📖 FREE E-BOOK: “Ancient Disciplemaking” - Your quick start guide to understanding the last 2,000 years of church history. https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/ancient
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In today’s episode, we’re stepping into the rich, untapped wisdom of church history. As modern Christian leaders, many of us unknowingly skip over a critical part of our spiritual heritage—believing God’s work jumped straight from the Book of Acts to the Reformation or Azusa Street. This way of thinking has left us with shallow discipleship and an anemic church.
It’s time to reclaim the “genogram” of the church. Together, we’ll explore the first 1,000 years of Christian history, learn from the four major branches of the global church, and discover how ancient practices like silence, stillness, and grief can transform the way we lead and disciple others.
We’ll also address blind spots in our evangelical tradition and the immense lessons we can glean from brothers and sisters across time and culture. The past isn’t just history—it’s alive, shaping us even today.
Ready to strengthen your leadership and rediscover an ancient path to disciple-making? Download our free eBook at emotionallyhealthy.org/ancient and take your next step toward a deeper, transformative faith.
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This podcast, a 15-minute experience of silence and stillness before the Lord, is our Christmas gift to you, our way of saying “thank you” for being one of our faithful podcast listeners. For the fuller experience with Jesus, please find the video titled "Breathe: Being with God in Silence" on our YouTube page.
Advent is a low point spiritually for most Christian leaders. We are told that told Christmas is the time to get as many people as possible to the church, to close the financial year strong, to thank all our leaders, and to model reaching out to our neighbors for Christ. The problem is that in the process we lose the wonder and beauty of celebrating God’s coming in Jesus of Nazareth. This podcast talks about the top 4 Christmas killers and what we can do to resist them.
God’s ways are little and slow, i.e. they are a mustard seed. Mustard seeds appear insignificant, powerless, imperceptible, and defeated. Few of us signed up to lead in this way. I surely did not! Yet Jesus pleads with us to resist the big, powerful, and sensational ways of the world and embrace his way.
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This podcast returns to Matthew 4:1-11, looking at Jesus as our model of embracing his limits in order to stay rooted in the Father’s love and seemingly “ineffective” timetable.
This podcast is a meditation of Matthew 4:1-11 (Jesus' temptation in the desert) around two questions: 1) In light of Jesus’ responses to Satan, what do we learn about staying grounded in leadership? 2)
What are ways in which Satan tries to split you off/separate you away from the Father in your pastoring/leading?
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Saying no to leadership opportunities, and the increased impact and influence they can afford, is not a topic talked about very often today. For that we need to look at the work of the Holy Spirit in the history of the church. In Part 2 of this series, Pete looks at two towering figures in particular: Bernard of Clairvaux and Gregory of Nazianzus.
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As people who lead in the name of Jesus, we are not to enter every open door or seize every new opportunity. Why? Doing so outside of God’s timetable damages both ourselves and his long-term kingdom mission in the world. In this podcast Pete talks about three reasons we ought to consider pausing to pray before saying yes to new leadership opportunities before us.
Pete offers highlights from the eight charts that formed the basis of his book, The Emotionally Healthy Leader, contrasting the standard practice of how we typically do leadership vs. an emotionally healthy way, and talks about his new free e-book: Why Leadership Matters for a Discipleship that Deeply Changes Lives.
Pete explores the story (with its present-day applications) of God directing Elijah to go to a desert for silence and solitude.
This podcast looks at Jesus’ intentional movement from active ministry with people to times of solitude in a desert place in order to be alone with the Father. It also examines practical ways we can develop a similar rhythm of finding our “desert” with God—regardless of the unique season or circumstances in which we find ourselves.