Synopses & Reviews
Despite all the emphasis today on spiritual formation, church leaders rarely describe what spiritual maturity looks like. This book addresses how to grow disciples with relational depth -- balanced people who are genuinely intimate with God, with their inner being, and with others.
The Emotionally Healthy Church opens with the story of one church's revolutionary encounter with God ashe taught them a new way of approaching discipleship. Pete Scazzero, the pastor of New Life Fellowship, had been doing a great job of attracting broken and needy people. The church was growing at an impressive rate. He got people to attempt great things for God, developed many of them as leaders, and planted other new churches.
But despite the growth and excitement of this front-line ministry, something was deeply wrong. People kept burning out, leaders were exhausted, and Scazzero found his marriage in trouble and his intimacy with God drying up. He sought God, asking what was missing.
The turning point came when the pastor discovered a bridge between spiritual maturity and emotional maturity. He learned that Jesus' followers need training in how to look beneath the iceberg tip of their lives, to break the power of their past on the present, to live in brokenness and vulnerability, to know their limits, to embrace loss and grief, and to model the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
This book provides the vision of a church community that is a safe place for developing mature members who begin to see deep lasting change in their lives. To build a healthy church, you need healthy leaders. The Emotionally Healthy Church gives you the tools to do that.
Synopsis
Something is desperately wrong with most churches today. Many sincere followers of Christ who are passionate for God and his work are unaware of the crucial link between emotional health and spiritual maturity. They present themselves as spiritually mature but are stuck at a level of immaturity that current models of discipleship have not addressed. Discipleship that really transforms a church must integrate emotional health with spiritual maturity. The Emotionally Healthy Church, winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award, offers a strategy for discipleship that accomplishes healthy living and actually changes lives.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-221).
Synopsis
True Discipleship Integrates Emotional and Spiritual Health.
New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York, had it all: powerful teaching, dynamic ministries, an impressive growth rate, and a vision to do great works for God. Things looked good--but beneath the surface, circumstances were more than just brewing. They were about to boil over, forcing Peter Scazzero to confront needs in his church and himself that went deeper than he'd ever imagined. What he learned about the vital link between emotional health, relational depth, and spiritual maturity can shed new light on painful problems in your own church. Here are refreshing new insights, and a different and challenging slant on what it takes to lead your congregation to wholeness and maturity in Christ.
Our churches are in trouble, says Scazzero. They are filled with people who are
unsure how to biblically integrate anger, sadness, and other emotions
defensive, incapable of revealing their weaknesses
threatened by or intolerant of different viewpoints
zealous about ministering at church but blind to their spouses' loneliness at home
so involved in "serving" that they fail to take care of themselves
prone to withdraw from conflict rather than resolve it
Sharing from New Life Fellowship's painful but liberating journey, Scazzero reveals exactly how the truth can and does make people free--not just superficially, but deep down. After offering a new vision of discipleship and a revealing, guided self-assessment of your own spiritual and emotional maturity, The Emotionally Healthy Church takes you through six principles that can make a profound difference in your church. You'll acquire knowledge and toolsthat can help you and others
look beneath the surface of problems break the power of past wounds, failures, sins, and circumstances live a life of brokenness and vulnerability recognize and honor personal limitations and boundaries embrace grief and loss make incarnation your model to love others.
Written in a personal and passionate style, The Emotionally Healthy Church includes hands-on tools, discussion questions, spotlights on key points, and story after story of people at New Life whose lives have been changed by the concepts in this book. Open these pages, and find out how your church can turn a new corner on the road to spiritual maturity.