From The Top 10 on our list of The Best Christian Books for Spiritual Growth

Note from Daniel: This book, with the way of life and the way of leading churches and ministries that it commends, is radically good. My honest reaction to my first reading of this book was both a grieved realization that I had never experienced anything like what it describes (and neither had the large majority of my colleagues) and a deep longing to one day be part of a community dedicated to living together in the ways Ruth discusses which would keep us open and available to God. Then, when we come together around the common purpose of our shared ministry, we could seek to know and do God's will in such deep trust toward God and one another.

For anyone involved in leading any kind of Christian group (perhaps even right down to our families!), I cannot express sufficiently how highly I recommend this book..

Meetings can sap our energy, rupture community and thoroughly demoralize us. They can go on forever with no resolution. Or they can rush along without consensus just to "get through the agenda." What if there was another way?

Church boards and other Christian leadership teams have long relied on models adapted from the business world. Ruth Haley Barton, president of the Transforming Center, helps teams transition to a much more suitable model―the spiritual community that discerns God's will together. In these pages you will discover personal and group practices that will lead you into a new way of experiencing community and listening to God together.