Leadership Community
The Transforming Center is a small thing done with great love.
We are community of men and women who gather around the presence of Christ for the purpose of spiritual transformation so that we can discern and do the will of God. Everything we are and everything we do flows out of this identity.
Our mission is to strengthen the souls of pastors, spiritual leaders and the congregations and organizations they serve. Each person who serves in leadership with the Transforming Center has completed the two-year Transforming Community and is committed to carrying out our mission through a process of ongoing discernment.
Board of Directors
Ruth Haley Barton is founding president of the Transforming Center. Educated at Northern Seminary, the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation and the University of Loyola Institute for Pastoral Studies, she is a seasoned spiritual director, teacher and retreat leader. She has served on the pastoral staff of several churches including Willow Creek, and is the author of spiritual formation books and resources, including Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, Sacred Rhythms and Invitation to Solitude and Silence.
Rev. Dr. J. Taylor Haley is senior pastor/head of staff at First Presbyterian Church, LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Jonathan holds a Master of Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a Doctorate from McCormick Seminary. He serves on the board of the Transforming Center and is a 5-time Ironman competitor.
Rev. Dr. David Hughes is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where he has served for eighteen years. He holds an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Rory Noland is director of Heart of the Artist Ministries and serves as worship leader for the Transforming Center. Rory served for twenty years as music director at Willow Creek and is a composer, song writer, speaker, and author of several books on worship and the arts, including The Worshiping Artist, Thriving as an Artist in the Church, and The Heart of the Artist.
Ministry Leaders
We are also pleased to have Dick Savidge as our partner in relationship and ministry expansion, Cole Griffin as our retreat host and Dalene Strieff as our executive assistant and registrar.
Dick Savidge is a marriage and family counselor, therapist, pastor, life coach and friend. He has an MA in marriage and family counseling and a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is ordained in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Dick and his wife, Nancy, live in Breckenridge, Colorado.
Rev. Cole Griffin is pastor for Congregational Care & Counseling at Grace Church (in Racine, WI) where he has served for 13 years. He holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is
a spiritual director, retreat leader and Christian Conciliator. He serves as the host for the Transforming Community two year certificate program.
Dalene Strieff comes to the Transforming Center with twenty years of corporate administrative experience. She also serves as a lay leader in church ministry.
David Strieff serves as our database manager and liturgical assistant along with managing our resources at retreats. David and Dalene attend Church of the Resurrection in Glen Ellyn.
What's the Transforming Center about?
Listen to an interview with Ruth Haley Barton.
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