The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
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Many pastors and church leaders today feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and frustrated that their churches don't seem to be making mature disciples. The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast explores the paradigms and practices leaders need to transform their church culture and multiply deeply changed disciples.
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A New Scorecard: Personal Formation (Breathing In)
Before you listen, I want to give you two free tools. The Leadership Scorecard takes about ten minutes and helps you see where you actually are, personally and as a leader, measured by what matters most to …
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Before you listen, I want to give you two free tools. The Leadership Scorecard takes about ten minutes and helps you see where you actually are, personally and as a leader, measured by what matters most to Jesus. The discussion guide walks your team through three one-hour sessions with highlights, questions, and short videos. You'll find both at emotionallyhealthy.org/success.
After Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus cooked him breakfast on a beach and asked him one question, three times: "Do you love me?" Peter was about to be handed the care of the entire church. That was the whole interview.
Most of us are carrying a different scorecard. Size. Influence. Praise. Speed of growth. How we compare. By every one of those measures, Jesus himself would fail. For years in Queens, I measured myself by them anyway, and it pushed me to rush plans, hires, and new services before we were ready.
In Part 4 of our Emotionally Healthy Success series, we begin Movement 1, personal formation: the breathing in. I walk through eight marks of a leader formed by God, from being with God before doing for God to joyfully receiving the gift of limits.
Don't grade yourself on all eight. Listen for the one God points to.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Jesus' Four Great Reversals
If you're reading Emotionally Healthy Success with your team, start with the introduction videos and discussion guide we created to go with it at emotionallyhealthy.org/success. This episode is meant to …
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If you're reading Emotionally Healthy Success with your team, start with the introduction videos and discussion guide we created to go with it at emotionallyhealthy.org/success. This episode is meant to supplement your reading and conversation.
I could have written about a dozen reversals in the life of Jesus. I chose four, because they're the four conversions God had to work in me.
For years I prayed for results. I led out of charisma. I trusted my best ideas. I measured growth by critical mass. That list probably looks familiar. It's the admired, applauded model of Western church leadership, and it lives inside most of us.
In this episode, I step back from the individual reversals to show you the pattern they make together: from results to communion, from charisma to weakness and limits, from our best ideas to discerning God's voice, and from critical mass to critical yeast. Underneath all four sits one enemy, the false self, dressed up as success.
These reversals touch how you pray, who you are as a leader, how you make decisions, and how you build. Listen in, and ask God which one he's pressing on in you right now.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
The Wreckage of a Wrong Scorecard
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.When I finished the first chapter of this book, I was ready to move on …
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Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.
When I finished the first chapter of this book, I was ready to move on to the hopeful part. My editor sent it back with a hard word: "Pete, you can't get to the cure until you've told the truth about the disease." I didn't want to climb back down into that pain. I had already lived it. But I did, and it became the hardest chapter in the book to write.
In this episode, I look at what happens when we hand our scorecard to everyone around us: boards, peers, congregants, social media. The damage runs in three directions. We do violence to ourselves, abandoning the person God made us to be. We do violence to those closest to us, the spouses, children, and teams who absorb our hurry. And we do violence to God's work, rushing ahead of him and blocking the slow formation he wants to do in us and in others.
You cannot rebuild until you reckon with the damage. If you've been bent over under a weight you've carried so long you've forgotten how to stand up straight, this one is for you.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
The Lies We Call Success Part 1
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.This is Part 1, and we're starting where the book starts: the lies …
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Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.
This is Part 1, and we're starting where the book starts: the lies we call success.
For years I measured my ministry the way most of us do. Attendance. Budget. Baptisms. Conferences that promised the next strategy for growth. It worked, for a while. But underneath the numbers, I wasn't reflecting on Jesus. I wasn't in touch with my own shadow, my fears, my perfectionism, my anxiety. And the wreckage from that started piling up long before I was willing to see it.
In this episode, I walk through five of the most common false scorecards leaders use without knowing it: the size of our ministry, the extent of our influence, the praise we receive, the pace of our growth, and how we compare to everyone else in the room.
If you've ever felt like you should be further along, this one's for you. Listen in.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Why I Wrote Emotionally Healthy Success
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.What if you could succeed brilliantly at something God never asked you …
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Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.
What if you could succeed brilliantly at something God never asked you to do? Is it possible to succeed at the wrong thing?
I spent a good part of my ministry answering yes to that question without knowing it. I built something big at New Life Fellowship while becoming increasingly unhealthy. The numbers were up. My joy was down. It took a church split and two years I never would have chosen for me to face what I'd been avoiding: who am I when I can't prove I'm successful by the world's standards?
This episode opens a seven-part series walking through the book Emotionally Healthy Success, three and a half years in the making. I'll tell you the story that forced me to ask what success actually looks like to God, and why I think this question is one you're already living with every time you set a priority or lead a team.
If you've built something that looks impressive while quietly wondering if it's the wrong thing, this one's for you. Listen in.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Reversal No. 4: From Critical Mass to Critical Yeast
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.For years, I measured ministry impact by one word: bigger. I remember …
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Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.
For years, I measured ministry impact by one word: bigger. I remember walking into one of the largest churches in America, watching thousands of people fill the room, and thinking, this is it, this is critical mass. A staff member who'd been there since it was a thousand people told me something shifted at 7,500. Point people in a direction, he said, and it felt like a tidal wave.
Jesus never built his kingdom that way. He picked twelve. Pulled three in closer. Sent seventy out two by two. The crowds came last, if they came at all. He called it yeast, a small amount, buried deep, working quietly until the whole loaf rises.
In this episode, I walk through the fourth of four reversals from my new book: the move from critical mass to critical yeast. If you've ever measured your ministry by the size of the room, this episode will show you a slower, harder, far more fruitful way to measure it.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Reversal No. 3: From Our Best Ideas to Discerning God's Voice
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter. For my first seventeen years in ministry, I led for Jesus without …
Shownotes
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.
For my first seventeen years in ministry, I led for Jesus without listening to him. My prayer life was mostly a list of requests. When a door opened, I walked through it and called it faithfulness, following my best ideas and telling myself it was discernment.
In this episode, I walk through the third of four reversals from my new book: the move from our best ideas to discerning God's voice. Even Peter, James, and John struggled here. Peter watched Jesus transfigured on the mountain and responded with a plan: let's build three shelters. God interrupted him mid-sentence. "Listen to him." Not "help him." Not "build for him." Listen.
If you've ever assumed your best idea for God was from God, this episode will show you a better way. Discernment isn't a bonus skill for the spiritually elite. It's the difference between leading for Jesus and actually listening to him.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Reversal No. 2: From Charisma to Weakness and Limits
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/successFor most of my early ministry, I led from my gifts. Teaching, vision-casting, faith, I had those …
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Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success
For most of my early ministry, I led from my gifts. Teaching, vision-casting, faith, I had those in abundance, and little else. So I built my leadership on them, hid my weaknesses, and made sure no one saw me struggle. Then a painful church split exposed the whole thing. I spiraled into a two-year depression before I hit rock bottom, and found Jesus waiting for me there.
In this episode, I walk through the second of four reversals from my new book: the move from charisma to weakness and limits. Jesus was born to a peasant girl, lived thirty ordinary years, and refused the power offered him in the desert. Paul, facing leaders with every credential he lacked, chose to boast in his weakness instead. "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."
If you've been measuring your ministry by the world's scorecard- gifts, platform, impact- this episode will show you a better one. Weakness isn't a hindrance to what God wants to do through you. It's the doorway.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Reversal No. 1: From Prayer for Result to Prayer for Communion
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/successI was taught that no one rises above their intercessory prayer life. If revival wasn't …
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Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success
I was taught that no one rises above their intercessory prayer life. If revival wasn't happening, that meant I hadn't prayed hard enough. So I prayed. We held five morning prayer meetings a week and monthly half nights of prayer, pleading with God to move. He did, slowly. Not the outpouring I was hoping for. Prayer turned into duty, something I dragged myself through rather than something I wanted.
Two things changed that. Time with Trappist monks who taught me to listen more than talk. And years spent inside Luke's gospel, watching how Jesus actually prayed.
This week, I open the first of four reversals from my new book, EH Success: The Move from Praying for Results to Praying for Communion. Jesus didn't pray to get things done. He prayed to stay with the Father, to hear him, and to receive strength from him. That's a different kind of prayer than most of us were taught, and it might be exactly what your prayer life is missing.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Stillness Under Siege: Finding Rest Under Impossible Pressure
Free Resource: Craft a Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.org/ruleIn 2004, I stood in front of a building we couldn't afford to renovate, a staff team with the wrong people …
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Free Resource: Craft a Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.org/rule
In 2004, I stood in front of a building we couldn't afford to renovate, a staff team with the wrong people in the wrong seats, and a list of problems that all traced back to my own failures as a leader. I thought about resigning. I thought I'd taken the church as far as I could.
Most of us know that feeling. Not enough hours. Not enough margin. Not enough emotional or spiritual energy for one more thing. And under that kind of pressure, we get reactive, anxious, driven.
This week, I go back to 701 BC and a king named Hezekiah, surrounded by the most powerful army in the world, with no way out. What he does under that siege is still exactly what we need today. Four practices, not theory, that show you how to find rest when the pressure won't let up.
This isn't about managing your calendar better. It's about what you do the moment the walls close in.
Listen now, and grab the Rule of Life resource above to start building this into your own life.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
You Are Not God: Experience the Freedom of Stopping
Free Resource: Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.orgYou were made for glorious work. But you were also made to stop.Most of us know how to produce, build, plan, and push through …
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Free Resource: Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.org
You were made for glorious work. But you were also made to stop.
Most of us know how to produce, build, plan, and push through. What we struggle with is the hidden life. The stopping. The surrendering. The trusting when no one can see it.
In this episode, Pete Scazzero explores one of the most countercultural truths in Scripture: you are not God. And that is the best news you'll hear all week.
Drawing from Genesis, the life of Jesus, and two ancient disciplines (Sabbath and the Daily Office), Pete unpacks why our refusal to stop is rooted in the same rebellion as the garden. And why living in God's rhythms isn't weakness. It's the path to freedom, fruitfulness, and true maturity.
If your calendar is driven by fear, your ministry by insecurity, or your pace by the crowd's demands, this episode is for you.
Stop. Listen. Be free.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Beyond Brainstorming: Leading a Team That Actually Hears God
Most leadership teams know how to brainstorm. Very few know how to discern together.After more than 40 years of leading, one of my deepest regrets isn’t moral failure. It’s how many things I led that God never …
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Most leadership teams know how to brainstorm. Very few know how to discern together.
After more than 40 years of leading, one of my deepest regrets isn’t moral failure. It’s how many things I led that God never actually asked us to do. We had the money. We had the momentum. We had the energy. But we were moving fast and we were missing God.
In this episode, I share what I’ve learned the hard way: adrenaline is not the Holy Spirit. And brainstorming is not discernment.
I walk through five practices that can transform how your leadership team makes decisions not out of anxiety, urgency, or ambition, but out of quiet listening, surrender, and communal hearing.
This is slow work. It’s countercultural work. But it produces what every exhausted leader is desperate for: more peace, more freedom, and more alignment with Jesus.
If your team is making big decisions right now, don’t miss this episode.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Lectio Divina: A Slower, Truer Way to Hear God
Most of us were trained to read the Bible the way we were trained to lead — move fast, cover ground, extract what's useful, and get back to work. But what if that approach, by itself, is keeping you from …
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Most of us were trained to read the Bible the way we were trained to lead — move fast, cover ground, extract what's useful, and get back to work. But what if that approach, by itself, is keeping you from the very transformation you're trying to produce in others?
In this episode, I want to share a practice that has shaped my life for almost thirty years. A practice I cannot live without. It's called Lectio Divina — holy reading — and I believe it may be the single most important shift a Christian leader can make in their relationship with Scripture and with God.
I'll take you through the history of this practice, the ancient monastic stream of reading that treated the Bible not as a text to be mastered but as a sacrament — a place of encounter with the living God. I'll share the four movements that structure it, and exactly what it looked like in my own devotional life this past week.
This isn't theory. I'll be honest with you about the years I spent reading the Bible the way I approached leadership: achieve, produce, get it done. What that approach cost me — in my prayer life, my preaching, my soul — is something I wish someone had told me at 30.
Lectio Divina interrupts the cycle of leading from information rather than formation. It doesn't just inform your sermons — it transforms the person preaching them. And it begins with something shockingly simple: slowing down long enough to let the Word read you.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
How to Find God in Unexpected Places: The Examen for Today
Most of us were trained to look for God in the big moments — the breakthrough, the open door, the dramatic call. But what if God is most consistently present in the ordinary moments we rush past every day?In …
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Most of us were trained to look for God in the big moments — the breakthrough, the open door, the dramatic call. But what if God is most consistently present in the ordinary moments we rush past every day?
In this episode, I want to share a 500-year-old practice that has quietly transformed my leadership, my marriage, and my relationship with God. It's called the Examen — and I believe it may be the single most underused tool in the modern pastor's spiritual formation toolkit.
I'll take you through the history of this practice, born out of the life of Ignatius of Loyola — a soldier brought low by a cannonball who discovered that God speaks through our interior movements. I'll share the 2-question version you can start today, and the fuller 4-movement practice the Jesuits have done twice a day for five centuries.
This isn't theory. I'll be honest with you about the years I spent pushing past the heaviness in my chest — misreading desolation as something to overcome rather than something to hear. What I missed cost me. You don't have to miss it too.
The Examen interrupts the cycle of leading from wounds and repeating old patterns. It teaches discernment, not just decision-making. And it begins with just two questions.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
How to Spend a Day (or Half Day) Alone with God—and Why It Matters
Free Resource: Download the Day Alone with God Guide at emotionallyhealthy.org/sabbathMost leaders I know have a daily time with God. Very few ever stop long enough to actually hear Him.There's a …
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Free Resource: Download the Day Alone with God Guide at emotionallyhealthy.org/sabbathMost leaders I know have a daily time with God. Very few ever stop long enough to actually hear Him.
There's a difference between a longer quiet time and a day alone with God. One sustains you. The other re-orders you. And if you're honest, you know the difference—because you've felt what happens when your life gets disordered and nothing seems to bring it back into focus.
In this episode, I'm walking you through how to spend a half day—or full day—alone with God, and why this practice may be the most important thing missing from your leadership right now. We'll look at how Jesus, Moses, Elijah, and Anna all built extended withdrawal into their lives with God—not as a luxury, but as a necessity.
I'll also share a simple six-movement structure you can use right away, along with the fears and resistances that keep most leaders from ever doing this.
Your leadership will only go as deep as your life with God. You cannot give what you don't have.
This episode could change everything.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Designing a Daily Time with God that Fits You
📥 Free Resource: Download our free guide to get started with the Daily Office emotionallyhealthy.org/dailyofficeOne of the questions I get asked more than almost any other is: How do you spend time with God …
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📥 Free Resource: Download our free guide to get started with the Daily Office emotionallyhealthy.org/dailyoffice
One of the questions I get asked more than almost any other is: How do you spend time with God each day? What do you do? For how long? Is there a right way?
Here's the truth I've learned over decades of pastoral ministry: there is no one-size-fits-all daily time with God. The goal was never a method—it was always a life of loving union with Him.
In this episode, I take you on a personal journey through five distinct phases of my own prayer life—from intense Scripture study to intercessory prayer, from emotional health integration to contemplative rhythms rooted in monastic wisdom. Each phase taught me something essential. None of them, on their own, was the whole picture.
Then I lay out six practical pillars you can use to design a daily rhythm with God that actually fits you—your season, your temperament, your calling.
Whether you're a ministry leader under immense pressure or someone just trying to show up faithfully, this episode will help you stop copying someone else's spirituality and start building something sustainable and life-giving.
The best daily time with God isn't the longest one. It's the one you'll actually keep.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Power and Wise Boundaries: What Church Leaders Must Learn
Take your team through the Emotionally Healthy Leader Book. Download the FREE discussion guide: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leaderLet’s get honest.Power makes most of us uncomfortable.So we avoid it …
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Take your team through the Emotionally Healthy Leader Book. Download the FREE discussion guide: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leader
Let’s get honest.
Power makes most of us uncomfortable.
So we avoid it, minimize it, or misuse it.In this episode, Pete Scazzero shares a defining leadership failure—one that cost him deeply: relationships, trust, and a 20-year community.
At the center of it?
Unclear boundaries and dual relationships.You’ll discover:
- Why every leader must name and steward their power
- The danger of trying to be both a friend and a supervisor
- How blurred roles quietly damage teams and culture
- Why the burden of boundaries always falls on the leader
- What it means to do the inner work required for healthy leadership
This is not about leadership theory.
It’s about formation.Because if you don’t deal with power and boundaries, they will deal with you.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
The Scandal Beneath All the Church Scandals (And What to Do About It)
Take your team through the Emotionally Healthy Leader Book. Download the FREE discussion guide: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leaderChurch scandals don’t begin the day they are exposed. They begin years …
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Take your team through the Emotionally Healthy Leader Book. Download the FREE discussion guide: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leader
Church scandals don’t begin the day they are exposed. They begin years earlier—in quiet compromises, ignored red flags, and leaders whose gifting has grown faster than their maturity.
In this episode of The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, I go beneath the headlines to name the real issue: church scandals are not first a PR problem. They are a formation problem.
Jesus told us pressure would come. He told us not to be surprised. And He made clear that what will matter in the end is not image management, but whether we have become the kind of leaders who can stand firm under pressure without collapsing.
I unpack four essential pillars every pastor and church leader needs if they hope to lead with integrity over the long haul: facing your shadow, leading out of your marriage or singleness, slowing down for loving union with Jesus, and practicing Sabbath delight.
This is not about quick fixes. It’s about deep transformation.
If you care about the name of Jesus, the witness of the church, and finishing well, this episode is for you.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Family Systems: The Invisible Force Shaping Your Church
Free Resource: Download the “8 Traps That Kill Your Spaciousness” ebook:👉 https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousnessChurches don’t just have problems.They are emotional systems.In this episode of the …
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Free Resource: Download the “8 Traps That Kill Your Spaciousness” ebook:
👉 https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousnessChurches don’t just have problems.
They are emotional systems.In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, I introduce one of the most powerful frameworks I’ve ever learned for understanding leadership, conflict, and why anxiety spreads so quickly in churches: Family Systems Theory.
Much of this work comes from psychiatrist Murray Bowen and was later brought into church leadership by Edwin Friedman in Generation to Generation. But don’t worry — we’ll keep this practical, spiritual, and grounded in real ministry life.
If you’ve ever:Walked into a meeting calm and left reactive
Worked harder at someone’s growth than they are
Watched conflict spread like electricity through your church
You’re not crazy. You’re leading inside an emotional system.
The greatest gift you will ever give your church is not better strategy.
It’s your own inner transformation.
Emotional health isn’t a side issue.
It’s leadership.
Listen in.Learn more about our School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership:
👉 https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/schoolDownload the “8 Traps That Kill Your Spaciousness” ebook:
👉 https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousnessEmotional health isn’t optional. It’s essential.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Why Some Churches Thrive and Others Split
Why do churches with sincere faith, gifted leaders, and strong theology still split?In this powerful episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, Pete Scazzero exposes a hard truth many leaders have …
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Why do churches with sincere faith, gifted leaders, and strong theology still split?
In this powerful episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, Pete Scazzero exposes a hard truth many leaders have experienced but rarely name: church fractures are rarely about doctrine or vision—they are about formation.
Drawing from decades of pastoral leadership and personal failure, Pete explains why spiritual maturity without emotional maturity is unsustainable. Churches don’t split because people don’t love Jesus. They split because leaders and communities lack the emotionally healthy skills needed to love one another well under pressure, conflict, disappointment, and power dynamics.
This episode explores why skills like incarnational listening, clarifying expectations, understanding how family history shapes leadership, and engaging in clean conflict are essential for healthy culture. Pete shares stories from his own leadership journey, including a painful church split that could have been prevented if these skills had been in place.
If you’re a pastor or leader longing to build a church culture that thrives—not just for a season, but for generations—this episode offers wisdom, hope, and a clear next step forward.
👇 Explore more at emotionallyhealthy.org
📅 Join our next webinar: emotionallyhealthy.org/webinarJoin Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Why Emotional Health is the Missing Link in the Global Church
Around the world, churches are working hard to make disciples, lead faithfully, and impact their communities. Yet many leaders are exhausted, relationships are strained, and spiritual growth feels shallow or …
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Around the world, churches are working hard to make disciples, lead faithfully, and impact their communities. Yet many leaders are exhausted, relationships are strained, and spiritual growth feels shallow or stalled. Why?
In this episode, Pete Scazzero addresses a core truth that often goes unnamed: emotional health is the missing link in the global church. Drawing from his own painful leadership crisis and decades of ministry experience, Pete explains why it’s impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. He explores how unaddressed emotional issues limit discipleship, distort leadership, and quietly undermine the church’s witness—no matter how strong our theology or vision may be.
In this conversation, Pete unpacks:
- Why emotional health is foundational—not optional—to spiritual maturity
- How cultural, theological, and leadership blind spots keep the church stuck
- The biblical and theological roots of emotionally healthy spirituality
- What emotionally healthy leadership looks like in real-life ministry
- How redefining success can transform churches and communities
Pete challenges leaders to slow down, go beneath the surface, and embrace emotional health as God’s pathway to deeper transformation—personally, relationally, and globally.
If you long to see a healthier, more Christlike church—and know it must start with you—this episode will reframe how you think about discipleship, leadership, and success.
Listen now and take your next step toward building emotionally healthy leaders and churches around the world.
▶️ Learn more about Emotionally Healthy Discipleship and spiritual maturity
http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/matureJoin Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
5 Planning Mistakes That Kept Me Stuck—for Years
As leaders, we want to make wise, Spirit-led decisions that move our ministries forward. But without realizing it, we often fall into patterns of planning that keep us stuck—repeating the same mistakes year …
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As leaders, we want to make wise, Spirit-led decisions that move our ministries forward. But without realizing it, we often fall into patterns of planning that keep us stuck—repeating the same mistakes year after year.
In this episode, Pete Scazzero gets painfully honest about the five planning mistakes that hindered him for years—and how these missteps continue to trap leaders today:
- Insufficiently preparing
- Flippantly defining success
- Ignoring the most important work—listening to Jesus together
- Skimming on development
- Failing to anchor vision in calendars, limits, and next steps
Pete shares the lessons he’s learned the hard way through decades of leadership in the local church and Emotionally Healthy Discipleship. With clarity, candor, and practical wisdom, he offers a better way forward—one that’s rooted in prayerful discernment, emotional maturity, and thoughtful preparation.
If you're tired of spinning your wheels and ready to do the deeper work of strategic planning in God's way, this episode is for you.
Listen now and take your next step toward leading with greater clarity, peace, and purpose.Resources & Links Mentioned:
Free EH Leader Planning & Decision-Making Guide: https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leader
EH School of Leadership: https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/school
Next EH Webinar: https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/webinarJoin Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
The Monastic Pastor: Recovering the Church’s Ancient DNA for Today
👉FREE DOWNLOAD: Craft a Rule of Life for You and Your Team - emotionallyhealthy.org/ruleMost pastors today are trained in strategies, systems, and leadership models that promise church growth—but often leave …
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👉FREE DOWNLOAD: Craft a Rule of Life for You and Your Team - emotionallyhealthy.org/rule
Most pastors today are trained in strategies, systems, and leadership models that promise church growth—but often leave the soul malnourished.
In this episode, I share a deeply personal and urgent message from a live talk I gave to pastors around the world who are moving beyond using the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Course as a tool—and toward building a deep culture of emotional health and spiritual formation in their churches.
What if the future of church leadership doesn’t look like the latest model, but like something ancient? What if the way forward requires going back?
I unpack how, for over 1,100 years, the church’s most influential leaders were not trained in classrooms—but in monastic communities of prayer, silence, and deep formation. And I lay out the implications for us today as we discern the next faithful steps in shaping a new kind of leadership pipeline rooted in being before doing.
This is more than theory—it’s shaping the future direction of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Embracing Holy Interruptions: Leadership Lessons from the Christmas Story
Interruptions. We hate them. They mess with our schedules, our comfort, our control. But what if the interruptions in your life are actually invitations from God?In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy …
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Interruptions. We hate them. They mess with our schedules, our comfort, our control. But what if the interruptions in your life are actually invitations from God?
In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, Pete Scazzero unpacks how the Christmas story is filled with divine disruptions—from Mary and Joseph, to Herod, to the Magi, and even the religious leaders of the day. Each response to interruption reveals something profound about our own leadership, our spiritual formation, and the God we serve.
Pete invites you to consider:
- What interruptions are coming your way right now?
- Are you resisting, ignoring, or receiving them?
- And what practices can help you stop, listen, and respond like Mary did: “May it be to me as you have said.”
This episode is a vital listen as we enter the holidays and close out the year. God is still interrupting lives—and He may be trying to get your attention.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Do the Work Before the Work
In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, Pete Scazzero challenges pastors and leaders with a simple yet radical invitation: "Do the work before the work." This is more than a productivity …
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In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, Pete Scazzero challenges pastors and leaders with a simple yet radical invitation: "Do the work before the work."
This is more than a productivity principle. It's a call to integrity—where your outer leadership flows from your inner life with God. Through a compelling reflection on Jesus' own rhythms of solitude, limits, and Spirit-led decisions, Pete explores how the greatest threat to your leadership may not be your church, your staff, or your context—but your own unexamined inner life.
You'll hear the ancient tale of The Woodcarver, brought to life through Thomas Merton's lens, and discover how it mirrors the kind of inner work Jesus modeled in the wilderness.
If you've ever felt the pressure to perform, the pull of others' expectations, or the pace of a life without margin, this episode offers a pathway back to wholeness—and a leadership that's both fruitful and free.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
What's Next for EHD: A Candid Conversation
In today's episode of The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, I'm joined by my longtime friend and the new President of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, Drew Hyun, for a conversation unlike any …
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In today's episode of The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, I'm joined by my longtime friend and the new President of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, Drew Hyun, for a conversation unlike any we've ever released.
This is a new season for EHD—one marked by fresh leadership, expanding vision, and a renewed commitment to forming leaders around the world in a deep, beneath-the-surface discipleship. Drew and I look back on our 24-year history, the shaping influence of New Life Fellowship, and the surprising road that led him to carry this movement forward. You'll also hear how church planting, crisis, and personal formation prepared him for this moment.
In part two, we go deeper into succession—what it demanded of both of us, the internal work required, and the lessons every pastor or leader needs when stepping into (or stepping out of) significant responsibility.
Whether you're navigating leadership transition, rebuilding your soul, or discerning your next step with EHD, this episode offers a hopeful and honest invitation to join what God is doing in this new season.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
The Joy & Pain of Leadership Succession
Leadership succession is one of the most sacred — and most difficult — tasks for any pastor or ministry leader. In this episode, I share the behind-the-scenes story of my second major succession — passing the …
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Leadership succession is one of the most sacred — and most difficult — tasks for any pastor or ministry leader.
In this episode, I share the behind-the-scenes story of my second major succession — passing the baton of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship to Drew Hyun as our new President. I've rarely seen a succession done well. And that's exactly why I knew I had to do it differently — with prayer, intentionality, and surrender.
I walk through both the joy and the deep pain of letting go. I reflect on the lessons learned from my first succession at New Life Fellowship, the emotional disorientation that followed, and the profound spiritual formation that only comes through grief and relinquishment.
This is not a leadership technique. It's a spiritual crucible. A death and resurrection.
Whether you're years away from stepping down or you're mentoring the next generation now, this episode will help you face your limits, resist control, and steward your calling with integrity — for the sake of Jesus' mission in the world.
Every leader will face succession. The question is not if, but when.
Let's do it well.Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
Resisting Comparison: How to Embrace the Unique Call of Your Ministry
Too many pastors live with a low-grade ache that their ministry—and they themselves—simply don't measure up. Quietly, comparison creeps in. We look at the growth of others' churches, their charisma …
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Too many pastors live with a low-grade ache that their ministry—and they themselves—simply don't measure up. Quietly, comparison creeps in. We look at the growth of others' churches, their charisma, their staff, their buildings… and wonder, What's wrong with me?
In today's episode, I share deeply from my own journey of wrestling with these very questions. I was driven, angry, and often frustrated with my people and context—trying to build something God never asked of me.
But freedom came. Slowly. Through emotional honesty, interior silence, and deep formation.
We'll explore:
The deadly cost of living from your false self
How to spot comparison in your soul (and how to resist it)
Why embracing your unique call is a spiritual breakthrough
The ancient desert wisdom that reshapes your ministry success metrics
If you're a pastor, leader, or ministry worker who's tired of chasing an illusion of "success," this episode will give you permission to stop striving—and instead, lead from a place of joy, contentment, and union with Jesus.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
[REWIND] Put a Stop to Your Hurried, Rushed Life
⚡FREE E-BOOK: Spaciousness: Avoiding the 8 Traps That Steal Your Margin - Download at emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness In this powerful replay of one of our most listened-to episodes, Pete Scazzero invites …
Shownotes
⚡FREE E-BOOK: Spaciousness: Avoiding the 8 Traps That Steal Your Margin - Download at emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness
In this powerful replay of one of our most listened-to episodes, Pete Scazzero invites pastors and leaders into a radical, countercultural way of leading: unhurried, unrushed, and deeply rooted in Jesus.Are you constantly running at a pace you can't sustain? Exhausted, overextended, and wondering how much longer you can keep going? This episode is for you.
Pete explores the cultural and spiritual forces that keep us trapped in busyness and offers practical, time-tested rhythms that create space for rest, reflection, and deep communion with God. Drawing from his own journey and decades of leadership, Pete names the lies we believe about productivity and success and points us back to a slower, more spacious life anchored in emotional and spiritual health.
This episode will:
Help you identify what's driving your pace
Offer 15 practical practices to embrace a slower rhythm
Encourage you to lead out of your being, not just your doing
This is more than a podcast. It's an invitation to freedom.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
[REWIND] Put a Stop to Your Hurried, Rushed Life
⚡FREE E-BOOK: Spaciousness: Avoiding the 8 Traps That Steal Your Margin - Download at emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness In this powerful replay of one of our most listened-to episodes, Pete Scazzero invites …
Shownotes
⚡FREE E-BOOK: Spaciousness: Avoiding the 8 Traps That Steal Your Margin - Download at emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness
In this powerful replay of one of our most listened-to episodes, Pete Scazzero invites pastors and leaders into a radical, countercultural way of leading: unhurried, unrushed, and deeply rooted in Jesus.Are you constantly running at a pace you can't sustain? Exhausted, overextended, and wondering how much longer you can keep going? This episode is for you.
Pete explores the cultural and spiritual forces that keep us trapped in busyness and offers practical, time-tested rhythms that create space for rest, reflection, and deep communion with God. Drawing from his own journey and decades of leadership, Pete names the lies we believe about productivity and success and points us back to a slower, more spacious life anchored in emotional and spiritual health.
This episode will:
Help you identify what's driving your pace
Offer 15 practical practices to embrace a slower rhythm
Encourage you to lead out of your being, not just your doing
This is more than a podcast. It's an invitation to freedom.
Join Us for a Free Webinar
Are You Measuring What Matters Most to Jesus: A New Scorecard for Success in Life and Leadership, Nov. 10th, 2 PM ET. Learn more at emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar.
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