The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast

Around the world, churches are working hard to make disciples, lead faithfully, and impact their communities. Yet many leaders are exhausted, relationships are strained, and spiritual growth feels shallow or stalled. Why?
In this episode, Pete Scazzero addresses a core truth that often goes unnamed: emotional health is the missing link in the global church.
Drawing from his own painful leadership crisis and decades of ministry experience, Pete explains why it's impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. He explores how unaddressed emotional issues limit discipleship, distort leadership, and quietly undermine the church's witness—no matter how strong our theology or vision may be.
In this conversation, Pete unpacks:
Why emotional health is foundational—not optional—to spiritual maturity



How cultural, theological, and leadership blind spots keep the church stuck



The biblical and theological roots of emotionally healthy spirituality



What emotionally healthy leadership looks like in real-life ministry



How redefining success can transform churches and communities



Pete challenges leaders to slow down, go beneath the surface, and embrace emotional health as God's pathway to deeper transformation—personally, relationally, and globally.
If you long to see a healthier, more Christlike church—and know it must start with you—this episode will reframe how you think about discipleship, leadership, and success.
Listen now and take your next step toward building emotionally healthy leaders and churches around the world.
▶️ Learn more about Emotionally Healthy Discipleship and spiritual maturity
http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/mature

As leaders, we want to make wise, Spirit-led decisions that move our ministries forward. But without realizing it, we often fall into patterns of planning that keep us stuck—repeating the same mistakes year after year.

In this episode, Pete Scazzero gets painfully honest about the five planning mistakes that hindered him for years—and how these missteps continue to trap leaders today:
Insufficiently preparing
Flippantly defining success
Ignoring the most important work—listening to Jesus together
Skimming on development
Failing to anchor vision in calendars, limits, and next steps

Pete shares the lessons he's learned the hard way through decades of leadership in the local church and Emotionally Healthy Discipleship. With clarity, candor, and practical wisdom, he offers a better way forward—one that's rooted in prayerful discernment, emotional maturity, and thoughtful preparation.

If you're tired of spinning your wheels and ready to do the deeper work of strategic planning in God's way, this episode is for you.

Listen now and take your next step toward leading with greater clarity, peace, and purpose.
▶️ Download the Free Emotionally Healthy Leader Discussion Guide - https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leader

Most pastors today are trained in strategies, systems, and leadership models that promise church growth—but often leave the soul malnourished.
In this episode, I share a deeply personal and urgent message from a live talk I gave to pastors around the world who are moving beyond using the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Course as a tool—and toward building a deep culture of emotional health and spiritual formation in their churches.
What if the future of church leadership doesn't look like the latest model, but like something ancient? What if the way forward requires going back?
I unpack how, for over 1,100 years, the church's most influential leaders were not trained in classrooms—but in monastic communities of prayer, silence, and deep formation. And I lay out the implications for us today as we discern the next faithful steps in shaping a new kind of leadership pipeline rooted in being before doing.
This is more than theory—it's shaping the future direction of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship.
👇 Explore more at emotionallyhealthy.org
📅 Join our next webinar: emotionallyhealthy.org/webinar

Interruptions. We hate them. They mess with our schedules, our comfort, our control. But what if the interruptions in your life are actually invitations from God?
In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, Pete Scazzero unpacks how the Christmas story is filled with divine disruptions—from Mary and Joseph, to Herod, to the Magi, and even the religious leaders of the day. Each response to interruption reveals something profound about our own leadership, our spiritual formation, and the God we serve.
Pete invites you to consider:
What interruptions are coming your way right now?

Are you resisting, ignoring, or receiving them?

And what practices can help you stop, listen, and respond like Mary did: "May it be to me as you have said."

This episode is a vital listen as we enter the holidays and close out the year. God is still interrupting lives—and He may be trying to get your attention.

In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, Pete Scazzero challenges pastors and leaders with a simple yet radical invitation: "Do the work before the work."
This is more than a productivity principle. It's a call to integrity—where your outer leadership flows from your inner life with God. Through a compelling reflection on Jesus' own rhythms of solitude, limits, and Spirit-led decisions, Pete explores how the greatest threat to your leadership may not be your church, your staff, or your context—but your own unexamined inner life.
You'll hear the ancient tale of The Woodcarver, brought to life through Thomas Merton's lens, and discover how it mirrors the kind of inner work Jesus modeled in the wilderness.
If you've ever felt the pressure to perform, the pull of others' expectations, or the pace of a life without margin, this episode offers a pathway back to wholeness—and a leadership that's both fruitful and free.