The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast

Pete Scazzero
  • 4.8 (668)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Biweekly

Many pastors and church leaders today feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and frustrated that their churches don't seem to be making mature disciples. The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast explores the paradigms and practices leaders need to transform their church culture and multiply deeply changed disciples.

  1. 3d ago

    Why I Wrote Emotionally Healthy Success

    Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter. What if you could succeed brilliantly at something God never asked you to do? Is it possible to succeed at the wrong thing? I spent a good part of my ministry answering yes to that question without knowing it. I built something big at New Life Fellowship while becoming increasingly unhealthy. The numbers were up. My joy was down. It took a church split and two years I never would have chosen for me to face what I'd been avoiding: who am I when I can't prove I'm successful by the world's standards? This episode opens a seven-part series walking through the book Emotionally Healthy Success, three and a half years in the making. I'll tell you the story that forced me to ask what success actually looks like to God, and why I think this question is one you're already living with every time you set a priority or lead a team. If you've built something that looks impressive while quietly wondering if it's the wrong thing, this one's for you. Listen in. If you're ready to go deeper with the ideas shared on this podcast, the School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership is your next step. It's where leaders slow down, do the inner work, and come out equipped to lead from health instead of hurry. Learn more and apply for the upcoming Fall semester at emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool. Learn more about the 2026 FALL SEMESTER School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool/

  2. Sep 1

    Reversal #4: From Critical Mass to Critical Yeast

    Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter. For years, I measured ministry impact by one word: bigger. I remember walking into one of the largest churches in America, watching thousands of people fill the room, and thinking, this is it, this is critical mass. A staff member who'd been there since it was a thousand people told me something shifted at 7,500. Point people in a direction, he said, and it felt like a tidal wave. Jesus never built his kingdom that way. He picked twelve. Pulled three in closer. Sent seventy out two by two. The crowds came last, if they came at all. He called it yeast, a small amount, buried deep, working quietly until the whole loaf rises. In this episode, I walk through the fourth of four reversals from my new book: the move from critical mass to critical yeast. If you've ever measured your ministry by the size of the room, this episode will show you a slower, harder, far more fruitful way to measure it. If you're ready to go deeper with the ideas shared on this podcast, the School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership is your next step. It's where leaders slow down, do the inner work, and come out equipped to lead from health instead of hurry. Learn more and apply for the upcoming Fall semester at emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool. Learn more about the 2026 FALL SEMESTER School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool/

  3. Aug 18

    Reversal #3: From Our Best Ideas to Discerning God's Voice

    Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success, at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success and get a free chapter.   For my first seventeen years in ministry, I led for Jesus without listening to him. My prayer life was mostly a list of requests. When a door opened, I walked through it and called it faithfulness, following my best ideas and telling myself it was discernment. In this episode, I walk through the third of four reversals from my new book: the move from our best ideas to discerning God's voice. Even Peter, James, and John struggled here. Peter watched Jesus transfigured on the mountain and responded with a plan: let's build three shelters. God interrupted him mid-sentence. "Listen to him." Not "help him." Not "build for him." Listen. If you've ever assumed your best idea for God was from God, this episode will show you a better way. Discernment isn't a bonus skill for the spiritually elite. It's the difference between leading for Jesus and actually listening to him. If you're ready to go deeper with the ideas shared on this podcast, the School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership is your next step. It's where leaders slow down, do the inner work, and come out equipped to lead from health instead of hurry. Learn more and apply for the upcoming Fall semester at emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool. Learn more about the 2026 FALL SEMESTER School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool/

  4. Aug 4

    Reversal #2: From Charisma to Weakness and Limits

    Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success For most of my early ministry, I led from my gifts. Teaching, vision-casting, faith, I had those in abundance, and little else. So I built my leadership on them, hid my weaknesses, and made sure no one saw me struggle. Then a painful church split exposed the whole thing. I spiraled into a two-year depression before I hit rock bottom, and found Jesus waiting for me there. In this episode, I walk through the second of four reversals from my new book: the move from charisma to weakness and limits. Jesus was born to a peasant girl, lived thirty ordinary years, and refused the power offered him in the desert. Paul, facing leaders with every credential he lacked, chose to boast in his weakness instead. "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." If you've been measuring your ministry by the world's scorecard- gifts, platform, impact- this episode will show you a better one. Weakness isn't a hindrance to what God wants to do through you. It's the doorway. If you're ready to go deeper with the ideas shared on this podcast, the School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership is your next step. It's where leaders slow down, do the inner work, and come out equipped to lead from health instead of hurry. Learn more and apply for the upcoming Fall semester at emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool. Learn more about the 2026 FALL SEMESTER School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool/

  5. Jul 21

    Reversal #1: From Prayer for Result to Prayer for Communion

    Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success I was taught that no one rises above their intercessory prayer life. If revival wasn't happening, that meant I hadn't prayed hard enough. So I prayed. We held five morning prayer meetings a week and monthly half nights of prayer, pleading with God to move. He did, slowly. Not the outpouring I was hoping for. Prayer turned into duty, something I dragged myself through rather than something I wanted. Two things changed that. Time with Trappist monks who taught me to listen more than talk. And years spent inside Luke's gospel, watching how Jesus actually prayed. This week, I open the first of four reversals from my new book, EH Success: The Move from Praying for Results to Praying for Communion. Jesus didn't pray to get things done. He prayed to stay with the Father, to hear him, and to receive strength from him. That's a different kind of prayer than most of us were taught, and it might be exactly what your prayer life is missing. Learn more about the 2026 FALL SEMESTER School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool/

  6. Jul 7

    Stillness Under Siege: Finding Rest Under Impossible Pressure

    Free Resource: Craft a Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.org/rule In 2004, I stood in front of a building we couldn't afford to renovate, a staff team with the wrong people in the wrong seats, and a list of problems that all traced back to my own failures as a leader. I thought about resigning. I thought I'd taken the church as far as I could. Most of us know that feeling. Not enough hours. Not enough margin. Not enough emotional or spiritual energy for one more thing. And under that kind of pressure, we get reactive, anxious, driven. This week, I go back to 701 BC and a king named Hezekiah, surrounded by the most powerful army in the world, with no way out. What he does under that siege is still exactly what we need today. Four practices, not theory, that show you how to find rest when the pressure won't let up. This isn't about managing your calendar better. It's about what you do the moment the walls close in. Listen now, and grab the Rule of Life resource above to start building this into your own life. If you're ready to go deeper with the ideas shared on this podcast, the School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership is your next step. It's where leaders slow down, do the inner work, and come out equipped to lead from health instead of hurry. Learn more and apply for the upcoming Fall semester at emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool. Learn more about the 2026 FALL SEMESTER School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool/

  7. Jun 23

    You Are Not God: Experience the Freedom of Stopping

    Free Resource: Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.org You were made for glorious work. But you were also made to stop. Most of us know how to produce, build, plan, and push through. What we struggle with is the hidden life. The stopping. The surrendering. The trusting when no one can see it. In this episode, Pete Scazzero explores one of the most countercultural truths in Scripture: you are not God. And that is the best news you'll hear all week. Drawing from Genesis, the life of Jesus, and two ancient disciplines (Sabbath and the Daily Office), Pete unpacks why our refusal to stop is rooted in the same rebellion as the garden. And why living in God's rhythms isn't weakness. It's the path to freedom, fruitfulness, and true maturity. If your calendar is driven by fear, your ministry by insecurity, or your pace by the crowd's demands, this episode is for you. Stop. Listen. Be free. If you're ready to go deeper with the ideas shared on this podcast, the School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership is your next step. It's where leaders slow down, do the inner work, and come out equipped to lead from health instead of hurry. Learn more and apply for the upcoming Fall semester at emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool. Learn more about the 2026 FALL SEMESTER School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool/

  8. Jun 9

    Beyond Brainstorming: Leading a Team That Actually Hears God

    Most leadership teams know how to brainstorm. Very few know how to discern together. After more than 40 years of leading, one of my deepest regrets isn’t moral failure. It’s how many things I led that God never actually asked us to do. We had the money. We had the momentum. We had the energy. But we were moving fast  and we were missing God.  In this episode, I share what I’ve learned the hard way: adrenaline is not the Holy Spirit. And brainstorming is not discernment. I walk through five practices that can transform how your leadership team makes decisions  not out of anxiety, urgency, or ambition, but out of quiet listening, surrender, and communal hearing. This is slow work. It’s countercultural work. But it produces what every exhausted leader is desperate for: more peace, more freedom, and more alignment with Jesus. If your team is making big decisions right now, don’t miss this episode. Learn more about the 2026 FALL SEMESTER School of Emotionally Healthy Leadership https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leadershipschool/

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Many pastors and church leaders today feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and frustrated that their churches don't seem to be making mature disciples. The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast explores the paradigms and practices leaders need to transform their church culture and multiply deeply changed disciples.

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