Book Review by BP Khanal
If we lose our soul after having achieved whatever we wish, still we will lose everything. So we must focus on strengthening our soul as leaders – so is the main lesion we can learn from this book. This begins from what Jesus made it clear that soul of a man is the most essential part of life, and the author builds a whole appreciation on sustaining a strong soul of a Christian leader. The author is concerned about the leaders’ spiritual growth, growing into maturity with Christ, and that is by deepening the relationship with God by keeping full attentiveness to His Words and the Spirit. Presenting Moses’ life as an example the author develops much practical steps to strengthen the soul of a Christian leader. Moses who grew up in high and honored environment, yet had identity crisis till the moment of his encounter with God in the wilderness, the book has profoundly put the experiences of Moses as the practical spiritual footsteps for leadership growth, just like he who in a sense overcome his anger, greed, jealousy, narcissism, fear, violence we also should have the experience to being in solitude of wilderness and overcome those negative attitudes. And taking those steps, as suggested in the book, one can be drawn back to the real conversion experience to regain the love, passion and solid renewal of the relationship with God for new level of leadership. And more of these all needed the sincere heart of prayer, an intercessory practice that allows one to stay connected with God, because it would be just meaningless unless a leaders seeks God’s will in his life and ministries.
The poetic sections toward the end of every chapter beautifully reinforce the arguments. Likewise practice sections at the end of every chapter leads the reader/learner and s/he who wants a self-training to grow in his/her personal life as Christian leader.
Book: Barton, Ruth Haley. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the crucible of ministry. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2008.
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