<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Strengthening the Soul of your Leadership, by Ruth Haley Barton<\/span><\/p>\n Book Review by C. H. Fisher<\/span><\/p>\n Part One: Introduction<\/span><\/p>\n As promised, I began reading Ruth Haley Barton\u2019s book, \u2018Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>At some point I may have to put the book down.\u00a0 <\/span>Already it is so distasteful to my spirit that I feel as if I have to take a bath. \u00a0<\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>Suffice it for me to write this one review and I will write another one after finishing the book.<\/span><\/p>\n To begin with, in her Introduction Barton makes comments about the soul that I find shocking.\u00a0 <\/span>Just so no one misunderstand what she means, she defines souls as \u201cthe 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.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>She then refers to the scripture where Christ said, \u201cFor what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?\u201d (Mark 8:36 NKJV)<\/span> \u00a0<\/span>Her explanation of this verse is stunningly heretical.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n She declares that Christ would teach us that is is possible to lose our \u201cown soul in the midst of ministry success\u201d, and then find it \u201cafter so much seeking, only to lose it again.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>If you wondering if she really means that, then please consider her explanation of what he wrote.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLosing our soul is sort of like losing a credit card.\u00a0 <\/span>You think it\u2019s in your wallet so you don\u2019t give it much thought until one day you reach for it and can\u2019t find it.\u00a0 <\/span>The minute you realize it\u2019s gone, you start scrambling to find it, trying to remember when you last used it or at least had it in your possession.\u00a0 <\/span>No matter what is going on in your life, you stop and look for it, because otherwise major damage could be done.\u00a0 <\/span>Oh, that we would feel the same sense of urgency when we become aware that we have lost our souls!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That is not what Christ meant when He spoke those words about losing our souls.\u00a0 <\/span>He was talking about entering eternity as an unsaved person.\u00a0 <\/span>But then, the Emergent Church\/New Age movement does not believe in the judgment, hell, and eternal damnation.\u00a0 <\/span>A soul that is \u201clost\u201d is one that has not been \u201cfound\u201d by God.\u00a0 <\/span>The parable of the shepherd looking for his lost sheep is an illustration of that truth.\u00a0 <\/span>No one\u2019s soul can just go missing.\u00a0 <\/span>By Barton\u2019s own definition of the soul, if one\u2019s soul went missing the individual would die.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd so it was, as her soul<\/span> was depart<\/span>ing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.\u201d Genesis 35:18<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n I agree with her definition of the soul, but must point out that her explanation of the lost\/missing soul is contradictory.\u00a0 <\/span>It would be quite impossible for my soul to go missing and I remain to search for it.\u00a0 <\/span>If my soul goes missing, I go with it because I am my soul.\u00a0 <\/span>My physical body cannot go searching for my soul.\u00a0 <\/span>That would certainly be a sight terrify to most people. What is Barton trying to convey with her bizarre comments?\u00a0 <\/span>There is no way of actually know without asking her.\u00a0 <\/span>She seems to be saying that our souls (actually us) drift away from us, and somehow we find us.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n She declares in another section that she is convinced \u201cwe are looking for the transformation of our souls in the presence of God.\u201d \u00a0<\/span>However, Paul declared that we believe unto the saving of the soul (Heb. 10:39).\u00a0 <\/span>It is our flesh and carnal mind that needs work, not the soul.\u00a0 <\/span>If the soul is not saved, then no one is saved. <\/span>If our soul is saved, then it is spiritually transformed<\/span><\/p>\n What Barton\u2019s 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.\u00a0 <\/span>It is a very clever trick.\u00a0 <\/span>She declares that she was broken and struggling like her subjects.\u00a0 <\/span>The she explains how she obtained victory.\u00a0 <\/span>Of course, that makes her the first choice to bring victory to everyone else.\u00a0 <\/span>Consider the following section.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI 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\u2014anything!\u2014rather than stay in that Presence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To that I say, really?\u00a0 <\/span>What is this spiritual guide or companion going to do?\u00a0 <\/span>Force us to stay in \u2018that Presence\u201d against our will? Actually, yes.\u00a0 <\/span>If one happens to get a spirit guide during a Contemplative Prayer session, one will become demon possessed.\u00a0 <\/span>Demon possession is the same as Barton\u2019s spiritual transformation process.\u00a0 <\/span>Although she declares that spiritual formation is the \u201cprocess by which Christ is formed in us\u201d, she implies that the process is not fully complete until one has a contemplative\/centering prayer session.\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, Tony Compolo, an Emergent Church leader, popular conference speaker, and \u201cChristian\u201d liberal (?), said that he was born again through contemplative\/centering prayer (<\/span>Letters to a Young Evangelical; Tony Campolo)<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The truth is that we are born of the Spirit when we surrender our lives to God at the point of salvation.\u00a0 <\/span>At that moment, we are spiritual transformed from children of darkness to children of the light.\u00a0 <\/span>If one decides to go through Barton\u2019s spiritual transformation, one would be transformed back in to a child of darkness by demon possession.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Barton writes that he book is an invitation to go \u201cdeeply into the process of spiritual transformation\u201d, which she declares will \u201cforge a connection between our souls and our leadership rather than experiencing them as separate arenas of our lives.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Again, here is ambiguity that has the soul and an activity of the physical person being completely separated.\u00a0 <\/span>How any seasoned Christian could fall for this hodgepodge is beyond my ability to understand.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, <\/span>Barton condescending writes, \u201cAs 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.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Again, all I could say was, \u201cReally?\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>After 35 years of close encounters with God I have never needed a guru trained in eastern mysticism and masquerading as a spiritual director. \u00a0<\/span>In fact, God dwells in me by His Holy Spirit.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ve felt His presence in some of the most busy and even tumultuous periods of my life. \u00a0<\/span>There has never been a point to where I thought I needed a guru.\u00a0 <\/span>I have never seen such a need described in God\u2019s word, or until recently ever heard it stated in a Christian context. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Barton then goes on to describe the process of Contemplative Prayer, which is exactly as the pagan New Age version.\u00a0 <\/span>In her description she declares the Holy Spirit as \u201cthe Spirit of God whom the Scriptures describe as the wind, the pneuma, the very breath of God.\u00a0 <\/span>This Spirit is closer to us than our own breath.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Actually, the Scriptures do not describe the Holy Spirit as wind.\u00a0 <\/span>In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit with a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind. \u00a0<\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Godhead, and as such is God.\u00a0 <\/span>He is not merely God\u2019s breath.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Conclusion:<\/span><\/p>\n In summary, I cannot believe that the leader of a major Christian denomination recommended this book to me.\u00a0 <\/span>Is there no discernment left in Christian leadership?\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m 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.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019s Christianity.\u00a0 <\/span>It is quite the opposite.\u00a0 <\/span>The book is affirmation of her Emergent Church\/New Age credentials.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Anyone believing that is in dire need of deliverance.<\/span><\/p>\n I do not recommend this book to anyone who is not seasoned in the faith.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>The book is an invitation to become demon possessed.\u00a0 <\/span>It draws unsuspecting Christians away from God and into the presence of a demon, and perhaps Satan himself.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019s book, \u2018Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can tell you that after reading a few pages I am not going to enjoy reading the rest of it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-1J","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}