Names Before Numbers: The Dramatic Shift True Shepherds Must Make
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
Release Date: 11/26/2024
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...
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Why Low Differentiation Kills Teams
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
👉 Take the free EHD Maturity Assessment: —------------------------------- Most pastors and leaders are trained to preach, strategize, and serve—but few are ever taught how to lead from a deeply anchored, differentiated self. And yet, this is the foundation for every healthy team and ministry. In today’s episode, I unpack one of the most overlooked killers of team health and mission: low differentiation. Drawing from Family Systems Theory, the leadership of David and Jesus, and my own hard-earned lessons over decades, I’ll share four critical reasons why low differentiation...
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5 Ways to Avoid the Trap of False Power, Pt. 2
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
📝 Free Church Culture Assessment: How is your church doing in these 6 core areas? churchhealth —--------------------------------------------------- Are you leading out of true power—or false power? Far too often, we mistake activity for effectiveness, urgency for wisdom, and influence for true authority. When we operate out of false power—power rooted in our own ambition, hurry, or need for approval—we’re actually moving backward, not forward. We might look like we’re leading well, but deep inside, something is off. Anxiety rises, peace disappears, and we start measuring...
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5 Ways to Avoid the Trap of False Power, Pt. 1
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
⚡FREE WEBINAR: Join us for our next webinar – How to Build an Emotionally Healthy Church from the Ground Up – —--------------------------------------------------- Too many pastors and leaders get caught in a subtle but deadly trap—chasing a form of power that looks impressive on the outside but leaves us spiritually hollow. It’s a trap Paul confronted head-on when facing the so-called “super-apostles” of his day. They flaunted their visions, eloquence, and achievements, yet Paul boldly declared that true power is found in weakness. In this episode of The Emotionally Healthy...
info_outline🎄Christmas Sermon Prep Webinar - Join me for a FREE webinar on Dec. 5th at 2 pm ET to learn about preaching a Christmas message that deeply changes lives. https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/sermonprep/
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The truth is, you can’t shepherd numbers. You can only shepherd names. And yet, in a culture obsessed with metrics, many leaders feel trapped, measuring success by attendance, budgets, and fast growth rather than the flourishing of the people God has entrusted to them.
In this episode, Pete unpacks the heart of biblical shepherding—leading with Jesus’ love, slowing down to be present, and praying over the specific names God has placed under your care. He explains how this dramatic shift, though countercultural and painfully slow, leads to a deeply transformative and spacious life for both shepherds and sheep.
If you’re longing to move beyond hurried leadership into a ministry marked by patience, prayer, and personal connection, this episode is for you. Pete shares four practical ways to shepherd like Jesus and invites you to reflect: Who is on your list?