To inspire those considering sponsorship as a way of “paying it forward”, would you briefly share what compelled you to act with such generosity towards someone longing to be in Transforming Community?

Comment below, if you prefer to remain anonymous just write anonymous for name.

Read more: Sponsorship – Giving the Gift of Transforming Community

If you received financial assistance making it possible for you to join a Transforming Community, please share what the gift of sponsorship or scholarship meant to you and the impact that this community experience has had on your life and in your ministry.

Use the comment section below to write as much or as little as you’d like. If you prefer to remain anonymous just write anonymous for name.

Read more: Sponsorship – Receiving the Gift of Transforming Community

As those who have been through a Transforming Community experience, our alumni are always our best source of referrals because they can identify those who are ready to take a new journey of leadership transformation.

Once you submit your recommendation, you will immediately receive an email confirmation that includes a copy of your recommendation. If at any point you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Haley Page, Transforming Community Assimilator & registrar, at hpage@transformingcenter.org or call (630) 588-8133.

If you have been sponsored…

Share what the gift of sponsorship meant to you and the impact that was made through your spiritual formation experience in a Transforming Community?

Words from those who have sponsored…

To inspire those considering sponsorship as a way of “paying it forward”, would you briefly share what compelled you to act with such generosity towards someone longing to be in Transforming Community? Comment below, if you prefer to remain anonymous just write anonymous for name.

Read more: Sponsor someone in our an upcoming Transforming Community

Read more: Christmastide: Love Incarnate, Love Divine

This new partnership allows those participating in a Transforming Community experience to earn academic credit. Specifically, Richmont is providing 12 credits of Advanced Standing in our Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation and Direction degree to those who complete the Transforming Community experience. The relationship between Richmont and the Transforming Center is especially centered on our innovative cohort model of accredited training in the ministry of Spiritual Direction.

Dr. David Hughes, Ambassador of the Transforming Center states, “We’re very excited to partner with the Richmont Graduate University to provide next steps for those who are being called into pastoral leadership in the area of spiritual formation and/or the ministry of spiritual direction. This agreement represents a new partnership we believe will bear much fruit in the lives of leaders in Christ’s kingdom.”

Students can begin receiving academic credit effective in the spring semester of 2021. For more information about Richmont, please contact Dr. Joshua Rice at jrice@richmont.edu and visit richmont.edu. For more information about the Transforming Center and this partnership, please contact dhughes@transformingcenter.org.

Read more: Earn credit towards a Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Direction

At a recent staff meeting of the Transforming Center, Ruth shared about an energizing conversation she had recently with Gary Haugen in preparation for our upcoming Alumni Retreat. In addition to the important topics they had already planned, together they agreed to create space for the hard conversation about the misuse of power in Christian communities. Ruth says, “As Christians, we don’t know what to do with power” and notes how the misuse of power is contributing to the crisis of leadership in the Church and the resulting crisis of confidence in the Church.

This retreat will include an intimate dialogue with attendees, Ruth, and Gary Haugen, CEO of International Justice Mission, on the nature of power and how systems collude to make the ongoing abuse of power possible. What do we as Christians understand about power and what are we to do with power? What culpability do each of us have when the abuse of power in the systems we are a part of starts coming to light? And how can we use our own power for good in healthy ways?

“No one understands the dynamic of power in systems better than Gary,” Ruth went on to say. “One reason IJM’s mission is so unique and effective is that not only do they rescue victims of human trafficking, they confront the systems that make this dark practice possible. Gary has so much that is of value to say to those of us seeking to understand systems and how we can use power for good within them.”

If you are an alumnus of a Transforming Community®, the Alumni Retreat is open only to alumni and guests. The conversations that take place there will not be available outside of the retreat experience itself.

Register for the Alumni Retreat here.

Click below to listen in as Ruth speaks to our staff about her excitement regarding this unique opportunity—and why you absolutely do not want to miss this conversation.

For more of Gary’s perspectives on power, read this article on evangelicals and racial issues.

You can read more about the Alumni Retreat here.

“You Don’t Want to Miss This Conversation”

“The Right Question” to Ask

Read more: The Alumni Retreat: “We don’t know what to do with power.”

Read more: Merry Christmas

Your gift creates “ripples of transformation” in our communities and beyond. When people allow God to work in and through their lives ‘from the center out’ they are leading from the strength and wisdom of a transforming soul.

One way to reflect on the impact of Jesus’ birth during the season of Advent is to consider the ripple effect. An inauspicious birth in the backwoods of Bethlehem generated waves of transformation that have rippled across 2000 years of time right up to the present day!

Here in the Transforming Center we often speak of “working from the center out” as we focus on strengthening the inner life of pastors and leaders through our 27-month Transforming Community experience. As that leader shares his or her transformational journey with others in their ministry setting, they create ripples and waves of transformation that eventually reach to their entire community and into the world beyond!

Celebrating a milestone

One of the highlights of this past year was the ten-year anniversary of Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership (InterVarsity Press) marked by the release of a new edition. In celebration of this milestone, our friend Gary Haugen, Founder and CEO of International Justice Mission and Transforming Community alumnus, contributed a new forward to the book, providing a clear example of the ripple effect one leader’s journey of transformation can have on an entire ministry.

Several years ago, Gary made the bold decision to implement an “8:30 Stillness” practice within IJM.  “Imagine,” he writes, “…a staff of high-performing professionals in Washington D.C. and in offices across the developing world, faced with the task of fighting slavery, human trafficking, police abuse, and other forms of violent oppression. As these staff arrive at their desks, their first order of business is to stop. All phones are off.  Laptops closed. No e-mail. No meetings. Just silence. Solitude. Stillness. For thirty minutes.”

Why this unusual practice?

Because Gary believes, as we do, that God uses the practices of solitude and silence to effect inner transformation and cultivate greater discernment in the lives of leaders. Gary says, “I am utterly convinced God works miracles of transformation in the world through miraculously transformed people. God is eager for us to be with him, to know his love and his goodness, even as he calls us to lead with great courage in the world around us.   What we have learned is that the transformation we so long for comes when, whether we feel like it or not, we actually show up and choose to be still in the presence of our good God.” 

Leaders who allow God to work in and through their lives “from the center out” make the greatest impact in the world because they are leading from the strength and wisdom of a transforming soul. Only God knows the ripple effect of one leader on his/her church or community for the kingdom of God!

Bold moves

As we approach the end of this year, we invite you to consider investing in leaders who will create “ripples of transformation” in our communities and beyond. Over the last year, we’ve made bold moves in our mission to strengthen the souls of leaders—reorganizing and increasing our staff, upgrading and redesigning our materials and website, expanding and diversifying each Transforming Community—in response to our sense of God’s call to move forward in very specific ways (see Bridge to the Future diagram).

We are trusting God to work through generous friends like you as we seek to create our own ripple effect— partnering with God to cultivate transforming leaders whose quality of presence and clarity of vision will transform their communities as God works in them from the inside out.

CHECK PROGRESS TOWARD OUR GOAL

Our year-end goal is $100,000. Would you support us with a gift of any size as we close out this year? We are trusting God to work through generous friends like you as we seek to create our own ripple effect—partnering with God to cultivate transforming leaders whose quality of presence and clarity of vision will transform their communities as God works in them from the inside out.

With gratitude for your partnership,

Ruth Haley Barton
Founder and CEO

PS—Become a Sustaining Partner before Dec 31, 2018 by committing to a recurring gift of $20 (or more) a month OR give a year end gift of $200 (or more) and receive a signed copy of the new edition of Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership—which includes Gary’s story of leadership transformation.

The Transforming Center is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your contributions are tax-deductible under IRS regulations. Checks must be postmarked by December 31, 2018 to: Transforming Center, 209 S. Naperville Rd., Wheaton, IL 60187. Learn more about donating securities to the Transforming Center.

Read more: Championing a new reality for the body of Christ and its leaders

We strongly believe God is calling us to return to the original vision of the Transforming Center—“calling forth transforming communities that discern and do the will of God.” We believe God is guiding us to do this with particular focus on cultivating the next generation of leaders who are desperately seeking a new experience of and a new vision for the Church.

An update on our Bridge to the Future:

1. Continue offering the Transforming Community® experience! Our move to the Q Center has enabled us to create an improved retreat experience while welcoming more retreatants into each new Transforming Community. We have just completed TC12, TC13 is mid-way through, TC14 has just begun, and TC15 is filling up fast!
2. Redesign and enlarge our staffing model. Obviously, this involved the addition of my position as Chief Operations Officer. However, our staff as a whole has been maxed out and we have needed to take a hard look at our staffing and structure. While contributing funds toward staffing is not always the most exciting giving opportunity to consider, this step is the most critical to building our bridge to the future.  
3. Reimagine Transforming Community (TC15) and beyond to draw a more diverse generation of emerging leaders. We have intentionally pursued greater diversity within our board, within the Transforming Community experience, and in identifying “A Spirituality of Race” as the focus of our recent Alumni Retreat. We are allocating significant scholarship dollars towards diversifying TC15. However, more funds are needed to increase our efforts.
4. Update and redesign website and promotional materials to better communicate who we are to a younger and more diverse audience. We are deep in the process of developing this fresh approach.

Undertaking a new, expanded vision like this requires funding above and beyond our usual operational costs. We are inviting you to help us build the bridge to the future leaders of the body of Christ.

Your gift has double the impact in June!

A generous donor who is passionate about seeing the next generation of spiritual leaders forge a stronger connection between their soul and their leadership now – not down the road – wants to inspire you to partner with us in taking critical steps in building our bridge to the future. Every gift received before July 1 up to $30,000 will be matched. The impact of your one-time gift will be automatically doubled. Better yet, your monthly gift will be doubled every month for the rest of the calendar year!

Our goal is to raise at least $60,000. Would you prayerfully consider helping us build this bridge? The future of the church—
and its leadership—depends on it!

Double your impact by giving today

Read more: A Bold New Vision and $30,000 Match Opportunity

Order before May 31st and receive these book launch bonuses:

• Spiritual Formation Primer (PDF). Guide your team in establishing a baseline understanding of spiritual transformation using this resource written by Ruth Haley Barton.
• Access to an electronic version of the “How Is It With Your Soul” leadership assessment. Discover insight on the state of your soul.
• $50 Coupon Code: Use to code to waive the application fee when you apply to join a Transforming Community® before Dec 31. Strengthen the soul of your leadership in community with other leaders and influencers.

Each order will come with a flyer on how to access launch bonuses.

Order signed copies

Order from Amazon or even your local bookstore and still receive free bonuses. Learn more.

Join us for a special season of the Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Podcast

Read more: Expanded Edition Now Available: Strengthen the Soul of your Team!