Episode 38: Ruth Haley Barton

This week, author and spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton sat down with Brandon, Kevin, Rachel, and Liz (one of our volunteers) to have a conversation around silence, solitude, and navigating spiritual disciplines. Ruth opens up about her journey through spiritual direction into solitude and silence and offers practical tips around how to engage with God’s invitation into that discipline. Ruth also shared about her new book, Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again. 

 

If you’re interested in diving a little deeper into the practice of silence and solitude, you can join us for a four week Practice Lab on October 30 from 1:30-3:00 pm. You can register here.

 

Guest Bio 

Ruth Haley Barton (Doctor of Divinity, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the founder of the Transforming Center, a ministry dedicated to strengthening the souls of pastors, Christian leaders, and the congregations and organizations they serve. A sought-after teacher, retreat leader, and trained spiritual director, Ruth is the author of numerous books and articles on spiritual life.

Educated at Northern Seminary, the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, and Loyola University Chicago Institute for Pastoral Studies, she has served on the pastoral staff of several churches including Willow Creek Community Church, and is a Professor of Spiritual Transformation at Northern Seminary.

 

Highlights

 

Introducing: Ruth Haley Barton - 3:06

• How Ruth Haley Barton cultivated the practice of silence and solitude in her own life.
• Moving towards becoming an author and spiritual director.
• The invitation to silence and solitude.

A structure for intimacy - 19:26

• Navigating the push-pull phenomenon of integrating the spiritual disciplines.
• What engaging with silence and solitude can look like across different life stages.
• Talking through preconceived notions around silence and solitude.

Silence and Solitude in real-time - 37:00

• Processing the counterbalance of mountain and valley experiences in our own faith journeys.
• The reimagined definition of productivity and success.
• Ruth shares a little about her new book.
• Practical applications to try out in your own time (including a guided minute of silence)
• Kevin, Brandon, Rachel, and Liz debrief about their conversation.

 

Resources

• Ruth Haley Barton’s Website
• The Transforming Center
• Invitation to Silence and Solitude by Ruth Haley Barton
• 1 Kings 19 - The Story of Elijiah
• Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again by Ruth Haley Barton
• The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

 

Quotes

• “...whatever we're experiencing in the early parts of our journey into solitude and silence, it's pretty normal. And that it's not a quick fix: discipline, solitude, and silence are not the quick fix. It is a long obedience in the same direction. And then we begin to see the results eventually.” - Ruth Haley Barton
• “If you're feeling the push-pull, then you know you wanna press through. And it's not so much about should, as much as it's about touching the deepest desire of your heart, which is to have a real relationship with this person and to keep doing the things that help you to cultivate a real relationship. So you wanna drop down to the deepest desire that you have in this relationship and towards this person. You're not gonna press through because of "ought and should", you're gonna press through because you know it's gonna be good for your relationship if you go ahead and push through. And that's really different than odds and shoulds.” - Ruth Haley Barton