Cedric Fisher: "earnestly contending for the faith."

Book Review: Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership

Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership, by Ruth Haley Barton

Book Review by C. H. Fisher

Part One: Introduction

As promised, I began reading Ruth Haley Barton’s book, ‘Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership”.    I can tell you that after reading a few pages I am not going to enjoy reading the rest of it. Some things have to be done out of a sense of duty.  Knowing that I may help someone else avoid reading it, and possible enlighten someone that has read it and was deceived, will help me get through the process.  At some point I may have to put the book down.  Already it is so distasteful to my spirit that I feel as if I have to take a bath.  I intended to post a review after each chapter, but after reviewing the introduction I do not believe that would be a wise expenditure of my time.  There is so much heresy and use of New Age terms and ideas that I would literally have to write a book to explain it all.  Suffice it for me to write this one review and I will write another one after finishing the book.

To begin with, in her Introduction Barton makes comments about the soul that I find shocking.  Just so no one misunderstand what she means, she defines souls as “the very essence of you that God knew before he brought you forth in physical form, the part that will exist after your body goes into the ground.”  She then refers to the scripture where Christ said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36 NKJV)  Her explanation of this verse is stunningly heretical.

She declares that Christ would teach us that is is possible to lose our “own soul in the midst of ministry success”, and then find it “after so much seeking, only to lose it again.”  If you wondering if she really means that, then please consider her explanation of what he wrote.

“Losing our soul is sort of like losing a credit card.  You think it’s in your wallet so you don’t give it much thought until one day you reach for it and can’t find it.  The minute you realize it’s gone, you start scrambling to find it, trying to remember when you last used it or at least had it in your possession.  No matter what is going on in your life, you stop and look for it, because otherwise major damage could be done.  Oh, that we would feel the same sense of urgency when we become aware that we have lost our souls!”

That is not what Christ meant when He spoke those words about losing our souls.  He was talking about entering eternity as an unsaved person.  But then, the Emergent Church/New Age movement does not believe in the judgment, hell, and eternal damnation.  A soul that is “lost” is one that has not been “found” by God.  The parable of the shepherd looking for his lost sheep is an illustration of that truth.  No one’s soul can just go missing.  By Barton’s own definition of the soul, if one’s soul went missing the individual would die.

“And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.” Genesis 35:18

I agree with her definition of the soul, but must point out that her explanation of the lost/missing soul is contradictory.  It would be quite impossible for my soul to go missing and I remain to search for it.  If my soul goes missing, I go with it because I am my soul.  My physical body cannot go searching for my soul.  That would certainly be a sight terrify to most people. What is Barton trying to convey with her bizarre comments?  There is no way of actually know without asking her.  She seems to be saying that our souls (actually us) drift away from us, and somehow we find us. 

She declares in another section that she is convinced “we are looking for the transformation of our souls in the presence of God.”  However, Paul declared that we believe unto the saving of the soul (Heb. 10:39).  It is our flesh and carnal mind that needs work, not the soul.  If the soul is not saved, then no one is saved. If our soul is saved, then it is spiritually transformed

What Barton’s motive appears to be is to set herself up as someone we cannot do without, making herself relevant to the Body of Christ in an extremely unscriptural manner.  It is a very clever trick.  She declares that she was broken and struggling like her subjects.  The she explains how she obtained victory.  Of course, that makes her the first choice to bring victory to everyone else.  Consider the following section.

“I know how important it is to have a spiritual guide or companion during those times when everything in us wants to get up and do something—anything!—rather than stay in that Presence.”

To that I say, really?  What is this spiritual guide or companion going to do?  Force us to stay in ‘that Presence” against our will? Actually, yes.  If one happens to get a spirit guide during a Contemplative Prayer session, one will become demon possessed.  Demon possession is the same as Barton’s spiritual transformation process.  Although she declares that spiritual formation is the “process by which Christ is formed in us”, she implies that the process is not fully complete until one has a contemplative/centering prayer session.  In fact, Tony Compolo, an Emergent Church leader, popular conference speaker, and “Christian” liberal (?), said that he was born again through contemplative/centering prayer (Letters to a Young Evangelical; Tony Campolo). 

The truth is that we are born of the Spirit when we surrender our lives to God at the point of salvation.  At that moment, we are spiritual transformed from children of darkness to children of the light.  If one decides to go through Barton’s spiritual transformation, one would be transformed back in to a child of darkness by demon possession. 

Barton writes that he book is an invitation to go “deeply into the process of spiritual transformation”, which she declares will “forge a connection between our souls and our leadership rather than experiencing them as separate arenas of our lives.”  Again, here is ambiguity that has the soul and an activity of the physical person being completely separated.  How any seasoned Christian could fall for this hodgepodge is beyond my ability to understand. 

Finally, Barton condescending writes, “As a spiritual director, my primary intent in this book is to guide you into encounters with God in the places where you need it most in the context of your leadership.  Thus, you will find practice sections at the end of each chapter that are intended to guide you into an experience with God much I the same way I would guide you if we were together in spiritual direction or on retreat.”  

Again, all I could say was, “Really?”  After 35 years of close encounters with God I have never needed a guru trained in eastern mysticism and masquerading as a spiritual director.  In fact, God dwells in me by His Holy Spirit.  I’ve felt His presence in some of the most busy and even tumultuous periods of my life.  There has never been a point to where I thought I needed a guru.  I have never seen such a need described in God’s word, or until recently ever heard it stated in a Christian context.   

Barton then goes on to describe the process of Contemplative Prayer, which is exactly as the pagan New Age version.  In her description she declares the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of God whom the Scriptures describe as the wind, the pneuma, the very breath of God.  This Spirit is closer to us than our own breath.”

Actually, the Scriptures do not describe the Holy Spirit as wind.  In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit with a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind.  Declaring the Holy Spirit as wind is like hearing me run down the stairs and declaring I, C. H. Fisher, actually exist as the sound of footsteps.  The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Godhead, and as such is God.  He is not merely God’s breath. 

Conclusion:

In summary, I cannot believe that the leader of a major Christian denomination recommended this book to me.  Is there no discernment left in Christian leadership?  I’m certain that there is, but just a certain that it is rare. To recommend this book as a benefit to anyone is like to recommend smoking crack as a cure for low metabolism. 

I am further dismayed that George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God would recommend this book as a defense of Ruth Haley Barton’s Christianity.  It is quite the opposite.  The book is affirmation of her Emergent Church/New Age credentials.  It is amazing to learn from Barton’s book that throughout modern Christian history, the Great Awakenings, the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit in mighty revivals, no one was actually spiritually transformed because they had no spiritual director such as Ruth Haley Barton.  And now that we have her and those of her ilk, we can now finally recognize the fullness of God, and perhaps find our missing souls.  Anyone believing that is in dire need of deliverance.

I do not recommend this book to anyone who is not seasoned in the faith.  I consider it as poisonous as anything I have ever read mainly because of the meshing of Christian terms, symbolism, and doctrine, with the seductive doctrines of the pagan realm of the New Age movement.  The book is an invitation to become demon possessed.  It draws unsuspecting Christians away from God and into the presence of a demon, and perhaps Satan himself.

6 Comments

  1. Anne Edwards

    I’m sad to read your commentary on the book. I’ve been reading/studying it for the past couple of months. Nowhere have I felt like I need Ms. Barton to be my spiritual guide. She has turned my focus to the Lord, to spending time meditating on Him and his glory. To seek his face. To find what it means to take a sabbath day and rest in the Lord. To seek silence and spend time with Him. To strengthen my soul and deepen my walk with Him.

    May the Lord heal you of your critical and judgmental attitude and restore His joy to your soul. I assume you’re a brother in the Lord, but I don’t find evidence of deep spiritual maturity in what you’ve written above. I find instead, evidence of a jaded, critical spirit. Hopefully not too many people read this column since I don’t see other comments…I’m hardly sure you’ve read and reviewed the same book I did.

    • C.H. Fisher

      Actually, it seems as if you never read my review. If you had read it, you would have noticed that I posted Barton’s actual statements, which are bizarre in themselves without further commentary. There is a new definition of “deep, spiritual maturity” that exists in this present religious environment. If one accepts the New Age invasion of heresy into Christianity, one is considered “deep” and “spiritually mature”. Conversely, if one exposes those works of darkness he or she is considered “spiritually shallow” with a “jaded and critical spirit”. It is a diabolical attempt to silence the voice of truth with insults and intimidation.

      The truth is that some of us that have been Christians for several decades have watched this evil spirit courting and then encroaching Christianity. Throughout the apostasy there were professing Christians hurling accusations and insults at every individual that attempted to expose and slow down the satanic machinery. Now that it is firmly set in place and is constantly devouring innumerable unsuspecting souls, the deceived and deluded subjects believe that they are actually drawing nearer to God. The fact is they are falling deeper into the dark pit of apostasy from which there is no return. Satan strokes their deluded spirits as they enter the sleep of spiritual delusion.

      Are you one of those people? Can you truly believe that the words of Christ in Mark 8:36 mean that you can lose your soul like a credit card, only to find it after searching for it, and then lose it again? How do you find you? Do you split into two halves so that one half can go searching for the other half? Are you aware that when your soul departs from your body you are dead? Do you simply gloss over those and other “little details” and go on imbibing New Age heresy, believing that it is “deep” and “spiritual mature?”

      Do you know that Barton received her initial indoctrination from a New Age guru? Do you know that she went from the guru to train at a New Age institute before turning her efforts on infecting Christianity with the deception? I suppose none of that evidence is appealing to you. However, you claim to find “evidence” in my review that I have a “jaded” and “critical spirit”. If I have such a spirit, I assure you that I can be convicted and brought to repentance. However, if one becomes subject to the influences of a diabolical individual, that person is in danger of truly losing his or her soul to eternal darkness.

      You need to wake up to the truth before it is too late to do anything about it. There is not much time left and it is not going to get any better from this time forward. If you will fall victim to R. H. Barton’s incredibly blatant and clear heresy, you don’t stand a chance in the thickening darkness.

  2. Karen K.

    My husband and I read your blog regularly, but don’t always post comments. You and several others are the “watchmen” who reinforce what we have come to see as the great deception creeping into many (my husband would say, “most”) churches today. I was a member of an A/G church for over 10 years and I am shocked by what they are allowing into their services now. How can anyone think that Ruth Haley Barton’s philosophies and teachings are Biblical; or read what she says or see where she studied and not see that she is a New Age guru? Anyway, please keep writing. We enjoy all your blogs.

  3. Lo

    Thank you for your book review. I am taking a graduate level course in spiritual leadership, and the books that we are required to read are similar to and include the one you reviewed above. I am reading this book and am amazed that this kind of thinking can show up in the church. I am relatively young, but the best advice I ever received as a teen Christian was to read the Bible over and over before ever diving into other books, in order to have discernment. Thank you for your post. I wish that more people had the ability to recognize the New Age doctrine that is cloaked in Christian spirituality.

  4. Enrique Salazar

    I hope this “review” is utterly clueless. If it is not, then it is intentionally deceptive and demeaning, which would be even sadder. May I suggest that a little humility is a good thing? If you know nothing about the long history of spiritual direction, if you know nothing about he great heritage of spiritual formation in the Church, then please do not discourage others from benefiting from its goodness until you have done the hard and humble work of learning about it. Then a mature conversation of its merits, good or bad, can take place. Arrogant and ignorant dismissals usually reflect an arrogant, ignorant, and dismissive heart, and that does not serve the kingdom of God well.

    • C.H. Fisher

      I certainly know about the long history of spiritual formation including it’s pagan roots in the Sufi Muslims, and introduction into Roman Catholicism by apostate and Buddhist Thomas Merton. There is no great heritage of spiritual formation in the true church. To believe otherwise is to honor heresy by reason of its longevity. I suggest that you take your own advice, but search God’s word instead. Heretical spiritual formation and is fruit contemplative prayer has no good merits. Engaging in it makes one susceptible to possession by demons spirits. It is the bridge that merges apostate Christianity with New Age paganism. These are the last days. Christianity (the religion) has plunged into apostasy, Very clever and intense deception abounds. If you believe in spiritual formation, you are prepared to accept the Antichrist. Rejecting love for truth will make you a candidate for the great delusion. Your position is grounded in the works of Satan and humanity. Only in God’s truth and sincere repentance of your error will you find deliverance.

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