The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast

By Pete Scazzero

Religion & Spirituality Christianity

What's The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast about?

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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The One Skill That Will Mak...

11.28.2023

To be an emotionally healthy leader requires many skills, practices, and rhythms. Over the last several weeks, we've explored many relationship skills that are non-negotiable for leaders. But if there is just ONE skill I'm convinced every leader must master, ...

The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast episodes:

11.28.2023 The One Skill That Will Make or Break Your Life and Leadership To be an emotionally healthy leader requires many skills, practices, and rhythms. Over the last several weeks, we've explored many relationship skills that are non-negotiable for leaders. But if there is just ONE skill I'm convinced every leader must master, ...
11.14.2023 Why Bottling Up Emotions Kills Spiritual Growth For the first 17 years of my Christian life, my emotional life was completely divorced from my spiritual life. Or so I thought. When sadness, anger, or disappointment surfaced from my soul, I did not see them as gifts. As ...
10.31.2023 The High Stakes Decision to Transform Your History into a Great Future Leaders, by definition, are captivated by the future – moving forward, making progress, and changing the world. But what many leaders fail to appreciate is that we are all anchored in our past. In other words, none of us are ...
10.17.2023 The Life-Saving Practice of Clarifying Expectations When was the last time someone let you down? Or can you think of a recent moment where YOU let someone else down? I'll bet the catalyst of these disappointments comes down to one thing - unmet expectations. The truth ...
10.03.2023 Slay the Dragon of Wrong Assumptions Leadership can be a painful journey - especially in a church or ministry that depends on the depth and quality of the relationships within. Yet, in over 4 decades of leadership, I've found that so much of this pain is ...
09.19.2023 Unleash the God-given voice of your people In over four decades of leadership, I've come to the conclusion that one of the biggest gaps in our leadership training comes down to one essential skill... Creating safety where everyone around you feels empowered to communicate clearly and honestly. ...
09.05.2023 The Outrageous Way Jesus Measures Spiritual Maturity Could you forgive someone if you knew they murdered your entire family? It sounds far-fetched. But this is the question posed in As We Forgive - a documentary about the tragedies of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the stories of ...
08.22.2023 10 Timeless Axioms of Emotionally Healthy Leadership (Pt. 2) Language builds culture. Recently on the podcast, I shared 5 timeless leadership axioms - portable and powerful phrases that have become adopted by emotionally healthy leaders all around the world. For example..."Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa is ...
08.08.2023 10 Timeless Axioms of Emotionally Healthy Leadership (Pt. 1) Movements with longevity are sustained through shared, easily understood language. This most often comes through the development of axioms - short, memorable phrases that capture the essence of truth in simple ways. Reflecting on the last two decades of leading ...
07.25.2023 Signs, Wonders, and Emotional Health According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, the fastest growing stream of the church is the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. In terms of overall numbers, it represents 644 million Christians world wide. This is 8.3% of the world population. By 2050, it will ...
07.11.2023 Sharpen Your Decision-Making Pt. 3: Waiting For leaders, one of the most frustrating parts of decision-making is this... It....takes....time. Sure, sometimes quick decisions are necessary. But most consequential decisions (that shape the future of your life, church, and ministry) require the ability to slow down and ...
06.27.2023 Sharpen Your Decision-Making Pt. 2: Consolations and Desolations Decision-making is primarily about discernment. It's the ability to make decisions that align with God's will for your life and ministry. The truth is - discernment is an art. It takes practice, attention, and a lifetime to develop. But if ...
06.13.2023 Sharpen Your Decision-Making Pt. 1: The Blessing of Boundaries One of the primary tasks of spiritual leadership is the ability to make prayerful, wise decisions. Yet many leaders find it difficult to invest the time and space necessary for sharp discernment. The result is that our decisions become dull, ...
05.30.2023 Why Real Discipleship Starts in the Basement Years ago, we were doing some strategic planning at the church I had founded in Queens, NY. We were reflecting on what contributed to our growth over a 26 year period. A single word kept reappearing on the whiteboard - ...
05.16.2023 8 Practices of Emotionally Healthy Preaching and Teaching Eight years after planting New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, I was exhausted. The pressure of preaching and teaching weekly messages, along with the rest of my leadership responsibilities, left me depleted. Although our ministry was growing, I often felt ...
05.02.2023 Why Affliction is How God Develops True Spiritual Leaders Affliction. It's a topic that nobody wants to talk about (including me). But as it relates to TRUE LEADERSHIP, it is a costly mistake to avoid our afflictions. Why? Because this is how God matures us into spiritual mothers and ...
04.18.2023 Spaciousness: Avoiding the Traps that Steal Our Margin One of the greatest threats to leading with joy is giving into the temptation of overcommitment. When our lives are crowded, cluttered, and cramped, it is difficult to hear God and live in loving union with Him. The irony is, ...
04.04.2023 The Real Reason You Can't Stop Overcommitting (and what to do about it) Many leaders today "know" the importance of a slowed-down spirituality. So why do so many continue to feel overloaded and over scheduled, often working 3 jobs, taking on new side hustles, and remain driven by the fear of missing out? ...
03.21.2023 3 Counterfeits of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Recently we crossed an unbelievable threshold with the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast with over 10 million lifetime podcast downloads. I couldn't be more surprised, humbled, and thankful for this milestone moment. I say "surprised" because back in 1996, when we ...
03.07.2023 What Would I Say to My 25, 35, 45-Year-Old Self? I was recently asked by someone... "Pete, if you could go back and give yourself advice in the different seasons of life and ministry, what would you say?" The truth is – every decade has its own unique invitations. As ...
02.21.2023 Why Skimming Over Your Losses Kills Discipleship Many of us have come to believe that the Christian life is synonymous with constant happiness. We think we're on the right track if the trajectory of our lives is "up and to the right" - always improving, always leveling ...
02.07.2023 The Most Powerful Gift Leaders Can Give I was 19 when I came to Christ and started my training as a Christian leader. As a young leader, I was taught many valuable things. But nobody told me about the most powerful gift leaders can bring to those ...
01.24.2023 Coaching the Genogram: A Powerful Tool to Deeply Form Leaders As a pastor or leader, your primary role is to develop and disciple others. More than simply "getting things done", we are called to prioritize the growth and maturity of the people and leaders around us. We do this by ...
01.10.2023 How the 3 Deadliest Leadership Temptations are God’s Great Invitation Not long ago I was spending time with some young pastors, hoping to learn how leaders today define ministry success. The word "influence" seemed to be a common theme. Many leaders obsess over growing their followers, gaining digital credibility, and ...
12.22.2022 A Radical Approach to Planning for the New Year Does the end of the year feel like a complete whirlwind? For most pastors and leaders Christmas activities dominate the month of December and then we only get a week's break before launching into a new year! In January, pastors ...
12.12.2022 5 Marks of a Godly, Highly-Differentiated Leader Pt. 2 Great leadership is about knowing who you are and who you are not. In part one of this podcast series, I shared the first 5 marks of a highly-differentiated leader.On today's podcast, I continue by sharing 5 more attributes that ...
11.29.2022 5 Marks of a Godly, Highly-Differentiated Leader Pt. 1 Everything rises and falls on the character and inner life of the leader. The apostle Paul seemed to believe so as well. He writes to his spiritual son Timothy that “whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.” ...
11.15.2022 Contending for Deep Rest in a World of Unrest Every day, people all around us live in a chronic state of dread, anxious about what tomorrow will bring. Nations and economies are crumbling. News media agitates our deepest fears. It often feels like the ground is shaking beneath our ...
11.01.2022 Emotionally Healthy Hiring (Paid or Volunteer) Pt. 2 Hiring new staff (paid or volunteer) is one of the most difficult responsibilities of church leadership. The difference between the right hire and the wrong hire will have long-term consequences in your church. Two weeks ago on the podcast, I ...
10.18.2022 Emotionally Healthy Hiring (Paid or Volunteer) Pt. 1 Churches around the world are rebuilding in a post-pandemic world. Leaders are assembling new teams and desperately trying to fill vacant positions. The temptation to cut corners in your hiring process (paid or volunteer) is ENORMOUS. When you feel the ...
10.04.2022 Don't Trade Your Inner Life for the Illusion of Momentum Today, very few church leaders feel like they are winning. We look at our churches compared to what they used to be or what we'd like them to be, and it's hard to feel like we're making a real difference. ...
09.20.2022 Living in the Desert Without Leaving Your Life Great news! I'm officially back from my summer sabbatical and I'm excited to share with you insights from my time away. In the 3rd - 5th centuries, early Christian men and women fled to the desert to escape the moral ...
09.06.2022 Silencing the Seductive Voice of Your False Self One of the most destructive temptations leaders face is living and leading from the veneer of a "false self". In other words, we project an image of how we'd like to be perceived, rather than living from truth. In today's ...
08.23.2022 One Thing No Leader Wants (But Every Leader Needs) Many leaders today believe that if we're going to get things done and be successful, we must "take the bull by the horns". We are told that strength and power win in the economy of leadership. So when Jesus boldly ...
08.09.2022 Why the Power of God Gives You Power to Die Today on the podcast, I share a part of an interview I did earlier this year with the Canadian Church Leaders Network. I expanded upon what I see as one of God’s purposes for pouring out His Spirit - giving ...
07.26.2022 Disrupting False Peace as God's Path to True Peacemaking Pt. 2 For too many years, I thought being a peacemaker was simply being a nice person. Because of this illusion, I spiritualized my conflict avoidance and created a culture in my church where everyone pretended things were ok. This is the ...
07.12.2022 Disrupting False Peace as God's Path to True Peacemaking Pt. 1 I spent my early years avoiding conflict. True peacemaking, when understood correctly, actually comes through disrupting false peace. In today's podcast, I share a sermon that goes deeper into this new understanding. I assure you...it changes everything.
06.28.2022 Why Our Church Crisis Demands a New Kind of Training Many pastors have been professionally educated and extensively trained. The problem is – we are facing a massive discipleship crisis. I've found that much of our training doesn't help get at the root of this problem. Deep change requires a ...
06.21.2022 Name and Embrace Your Season of Leadership Have you ever stopped to consider what season you are in? Spring, summer, fall, or winter? When we ignore the reality of our season, not only do we constantly feel like we're missing it, but we are unable to receive ...
06.13.2022 Why Pain and Failure are God’s Great Gifts to You For many leaders, the pain and failure that come with leadership are often too much to bear. But the truth is – pain and failure are some of God's greatest gifts to us. Why? Because it is the only way ...
06.07.2022 Emotionally Healthy Vacations: The Antidote for Vacations that Leave You Empty and Dry Have you ever returned from vacation tired and empty? As we enter into the summer months in North America, we have an opportunity to completely re-think the way we take our vacations from a biblical perspective. On today's podcast, I ...
05.31.2022 Leadership Blindspots & Whitewashed Walls Is your life and leadership the same on the INSIDE as it is on the OUTSIDE? You might respond "Of course it is!". But reality is - sometimes it's hard to know. That's why God often sends others to help ...
05.24.2022 The 5 Hardest Lessons I’ve Learned Since Graduating Seminary It has been almost 40 years since I graduated from seminary. I had no idea there would also be a few HARD lessons waiting for me. Each of them would completely transform my life and ministry. In today's podcast, I ...
05.17.2022 The Radical Shift of Leading from Within Most leaders are consumed with solving problems, putting out fires, and managing people. Most leaders are taught that THIS is good leadership! But the truth is, if you want to be a transformational leader, you must learn to lead from ...
05.10.2022 The Key to Address Our Church Scandal Crisis: Pt. 2 Last week on the podcast we covered a thorny topic – Church Scandals. In today's episode, I tackle several questions that listeners sent me last week, and then we dive into part two of the key to addressing our church ...
05.03.2022 The Key to Address Our Church Scandal Crisis: Pt. 1 Church scandals. They seem to be more and more frequent in headline news. Each one has a dramatic effect on all of us. They are to be grieved but also carefully examined. Please listen to today's episode, and if appropriate, ...
04.26.2022 Sabbath Pt. 2: A Taste of Eternity We must recover the ancient practice Sabbath. It's how we slow down our lives to delight in Jesus, and in doing so, anchor ourselves into eternity. On today's podcast, I share a message which is the second part of ...
04.19.2022 Sabbath Pt. 1: Working from Our Rest When we enter into Sabbath we are able to work from our rest, not just rest from our work. This is the theme we explore in today's podcast episode. Working from our rest allows our lives to become a sign ...
04.12.2022 Maturing into Spiritual Mothers & Fathers Becoming an emotionally healthy disciple is not just about self-discovery and self-improvement. Ultimately, our discipleship MUST lead us to become spiritual mothers and fathers of the faith - helping those around us discover their God-given power and purpose. In today's ...
04.05.2022 Prudence: The Lost Virtue of Great Leadership On today's podcast, I share a sermon that will help you grow as an emotionally healthy leader – prudent with your time, wealth, energy, and resources. Only with prudence are we able to become the kind of leaders who create ...

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