Category Archives: spiritual formation

Is the Church a Potemkin Village?

Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Russia’s great empress, had a Field Marshall named Grigori Potemkin who organized a tour of southern Russia for her. The tour was planned over 4 years and covered a distance of 1000 miles. To impress the Empress, Potemkin created fake villages where “happy” peasants were transported back and forth. All along the way Catherine gazed out on seemingly happy subjects lining the streets. Thus, the term Potemkin village entered our vocabulary to refer to “an impressive facade, or show, created to hide an undesirable fact or condition.” How much of the Western church, and particularly the church in the United States, is a Potemkin village – with numbers, glitz, and sizzle – but little depth? Truth be told, we have large numbers of “Christ-followers” in our churches who: Live off the spirituality of others; Pray and read Scripture very little; Are enslaved to pornography and romance novels; Have not had. Read more.

The 5 C’s of Emotionally Healthy Hiring

Hiring is, perhaps, the most challenging tasks of leaders. Why? Poor discernment in this area results in stalled momentum, lots of extra meetings, and, often, hurt relationships. I am not an expert on hiring, but I have made plenty of costly mistakes over the years. 5 C’s summarize what I call “emotionally healthy” hiring: Competence. This is on every list of hiring – and should be. Does the person have the skills, knowledge, and ability to do the job? I overlooked asking hard questions in this area for years when I had great “chemistry” with the person, had history or friendship, or had become impatient waiting for God’s provision. I have never made a good hiring decision under pressure. Calling. Does this potential person discern God is in this for the next step of their journey with Jesus? As we pray, do we believe God is in this? What does their spouse hear from. Read more.

Silence: The Oxygen of Christian Leadership

Nothing in Western culture supports the practice of silence – especially for leaders. Our very sense of identity is based on accomplishments and what others think. Silence before God simply appears so unproductive. Silence forces us to face our “inner monsters,” confronting us with our addiction to being in control, and bringing us face to face with demonic powers and principalities. Why? They rage to prevent us from the deep knowing of God that comes out of being still before Him, or relaxing as one OT scholar translates it (Ps. 46:10). Few spiritual practices are more transformative and important. For this reason, it is core to The EHS Course, our discipleship course that’s changing churches around the world. Set your timer each day for 5 to 10 minutes over the next week. And consider the following guidelines that have served me so well over the last 13 years. (And that I continue to use. Read more.

The Crisis of Discipleship

The explosion of change (e.g. the impact of new technologies) is happening so fast in Western culture that it is difficult to get perspective on its long-range impact in our churches. Willow Creek’s Reveal study, released in 2008, demonstrated conclusively that people are not experiencing spiritual transformation in our churches. Now seven years later, another comprehensive, multi-phase research study on The State of Discipleship in the United States has been released by the Barna Group. Their findings confirm the continuing crisis around discipleship. The study is so important that I want to highlight a few applicable points for you to consider: Only 1% of church leaders say “today’s churches are doing very well at discipling new and young believers.” Few believe churches – their own or others –are excelling in this area. Participation in discipleship activities (e.g. Sunday school, spiritual/mentoring group Bible study) is weak – as low as 20% in our churches. The. Read more.

Of Course You’re Coming to My House for Thanksgiving!

Unmet and unclear expectations create havoc in our churches, places of employment, friendships, and families – especially around holidays like Thanksgiving. Of course you’re coming to Thanksgiving this year. We’re important to you, aren’t we? I’m so disillusioned. I expected that you would make an effort to get here early to help. If you cared about me, you would take time to ask me how I was doing. I can’t believe they didn’t ask what they could bring to dinner this year and just showed up! We expect other people to know what we want before we say it. Most of our expectations are unconscious, unrealistic, unspoken and un-agreed upon. Clarifying Expectations is one of the most important skills we teach in The Emotionally Healthy Skills Course. The principle is as follows: Take a few minutes to consider the expectations you have around this Thanksgiving – ones that that may leave you angry, disappointed,. Read more.

An Invitation from Pete Scazzero

We are so excited for this year’s EH Leadership Conference (along with the one day Pre-Conference –The Leader’s Marriage April 19, 2016). This is our premier training event, offering a broad, yet deep, taste of EHS as it has developed at New Life Fellowship over a 20-year period. We had a significant year of new learnings in how EHS answers the great problem confronting the church–people’s lives are not being deeply transformed in our churches. Because of our commitment to high quality training, we limit the Main Conference to 350 participants and the Pre-Conference to 120 people (60 couples). We believe God may have you among that group. Pray and ask for His direction about this coming April. Super Early Bird Registration rates end November 30th. Register HERE.

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