Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry by Ruth Haley Barton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I truly loved this book! Using the story of Moses and how God used him and transformed him, Barton shows how anyone with any leadership role in the church or para-church needs first the Presence of God than any other leadership tool or seminar.
Moses was a Hebrew and grew up Egyptian. That created an identity crisis and later a confidence crisis. For his early life, neither side fully accepted him. I feel that too; I am ethnically Chinese and grew up American. Neither race fully accepts me. Therefore, the same urge to prove ourselves, the same issues of misplaced and misdirected anger, and above all, the same need by God to know that God accepts us and will work with us. HE doesn’t accept me to “act” American or Asian.
Moses felt isolated at times and God turned the isolation into the spiritual solitude, where the silence is deafening. That is a discipline we need to bring back, between TV, social media, and just life.
Because of this book, I feel more comfortable as a leader, more in touch of what lays beneath in my soul, and the promised land. The promised land as Barton defined is not achieving whatever metric we have for success, but just being with the Lord.
amicusveritae 