Pt. 2: 4 Invitations from God in Our Politically Charged World
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
Release Date: 08/20/2024
Facing the Unseen: Why Discipleship Must Go Beneath the Surface
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
Too often, we lead others while unaware of the emotional baggage we carry. In this episode, I share why genuine discipleship must go beneath the surface—into the depths of our emotional world and the generational patterns shaping us. Using the haunting story of Nathan Price from The Poisonwood Bible, I reflect on my own early years of Christian leadership—driven, sincere, but stuck. Like many pastors, I loved Scripture and ministry, yet avoided the inner work required for lasting transformation. In this second mark of an Emotionally Healthy Culture, I unpack how we follow Jesus into...
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Slowing Down to Catch Up with God: How to Escape the Ministry Hamster Wheel
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
In today’s fast-paced world, Christian leaders are often caught on the “ministry hamster wheel”—spinning endlessly with meetings, sermons, crises, and expectations. But what if the most radical, missional act we could take isn't to do more, but to slow down? In this episode, Pete Scazzero calls us to break free from the cycle of overload and distraction by embracing a countercultural rhythm of life rooted in Jesus. Drawing from personal experience and church history, Pete shows how slowing down is not self-care—it’s spiritual resistance. It’s leadership. It’s mission. This is...
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5 Ways Your Family of Origin Is Undermining Your Leadership (Part 2)
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
What if your family of origin is still running your leadership — and you don’t even know it? In Part 2 of this vital conversation, Pete Scazzero continues unpacking how the emotional and relational patterns we inherited growing up deeply shape how we lead today — often more than we realize. If you missed Part 1, go back and listen first. In this episode, Pete explores: Why so many leaders struggle to build healthy, emotionally mature community How unspoken family scripts muddle our priorities and calendars A powerful diagnostic checklist to help you reflect on your leadership ...
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5 Ways Your Family of Origin Is Undermining Your Leadership (Part 1)
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in patterns you can’t explain or hitting a wall in your leadership that won’t budge—there’s a reason. In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, I explore one of the most overlooked but powerful forces shaping your life and leadership: your family of origin. The truth is, we all carry a family story. And unless we allow Jesus to meet us there—deep in those places—our leadership, relationships, and even our ability to hear God will be compromised. I’ll walk you through how your family of origin influences your emotional...
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Good Limits vs. Bad Limits: How Wise Leaders Know the Difference
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
After 30 years of wrestling with the tension between vision and limitation, I’ve come to see that how we handle limits can make—or break—our leadership. In this episode, I explore the subtle but powerful difference between good and bad limits. Bad limits are driven by fear, faulty thinking, and self-protection. But good limits? They’re gifts from God—meant to ground us, guide us, and grow us. You’ll hear how ignoring God’s limits nearly cost me everything: my marriage, my leadership, my soul. But when we stop trying to be God and instead embrace the limits He gives us, we begin...
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The Power of Leading From Your Marriage or Singleness as a Sign and Wonder: Pt.2
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
👉 Download the FREE Emotionally Healthy Leader Discussion Guide at —--------------------------------------------------- In today’s episode, we dive deep into one of the most misunderstood and undervalued aspects of Christian leadership—leading out of your singleness. Whether you’re 25 or 75, single by calling or circumstance, you are not a problem to be fixed or a “not-yet-married” Christian waiting in the wings. You are a sign and wonder—a prophetic witness to the kingdom of God. Drawing from Scripture, early church history, personal stories, and modern discipleship tools,...
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The Power of Leading From Your Marriage or Singleness as a Sign and Wonder: Pt.1
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
👉 Download the FREE Emotionally Healthy Leader Discussion Guide at —--------------------------------------------------- Most Christian leaders are taught to prioritize ministry first—leaving marriage, singleness, and sexuality in the shadows. But what if the loudest gospel we preach isn't from our pulpits, but from how we live out our deepest relationships? In this powerful episode, Pete Scazzero uncovers a profound, often overlooked truth: your marriage (or singleness) is not a private matter—it’s a sign and wonder, a living revelation of God’s love to the world. Drawing from...
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Why True Leaders Confront the Elephants in the Room (Part 2)
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
📝 How Emotionally Healthy Are You? Take this Free Assessment to find out. —--------------------------------------------------- There’s no other way to lead with integrity—none—than by confronting the elephants in the room. In Part 2 of this series, I unpack the spiritual and emotional cost of avoiding the hard conversations that must happen in every church, team, and family system. I begin with a powerful parable—“The Bridge”—a vivid picture of what happens when we carry burdens that don’t belong to us. Many leaders are doing just that—overfunctioning, sidetracked, and...
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Why True Leaders Confront the Elephants in the Room (Part 1)
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
📝 Free Church Culture Assessment: How is your church doing in these 6 core areas? churchhealth —--------------------------------------------------- Leadership is hard. And confronting the elephants in the room—the inappropriate behaviors, unhealthy patterns, and unresolved tensions we all want to ignore—is even harder. In today’s episode, I’ll share why true leaders must resist the temptation to avoid these challenges, and why doing so is essential for real discipleship and healthy leadership development. You’ll hear stories from my own failures, lessons from decades of...
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What Makes (or Breaks) a Healthy Leadership Transition
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
📝 Free Church Culture Assessment: How is your church doing in these 6 core areas? churchhealth —--------------------------------------------------- After decades of leadership, I’ve walked through two major successions—first as Lead Pastor of New Life Fellowship Church, and now, as President of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship. In today’s episode, I pull back the curtain on what I’ve learned about leadership transitions—not from a textbook, but from the trenches. Healthy transitions are rare. And they don’t happen by accident. They require deep inner work, Spirit-led...
info_outline✅ [FREE E-BOOK] LeaderSHIFT: 8 Pivotal Breakthroughs of Emotionally Healthy Leaders https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershift
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All around the world, there is an electrical charge surging through the minds and hearts of the people we lead. Our political climate has made this another difficult, yet important time to pastor and lead well.
So how do we navigate politics personally AND from the pulpit without falling prey to the common traps of both sides of the aisle?
In this podcast episode (Part 2 of 2), I share what I believe are 4 invitations from God to the Church in this moment.
Within these invitations are keys for us to lead with grace, steadiness, and wisdom, as we pastor our churches through this storm.