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 Are”
- “Superficial Spirituality Is Okay”
- “Don’t Rock the Boat as Long as the Work Gets Done”
If we allow ourselves and our leadership to be formed by these faulty, unspoken commandments — even in small ways — we increase the likelihood of devastating, long-term consequences. Odds are good we will damage ourselves — physically, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. Resisting these unbiblical commandments is a matter of life and death for us and our churches.
So let me invite you to let the simple, but profound truths, of this podcast go deep into your bones, to go from your head to your heart, that the world might know Jesus through you and your ministry.
