Invitation to Solitude and Silence PDF Download

Author: Ruth Haley Barton
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830875751
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
Christianity Today Book Award Much of our faith and practice is about words—preaching, teaching, talking with others. Yet all of these words are not enough to take us into the real presence of God where we can hear his voice. This book is an invitation to you to meet God deeply and fully outside the demands and noise of daily life. It is an invitation to solitude and silence. The beauty of a true invitation is that we really do have a choice about embarking on this adventure. God extends the invitation, but he honors our freedom and will not push himself where he is not wanted. Instead, he waits for us to respond from the depths of our desire. Will you say yes? This expanded edition includes a guide for groups to use both in discussing the book content and in learning to practice silence together.

Author: Ruth Haley Barton
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830874178
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
"I'm tired of helping others enjoy God—I just want to enjoy God for myself." With this painful admission, Ruth Haley Barton invites us to an honest exploration of what happens when spiritual leaders lose track of their souls. Weaving together contemporary illustrations with penetrating insight from the life of Moses, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership explores topics such as responding to the dynamics of calling facing the loneliness of leadership leading from your authentic self cultivating spiritual community reenvisioning the promised land discerning God's will together Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead. This expanded edition includes the popular "How Is It with Your Soul?” assessment for leaders and a flexible six- or twelve-week guided experience for groups.

Author: Ruth Haley Barton
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830873937
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
Academy of Parish Clergy Top Ten List "Come away and rest awhile." Jesus invites us to be with him, offering our full and undivided attention to him. When we choose retreat, we make a generous investment in our friendship with Christ. We are not always generous with ourselves where God is concerned. Many of us have tried to incorporate regular times of solitude and silence into the rhythm of our ordinary lives, which may mean that we give God twenty minutes here and half an hour there. And there’s no question we are better for it! But we need more. Indeed, we long for more. In these pages Transforming Center founder and seasoned spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton gently leads us into retreat as a key practice that opens us to God. Based on her own practice and her experience leading hundreds of retreats for others, she will guide you in a very personal exploration of seven specific invitations contained within the general invitation to retreat. You will discover how to say yes to God's winsome invitation to greater freedom and surrender. There has never been a time when the invitation to retreat is so radical and so relevant, so needed and so welcome. It is not a luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual life.

Author: Ruth Haley Barton
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830878297
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Logos Book Award Do you long for a deep, fundamental change in your life with God? Do you desire a greater intimacy with God? Do you wonder how you might truly live your life as God created you to live it? Spiritual disciplines are activities that open us to God's transforming love and the changes that only God can bring about in our lives. Picking up on the monastic tradition of creating a "rule of life" that allows for regular space for the practice of the spiritual disciplines, this book takes you more deeply into understanding seven key disciplines along with practical ideas for weaving them into everyday life. Each chapter includes exercises to help you begin the practices--individually and in a group context. The final chapter puts it all together in a way that will help you arrange your life for spiritual transformation. The choice to establish your own sacred rhythm is the most important choice you can make with your life.

Author: Ruth Haley Barton
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830896384
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Best Book of Spiritual Formation, from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore Have you joined a church or small group in hopes of experiencing real life change, only to be disappointed? Have you sat through inspiring sermons about what is possible when Christians gather together in mutually edifying relationships, only to recognize how cynical you have become after many failed attempts? Community may be one of the most over-promised, under-delivered aspects of the Christian life today. Individuals remain selfish and stuck in their ways. Communities become spiritually lifeless or even fall apart because we don't know how to experience transformation together. Transforming community does not come primarily from listening to inspiring preaching or adding another church program. It emerges as we embrace a shared commitment to the attitudes, practices and behaviors that open us to Christ in our midst. And that's where Life Together in Christ comes in. Reflecting on the story of the two disciples who meet Christ on the Emmaus Road, Ruth Haley Barton offers this interactive guide for small groups of spiritual companions who are ready to encounter Christ in transforming ways—right where they are on the road of real life.

Author: Ruth Haley Barton
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830869786
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Logos Book of the Year 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.

Author: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830893733
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
M. Robert Mulholland Jr. defines spiritual formation as "the process of being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others." Compact and solid, this definition encompasses the dynamics of a vital Christian life and counters our culture's tendency to make spirituality a trivial matter or reduce it to a private affair between "me and Jesus." In Invitation to a Journey, Mulholland helps Christians new and old understand that we become like Christ gradually, not instantly. Not every personality is suited to an early morning quiet time, so Mulholland frees different personality types to express their piety differently. He reviews the classical spiritual disciplines and demonstrates the importance of undertaking our spiritual journey with (and for the sake of) others. This road map for spiritual formation is profoundly biblical and down to earth. In the finest tradition of spiritual literature, it is a vital help to Christians at any stage of their journey. This edition is revised and expanded by Ruth Haley Barton with a new foreword, practices and study guide.

Author: Bryan Chapell
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1585582638
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Christians often say, "In Jesus' name" to close their prayers. But is this truly a desire of the heart or a perfunctory "Yours Truly" to God? Bryan Chapell says we should begin our prayers in Jesus' name-we should be Praying Backwards. In this practical and inspiring book, he shows readers that to truly pray in Jesus' name is to reorder one's priorities in prayer-and in life-away from oneself and towards Jesus and his kingdom. It is to pray believing in the power and the goodness of the One who hears, and thus to pray boldly, expectantly, and persistently. Readers seeking to transform their prayer lives will find wonderful direction in Praying Backwards.

Author: Rabbi David A. Cooper
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1594735298
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
From the best-selling author of God Is a Verb, the classic spiritual retreat guide that enables anyone to create their own self-guided spiritual retreat at home. The ancient mystics looked to spiritual retreat as a way of cleansing the body and healing the soul. In Silence, Simplicity & Solitude, David A. Cooper traces the path of the mystics and the practice of spiritual retreat in all the major faith traditions, sharing the common techniques and practices of the retreat experience for beginner and advanced meditators alike. Cooper shows the way to the self-discovery and discipline of the spiritual retreat experience and clearly instructs how to create an effective, self-guided spiritual retreat in your own home. Silence, Simplicity & Solitude teaches that not only is silence a great healer, but that inner spiritual retreat can provide life-changing insight into deeper spiritual truths

Author: Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830868704
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Some invitations we desperately want: "Will you marry me?" "Would you consider a promotion?" Other invitations we never want to receive but must respond to all the same: "What treatment do you want for your tumor?" Invitations pound away at the coastlines of the soul with a transforming force. God is also sending invitations. Sometimes they seem less compelling than anything on my to-do list. Why would I want to say yes to the invitation to rest when I'm already so far behind? Why follow when I could lead? Why accept invitations to weep or to admit I am wrong or to wait? Saying yes might slow me down, sabotage my agenda and even undo who I think I am. Adele Calhoun, author of the popular Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, offers a book about invitations like these—divine invitations we miss or ignore because we've said yes to going with the cultural flow. While these invitations from God can sometimes be difficult to accept, they can heal and restore even as they shape where we go, what we do and who we become. What we say yes to, what we say no to forms the terrain of our future. Included in this book are reflection questions and exercises as well as overview charts with recommended disciplines to guide you through each theme. As you attend to the often hidden, quiet voice of the Great Inviter, you will find yourself as God created you to be.