Tag Archives: emotionally healthy spirituality

Silent Sermons – Every Week!

Imagine a church service where there were two sermons: a 20 minute “Sermon of Silence” followed by a 20 minute “Sermon of Words.” A new friend from Melbourne, Australia visited me this past week. She teaches field education in a seminary, using Emotionally Healthy Spirituality as one of her texts. She shared the work of South Yarra Community Baptist Church, along with their ministry called Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources. (Don’t you love that name!) Without the silence, the Scriptures can’t penetrate our lives. Without Scripture, silence is empty. While I am not quite ready for 2 sermons each week at New Life, there is something here from God for us in our frenetic, multi-tasking, always-plugged-in world.

Church History & Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

I am finding that I need to speak more frequently about why a proper understanding of our church family history is paramount for growing spiritually. (click to see a larger version) I emphasize three critically important, major truths: 1. There was only one church for the first 1054 years. The first major split happened between the Eastern and Western church then. This was followed by the split of the Roman Catholic church in 1517 when Protestantism was born. Since then we have had over 200,000 other splits with countless Protestant and independent churches. So my particular tribe (evangelical) is finds itself far up into the upper right of the above chart. This is not a bad thing but I/we come from a family genogram. We are not the whole church by any means. And the church did not start with Luther, Calvin and the Reformers. 2. We need to learn from other traditions of. Read more.

An Interview I did with Bill Hybels

Hey everyone, here’s a Defining Moments interview I did recently with Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. I had a great time with him. They’re a fantastic ministry whose partnership I am thoroughly enjoying with the Willow Creek Association. Click on this link for the interview: Emotionally Healthy Leadership (MP3) Bill Hybels and Peter Scazzero This recording is from Defining Moments, Willow Creek Association’s monthly audio journal for church leaders. Description: Your leadership is affected more than you may imagine by the your emotional health. Listen to Bill Hybels and Pete Scazzero, Senior Pastor of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, NY and author of The Emotionally Healthy Church and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality discuss ways to assess your own emotional health, the affects of your emotional health on the teams you lead, and steps you can take to improve.

10 Ways to Know it is Time to Quit

Geri and I were asked a couple of months ago how do you know if it is time to quit and get serious about this journey we call emotionally healthy spirituality. This was recently published in Knowing When to Say “I Quit” – 10 Ways to Know It is Time to Quit- Beliefnet.com Take a few minutes to see how many of the following ten statements apply to you. It may be time for you to quit. 1. You need the approval of others to feel good about yourself. 2. You are angry, sad, or disappointed and feel guilty about it. 3. You believe you don’t have choices. 4. You do for others what they can and should do for themselves. 5. Your rarely consider your own hopes and dreams because of your focus on others. 6. You say “yes’ when you would rather say “no”. 7. You have difficulty speaking up when you disagree. Read more.

Emotionally Healthy Preaching

During my summer vacation (or mini-Sabbatical), I had the opportunity to visit a few churches. I heard some well-delivered sermons with excellent illustrations, sharp deliveries, and technological grabbing support. I had, however, some observations that, I think, are worth pondering about what makes preaching out of a paradigm of emotional healthy spirituality quite distinct. While this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, this is what I would like to say to myself and my fellow-communicators who have the unique privilege to speak for God to His people out of what I heard this summer: 1. This is not about us or our validation. It is not about people moving towards us but towards Jesus. 2. We must preach out of deep place of prayer as foundational to our preparation. 3. Respect complexity. especially as it relates to applications. What does it mean, “God wants us to triumph?” “Position yourself properly?” Praise God sacrificially?” “Trust. Read more.

The Components of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

I am often asked, “Pete, what exactly is emotionally healthy spirituality?” The above chart describes her five different components. 1. Contemplative Spirituality (Slow Down to Be With God). EHS is a commitment to slow down our lives in order to create a rhythm to be with Jesus. It is about creating space through contemplative practices (e.g. Daily Offices, Sabbath-Keeping, silence, solitude and Scripture) so that we remain in Jesus’ love. We draw deeply from the radical movement of the desert fathers as well as Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist in order that we might love others out of the love we have first received from Jesus Himself. 2. Emotionally Healthy Discipleship – EHS recovers a number of lost biblical themes often ignored in evangelical discipleship. These include a theology of grieving (e.g. Psalms, Lamentations) and limits, of breaking the sinful patterns of our family of origin and cultures, loving well and brokenness as the basis by which we. Read more.

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