Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups

by Ruth Haley Barton

Publisher:

IVP

, 2012

Overview

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.

Key Features

• Discovers experience community and listens to God together.
• Discerns the most important question as a leadership team.
• Provides us with much more than simply a plan of action.

Praise for the Print Edition

Ruth Haley Barton is a gifted distiller of historic best practices for community discernment and direction. Exercising her counsel on the rare ‘vow of stability’ would by itself rescue multiple organizations from broken strategic trajectories. I highly recommend Pursuing God’s Will Together for leaders, teams and organizations.

--Dr. Bruce McNicol, president, Truefaced Inc.

Fabulous! I look forward to giving copies to our staff and elders. Ruth provides a practical, powerful road map so we can discern the most important question as a leadership team: What is God’s will for us on a particular issue?

--Pete Scazzero, pastor of New Life Fellowship Church and author of The Emotionally Healthy Church

I have been grateful for Ruth Haley Barton’s wisdom in the past on spiritual disciplines so crucial for the soul of a leader. I am sure her latest work will be of great benefit to those who seek the grace of discernment in their work and ministries.

--Gary Haugen, president and CEO, International Justice Mission

Product Details

• Title: Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups
• Author: Ruth Haley Barton
• Publisher: IVP
• Print Publication Date: 2012
• Logos Release Date: 2023
• Pages: 253
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Christian leadership; Church group work; Discernment (Christian theology); Decision making › Religious aspects--Christianity
• ISBNs: 9780830869787, 9780830835669, 0830869786, 0830835660
• Resource ID: LLS:9780830869787
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-06T20:45:28Z

About Ruth Haley Barton

Ruth Haley Barton (DD, Northern Seminary) is founding president of the Transforming Center, a spiritual formation ministry to pastors and Christian leaders. A trained spiritual director, teacher, and retreat leader, she has served on the pastoral staff of several churches, including Willow Creek Community Church. A sought-after teacher, preacher, and consultant to leadership teams, she is currently adjunct professor of spiritual transformation at Northern Seminary.

Educated at Wheaton College, Northern Seminary, and Loyola University Chicago Institute for Pastoral Studies, Ruth is the author of numerous books and resources on the spiritual life, including Invitation to Solitude and Silence, Sacred Rhythms, Longing for More, and Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. She is also the coauthor of An Ordinary Day with Jesus: Experiencing the Reality of God in Your Everyday Life and author of an online resource titled eReflections, spiritual guidance via e-mail. She contributes regularly to Conversations: A Forum for Authentic Transformation.