Welcome to season 23! This season we are using the framework of the enneagram, and in particular the ways the 3 instinctual subtypes impact each enneagram number, to help people do the necessary inner work of knowing themselves and managing anxiety, triggers, and stuck patterns so that they can lead others well. This season, we are moving beyond the basics of describing each number type to look at our instincts and what motivates our behaviors. Special guest, Erin Baute, a leadership behavior strategist with over 20 years of experience in behavior change and professional development, joins us all season long to help us do this important work.

 

Today, Ruth kicks off the season with a solo episode. She gives an introduction to the season ahead, an overview of how she uses the enneagram as a tool, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, for self-examination and confession, and some guidance for interacting with the enneagram well. We conclude this episode with the Welcoming Prayer, a prayer Ruth often uses as a way to pray into the new things we discover about ourselves as we work with the enneagram.

 

Mentioned in the episode:

Erin Baute, our guest this season. Find more info at her website or follow her on instagram!

 

Helpful Enneagram Resources:

We are diving straight into the deep end of the enneagram this season. If you need some introductory resources to the Enneagram we highly recommend the following:

Self to Lose, Self to Find by Marilyn Vancil
The Road Back To You by Suzanne Stabile and Ian Cron
The Story of You by Ian Cron
The Enneagram for Black Liberation by Chichi Agorom
The Enneagram A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr

 

Interested in our live virtual event: SPIRITUAL DIRECTION: An Essential Practice for Transforming Leaders? Visit our Online Oasis Information page to learn more and sign up today!

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Chasing Butterflies from Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes that will help take these conversations deeper. We have journal prompts for each of the 9 numbers, guidance from Erin on how to determine your instinct or subtype, and more! Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! Learn more and apply HERE.

 

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We are revisiting last year's Easter Monday episode because we found the reflections to still be so timely with the themes we discussed during this season of the podcast. We hope it encourages and blesses you on this Easter Monday.

 

He is Risen, indeed! Happy Easter Monday, friends. Today, Ruth helps us celebrate the Risen Christ with five stories of post-resurrection encounters with Jesus. In each story she helps us consider our own invitations to transforming encounters with Jesus that God might have for us. Which story resonates most profoundly with you and what healing or transformation is God wanting to bring as you sit with God and these stories? We invite you to take some time today to listen to these stories reflectively, imagining yourself in them and to take a moment to be with Jesus right there in the biblical story as you find him there and as you find yourself there.

 

Transforming Post-Resurrection Encounters with Jesus  

Weeping in the Garden (John 20:11-18) 

Encountering Jesus’ Behind Locked Doors (John 20:19-22)

Being with Jesus in the Midst of our Doubts (John 20:24-29)

The Emmaus Road: Encountering Jesus on the Road between the Now and the Not Yet (Luke 24:13-35)

Breakfast on the Beach:  Resurrecting Relationships  (John 21:1-19) 

 

Journey with us this Lent! Our season is inspired by A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey, and many of our guests are contributors to this resource. 

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Yesterday Today Forever from Music in Solitude

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self!

In this special episode, Ruth wraps up our season on suffering and the formation of hope and ushers us into the last few days of Holy Week. Holy Week allows us to practice true unity with Jesus, the “at-one-ment” she and Curt talked about this season. What does Jesus’ suffering mean for us- for our lives and our own suffering? How does it help us to make sense of our own stories? We’ve spent all season discussing how suffering can lead to true and durable hope, and how we can walk with Jesus in His suffering as a way of deep transformation for ourselves. Finally, Ruth guides us through a lectio divina practice with Romans 5:1-5, the scripture we have been sitting with all season. We encourage you to listen to this episode in a quiet setting, free from distraction, so that you can listen deeply to what the Holy Spirit might be saying to you through these verses.

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

An Invitation to Walk with Christ: Stations of the Cross Prayer Guide by Ruth Haley Barton (Transforming Resource)  

The Book of Common Prayer

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Prayer for Healing from Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

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This week concludes our conversations with Curt Thompson, MD. Ruth and Curt examine what makes for a safe community. Why is it important to experience places of tension, hurt, and repair in the community? They also discuss the meaning of a hope that does not disappoint or put to shame. And as we turn our attention to Holy Week, they wonder: What is a psychologically healthy way to understand the concept of taking up the cross? Over on Patreon, Curt leads us in a practice to help us vulnerably give ourselves away to others in a safe and psychologically healthy way.

 

This season, psychiatrist, speaker, and author Curt Thompson, MD joins us to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves by Curt Thompson

An Invitation to Walk with Christ: Stations of the Cross Prayer Guide by Ruth Haley Barton (Transforming Resource)  

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Kyrie Eleison from Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

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How does endurance or perseverance fit into this process of having a durable hope formed in us? How do we know we are making progress in this endeavor? What do we do with the stories we tell ourselves about the parts of us that are unlovable or unwantable, and how does bringing those parts before a loving and safe community change us? Ruth and Curt tackle these questions and more in this week’s episode. Over on Patreon, Curt is giving us concrete ideas on how to cultivate a confessional community, a structure for being together, and tips for how to be safe members of the community.

 

This season, psychiatrist, speaker, and author Curt Thompson, MD joins us to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

O Lord, Hear My Prayerfrom Lent Music in Solitude

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

This week we are taking a break from our conversations with Curt and his book The Deepest Place to talk about a different aspect of suffering: the communal, unmerited suffering that comes from oppression. Friend of the Transforming Center, Leo Ayala, is back with us to discuss this important topic. Leo and Ruth talk about the suffering his community in Puerto Rico has suffered as a part of the colonization and oppression of his country. Leo shares how no one taught him how to suffer in a Christian way and the particular problem of a faith without lament. Finally, Leo gives us practices and processes that help this kind of collective suffering form durable hope.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Leo Ayala served as a family pastor for over 15 years and later as lead pastor. For four years, he has been recovering from burnout, anxiety disorder, and depression. On his journey to heal his soul and develop new life rhythms, he completed Transforming Communities 15 and 18 with the Transforming Center. He is finishing a DMin. in Spiritual Formation on the topic of spirituality during seasons of disorientation. He is a liaison pastor for the Caminando Juntos (Urban Strategies) program, where he looks to

improve the holistic well-being of Latino pastors.

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times by Soong-Chan Rah

Season 19: Lent Week 6 episode with Soong-Chan Rah

 

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded from Lent Music in Solitude

 

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

What does God’s glory have to do with our suffering? How do we wrestle with the crucifixion of Christ and the issue of atonement as it relates to suffering and God’s anger? How do we determine when we are the cause of our own suffering, when it’s someone else’s doing or when we are being invited by God to join in the suffering of Jesus? Ruth and Curt tackle these questions and more in today’s episode. Over on Patreon, Curt guides us through a practice designed to help us discern the cause or invitation of an aspect of our own suffering and hold it with God.

 

This season, psychiatrist, speaker, and author Curt Thompson, MD joins us to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

“God was in Christ reconciling all things to himself”—II Corinthians 5:18,19 (NJKV)

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Mourn from Lent Music in Solitude

Returning from Lent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

In this episode, Ruth and Curt dive all the way into the deep end as they discuss attachment, attunement, and internal family systems. The pair also tackle the importance of embodiment in this healing work of suffering and durable hope. Curt also has some thoughtful questions for Ruth about the role suffering has played in her life and leadership. Over on Patreon, Curt introduces an exercise that combines the concept of internal family systems with a breathing practice.

 

This season, psychiatrist, speaker, and author Curt Thompson, MD joins us to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves by Curt Thompson

Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson

Season 16 Transforming Leadership:Managing Anxiety Within our Communities (Systems Theory Season of Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership.

Boundaries for Your Soul by Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Breathe (Longing for You) from Lent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

What does suffering have to do with our transformation? That is the question Ruth and Curt explore this season on the podcast! In today’s episode, they discuss how the Christian story is the only one that honors suffering, the difference between suffering and pain, what shame has to do with it, and how suffering differently can lead to durable hope. On patreon, Curt leads us in a practice that helps us to name our suffering.

 

This season, psychiatrist, speaker, and author Dr. Curt Thompson joins us to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves by Curt Thompson

Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

Kyrie Eleison (Lord, Have Mercy) from Lent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

*this post contains affiliate links

Lent is upon us again. In this special bonus episode, Ruth shares her remarks from our recent live, virtual event designed to help us prepare for Lent. Lent is for everyone, but it has a special application for spiritual leaders, providing a needed opportunity to “fashion our own wilderness” (Henri Nouwen) and return to God with all our hearts. On this Ash Wednesday, we invite you to take some time to prepare your heart and mind to enter the Lenten season.

 

Our next podcast season begins next week. Psychiatrist, speaker, and author Dr. Curt Thompson joins us all season to discuss suffering and how it is the place where durable and true hope is formed. We will be working through the ideas in his new book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope  by Curt Thompson

Lent A Season of Returning by Ruth Haley Barton

We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

 

This season will not follow the lectionary readings as closely as past seasons. Scripture for Lent 2024 can be found HERE. A digital version of our reflections for Lent resource, Lent A Season of Returning is available for purchase in our bookstore.

 

Music Credit:

Kingdom Come by Aaron Niequist

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded from Lent Music in Solitude

 

Support the podcast! This season patrons will receive weekly bonus episodes entitled “The Work,” where Curt and Ruth will discuss and provide practical and applicable practices that open us up to God’s presence in our suffering so that durable hope can be formed. Become a patron today by visiting our Patreon page!  

 

The Transforming Center exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. You are invited to join our next Transforming Community:® A Two-year Spiritual Formation Experience for Leaders.  Delivered in nine quarterly retreats, this practice-based learning opportunity is grounded in the conviction that the best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self! We are now accepting applications for Transforming Community 20! Use the code Podcast20 to receive $50 off your application fee. Learn more and apply HERE.

We were so lucky to have Scott Erickson on the podcast this season! Not only did he share his wisdom and thoughtfulness, but he also shared his art and his spiritual director expertise! Over on Patreon each week we chose one of the pieces of art discussed in the episode and Scott walked us through a Visio Divina practice with that image. As a Christmas gift to all our listeners we wanted to share the first visio divina practice from episode one.   First you'll hear Ruth introduce you to the practice of Visio Divina and help you to settle in. Then at 5:35 you'll hear Scott begin the practice. We've left lots of room at the end to give you time and space to continue your practice.   As always we encourage you to do this in a set apart time, free from distraction and noise. You can find the image HERE (it's the first image from episode 1, the picture of Mary holding her belly), or you can find this same image at the beginning of Chapter 11, Assumptions, on page 88, of Scott's book, Honest Advent.   Let us know how this practice was for you! We'll be doing this each week during Advent. Praying for you as you open yourself to the unseen work of God this Advent season.