Practicing Sabbath is, as Eugene Peterson said, “a workshop to practice eternity.” In fact, he equated a busy pastor with an adulterous or embezzling pastor considering both to be scandalous. In this podcast, I share a sermon I gave as part of a series on work and calling (you’ll note that in the introduction. Click here to find that sermon). Why? Sabbath is God’s foundation for our work. It guards us against the powerful idol of making our work the center of meaning for our lives, protecting us from defining ourselves by our work. The following is a brief assessment from The Emotionally Healthy Leader around your practice of Sabbath. Take it and see how you are doing. How Healthy Is Your Practice of Sabbath Delight? Next to each statement, write down the number that best describes your response. Use the following scale: 5 = Always true of me 4 = Frequently true of. Read more.

Evangelicalism has many great strengths for which I am deeply grateful – love for Scripture, commitment to mobilize people to use their gifts, a passion to spread the gospel – to name a few. One of our great weaknesses, however, is our overactivity and busyness, our lack of a sufficient being with Jesus to sustain our doing for him. In this podcast, I build on the chapter, “Slow Down for Loving Union,” from The Emotionally Healthy Leader, offering additional insights on how to allow Jesus full access to our lives in a posture of openness and surrender. I attempt to give a larger perspective on the unique challenges of leading when, at the same time, we’re seeking to deepen our abiding in Jesus. I also mention the 10 signs that indicate we’ve wandered from loving union with him. See how many apply to you today. You know you’re not experiencing loving union when you. Read more.

This week’s podcast explores the second pillar of building a deep inner life out of which we lead for Jesus – lead out of your marriage or singleness. The default thinking about marriage and singleness in most churches goes something like this: A leader’s highest priority is to build an effective and successful ministry to reveal Jesus’ love to the world. Marriage or singleness is important, but secondary. A leader’s oneness with Jesus is separate from his or her connection to a spouse (if married) or close friends and family (if single). Leaders need to get as much training and equipping as possible to improve their leadership skills. Training and equipping for marriage or singleness is primarily for when you have problems or a crisis. I begin the podcast by summarizing the material found in The Emotionally Healthy Leader, reviewing briefly a theology of marriage/singleness as a sign and wonder that bears witness to. Read more.

This week’s podcast explores the first pillar of building a deep inner life out of which we lead for Jesus: face your shadow. This requires confronting those parts of who we are that we prefer to neglect, forget, or deny, and it is our most difficult leadership task. Parker Palmer expresses this process best: Everything in us cries out against it. That is why we externalize everything — ​it is far easier to deal with the exterior world. It is easier to spend your life manipulating an institution than dealing with your own soul. We make institutions sound complicated and hard and rigorous, but they are simplicity itself compared with our inner labyrinths. I build on the material found in The Emotionally Healthy Leader in this podcast, providing additional avenues to get at this largely unconscious, damaged but mostly hidden version of who we are. Why? As we begin facing our shadows, we discover it is. Read more.

Many staff teams, seminaries, training centers, boards, and Christian colleges/Bible schools use The Emotionally Leader (Zondervan, 2015) as a foundational text on leadership. Along with the book, some have used our free Emotionally Healthy Leader Discussion Guide, as well as any podcasts or YouTube videos they can find to supplement their readings. To serve you, and this growing audience, this week launches the first of nine podcasts from The Emotionally Healthy Leader on “The Emotionally Unhealthy Leader.” I begin by describing the four characteristics of an emotionally unhealthy leader: They have low self-awareness They prioritize ministry over their marriage or singleness They do more activity for God than their relationship with God can sustain They lack a Sabbath/work rhythm. The problem is compounded by the unhealthy, and largely unspoken, commandments which dominate our Christian leadership cultures. “It’s Not a Success Unless It’s Bigger and Better” “What You Do Is More Important than Who You. Read more.

When I shared, a few weeks ago, on my list of biggest leadership regrets, it was quite easy to identify my top one – mistakes I made around dual relationships and power. For this reason, I felt compelled to dedicate a podcast to explore this theme more formally and clearly. I approach it here through my reading of the chapter entitled “Power and Wise Boundaries” from the audio version of The Emotionally Healthy Leader. I discovered over the years that I was not alone. Almost every church, nonprofit organization, and Christian community I know bears deep scars and hurt around this issue. I believe that is because very little teaching and mentorship is done in this area. Every leader exercises stewardship of power, i.e. we have a capacity to influence others. That power is God-given. When we under-use our power out of fear, a need to be liked, or an aversion to conflict, we hurt. Read more.