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| Butterfly in my back yard. |
I meet with and teach a lot of burned-out pastoral leaders. Church work and church people have fried their souls to dried out crisps of what they once were. Is this what they signed up for? Is this what church was supposed to be? Is there more than this? If there is more, then what is it and what does it look like?
Ruth Barton answers this way:
"In all this listening to my own life and to the lives of others, I have become convinced that the More that we are looking for is the transformation of our souls in the presence of God. It is what we want for ourselves and it is what we want for those we are leading." (Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, p. 14)
What I am looking for is the metamorphing of my soul in the presence of God. What shall I do with this? I will bring my soul, my entire being, into God's presence and dwell there. Then, God restores my soul. God lights the fire. God sends the rain on the dry land that is me.
From God's presence I am led. Through me my people are led into God's presence.
