually seeking God in the crucible of ministry so their souls—not their egos, activism, or performance—become the source from which they lead.

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What it’s about

Drawing on the life of Moses and her own experience leading a ministry organization, Ruth Haley Barton argues that the best thing any leader brings to leadership is their own transforming self. Rather than offering another set of leadership techniques, this book explores the relationship between a leader's private encounters with God in solitude and their public calling to lead, showing how spiritual disciplines—solitude, silence, paying attention, sabbath rhythms, intercession, and communal discernment—strengthen the soul against the depletion, isolation, and self-deception that cause leaders to 'lose their souls.' Through practices at the end of each chapter and honest reflection on the paradoxes and loneliness of leadership, Barton guides pastors and Christian leaders to forge a connection between their inner transformation and their outward leadership, so they can lead from a place of spiritual authenticity, freedom, and rest in God.

The through-line

Who it’s for
A Christian leader—pastor, ministry or organizational leader—who wants to lead faithfully and fruitfully without losing their own soul, longing for more of God than their current experience of leadership provides.
The problem
The relentless demands, complexity, and high-performance culture of ministry leadership deplete, isolate, and pull leaders away from intimacy with God. The leader feels exhausted, empty, disconnected from their soul, secretly wondering if there must be more to life in leadership than what they are experiencing.
The plan
  1. Ask honestly, 'How is it with your soul?' and pay attention to what lies beneath.
  2. Enter solitude and silence as the place of your own conversion and settling into yourself in God's presence.
  3. Practice paying attention to the burning bushes and inner stirrings where God is at work.
  4. Embrace your calling and live within your God-given limits and life-giving rhythms.
  5. Lead through intercession and move from isolation to authentic leadership community.
The payoff
Leading from a transforming self rather than unconscious false-self patterns, activism, or performance-driven emptiness. · Experiencing inner freedom, rest, and the assurance of God's presence and goodness in the midst of leadership. · Cultivating trustworthy leadership community and discerning God's will together.

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