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.
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.
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.
Free Resource: Download the “8 Traps That Kill Your Spaciousness” ebook:
👉 https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness
Churches 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/school
Download the “8 Traps That Kill Your Spaciousness” ebook:
👉 https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness
Emotional 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.
