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Your Shadow and Your Leadership

The challenge for us as leaders is the self-awareness to discern how our shadow impacts the way we lead– e.g. decision-making, strategic planning, team building, ways we deal with conflict, and transitions. When I first wrote The Emotionally Healthy Leader, I was acutely aware that readers wanted the last four chapters of the book first, i.e. what I call the outer life, the immediate practical helps to improve their leadership. The problem is that all our leadership tasks are informed by who we are, i.e. our inner life. For this reason, the first half of the book is dedicated to unpacking those core issues. And the first inner life issue every leader must confront is his or her shadow. Why? Everyone has a shadow. Shadows are those untamed emotions and behaviors that lie, largely unconscious, beneath the surface of our lives that constitute the damaged versions of who we are. They may be sinful;. Read more.

Spiritual Warfare and EHS

Over the years I have been asked: “Pete, what is your approach to the driving out of demons in the church?” I didn’t know much about deliverance until we planted New Life in the largely immigrant neighborhood of Corona in Queens, NYC (about 1 mile from our present location). The area was well known for drug dealing, homelessness, and poverty. We shared a narrow street with a large mosque, a thriving Jehovah’s Witness congregation, and an active Santeria (voodoo) shop. Within the first few months of launching, we encountered a demon screaming out and disrupting the service at the end of my sermon. Not just once, but twice, and then finally, a third time. To say, “I was over my head,” is an understatement. Nothing in seminary, Inter-Varsity staff, or my previous church involvement had prepared me for something like this. I embarked on a crash course in deliverance. For the next two years, I took courses,. Read more.

New EH Leader Podcast: Clean Fighting in the Church

Nobody likes conflict. Nonetheless, conflict is a very real part of every leader’s ministry. Yet the illusion that “sweeping disagreements under the rug” is to follow Jesus continues to be one of the most destructive myths alive in the church today. We try to fix tension as quickly as possible. Like radioactive waste from a nuclear power plant, if not contained, we fear it might unleash terrible damage. In this podcast, Pete talks about how God intends every conflict to be a disciple-making and culture-shaping opportunity – both for us and those we serve. But it is not easy, revealing our level of self-awareness, our family of origin dynamics, and the depth of our loving union / identity in Christ. Listen in as Pete and Rich conclude with an example of Rich resolving a tension with another staff member, and how the tool, “Clean Fighting,” is regularly utilized to grow people up in maturity. Read more.

The EHS Courses: Discipleship that Deeply Changes Lives

While EHS does not provide everything our churches need to “make disciples…teaching them to obey” everything Jesus has commanded us (Matt. 28:18-20), it does offer the missing components in most of our contemporary discipleship efforts. The EH Spirituality Course and the EH Relationships Course, in particular, introduce our people, and our churches, to a deep, beneath the surface spirituality. This transforms the rest of our discipleship activities, becoming a lens through which all spiritual formation is done and understood. At New Life Fellowship Church our discipleship strategy looks something like this: The topics in each of the EHS Courses have been carefully chosen over a 20-year period to introduce people to this transformational discipleship paradigm. They free people through the integration of emotional health and spiritual maturity, a slowed down spirituality, and eight powerful relational skills. Notice the foundation of all discipleship is learning to be with Jesus, i.e. to abide/remain in Him. For this reason the core of. Read more.

Transforming Holidays into Sabbaticals

A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. – Henry Ward Beecher Every country in the world has public holidays – from the Chinese New Year to Brazil’s Carnaval to India’s Vasanta (or Basant). This coming Monday in the United States, we celebrate Memorial Day, remembering those who died while serving our armed forces. Yet I believe God desires that we receive particular gifts from Him that emerge in these “extra” Sabbatical days. God wired us for a weekly rhythm of Sabbath rest for a 24-hour period. He also wired us for longer Sabbath stretches of time for rest. We observe this in the way He built into the life of Israel Sabbatical weeks and even Sabbatical years. God knew that if Israel were to be true to her calling and purpose, they would need more than. Read more.

Preaching Out of Sabbath Rest

God invites us not only to rest from our work, but also to work from our rest. That is, perhaps, nowhere more crucial than in preaching. The question is how do we preach from a place of Sabbath rest, i.e. how do we carry over the riches of Sabbath (to stop, rest, delight, and contemplate God for a 24-hour period) into our work of preaching. The following are a few points to consider: Say No to Perfectionism. Sabbath is first and foremost a day of “stopping” – even with our to-do lists unfinished. We embrace our limits. And we trust God. Sermons are never finished. Regardless of our preparation, when we step up to preach, we do so in faith. I have never preached a perfect sermon. Even my best sermons remain incomplete. God reserves perfection for Himself. While I believe we need to prepare well, it never exempts us from the hard work. Read more.

Cómo desarrollar líderes de alto impacto en su iglesia

Seminario web gratuito en vivo con Pete Scazzero & Drew Hyun

Seminario web gratuito con Pete Scazzero & Drew Hyun

¡Descubre la delicia del Sabbat!

Explora las 4 prácticas de un Sabbat Bíblico