The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast

Lectio Divina: A Slower, Truer Way to Hear God 26.05.2026 26p

Most of us were trained to read the Bible the way we were trained to lead — move fast, cover ground, extract what's useful, and get back to work. But what if that approach, by itself, is keeping you from the very transformation you're trying to produce in others? In this episode, I want to share a practice that has shaped my life for almost thirty years. A practice I cannot live without. It's called Lectio Divina — holy reading — and I believe it may be the single most important shift a Chris...

How to Find God in Unexpected Places: The Examen for Today 12.05.2026 30p

Most of us were trained to look for God in the big moments — the breakthrough, the open door, the dramatic call. But what if God is most consistently present in the ordinary moments we rush past every day? In this episode, I want to share a 500-year-old practice that has quietly transformed my leadership, my marriage, and my relationship with God. It's called the Examen — and I believe it may be the single most underused tool in the modern pastor's spiritual formation toolkit. I'll take you t...

How to Spend a Day (or Half Day) Alone with God—and Why It Matters 28.04.2026 27p

Free Resource: Download the Day Alone with God Guide at emotionallyhealthy.org/sabbath Most leaders I know have a daily time with God. Very few ever stop long enough to actually hear Him. There's a difference between a longer quiet time and a day alone with God. One sustains you. The other re-orders you. And if you're honest, you know the difference—because you've felt what happens when your life gets disordered and nothing seems to bring it back into focus. In this episode, I'm walking you ...

Designing a Daily Time with God that Fits You 14.04.2026 32p

📥 Free Resource: Download our free guide to get started with the Daily Office emotionallyhealthy.org/dailyoffice One of the questions I get asked more than almost any other is: How do you spend time with God each day? What do you do? For how long? Is there a right way? Here's the truth I've learned over decades of pastoral ministry: there is no one-size-fits-all daily time with God. The goal was never a method—it was always a life of loving union with Him. In this episode, I take you on a p...

Power and Wise Boundaries: What Church Leaders Must Learn 31.03.2026 31p

Take your team through the Emotionally Healthy Leader Book. Download the FREE discussion guide: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leader Let’s get honest. Power makes most of us uncomfortable. So we avoid it, minimize it, or misuse it. In this episode, Pete Scazzero shares a defining leadership failure—one that cost him deeply: relationships, trust, and a 20-year community. At the center of it? Unclear boundaries and dual relationships. You’ll discover: Why every leader must name and steward ...

The Scandal Beneath All the Church Scandals (And What to Do About It) 17.03.2026 29p

Take your team through the Emotionally Healthy Leader Book. Download the FREE discussion guide: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/leader Church scandals don’t begin the day they are exposed. They begin years earlier—in quiet compromises, ignored red flags, and leaders whose gifting has grown faster than their maturity. In this episode of The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, I go beneath the headlines to name the real issue: church scandals are not first a PR problem. They are a formation p...

Family Systems: The Invisible Force Shaping Your Church 03.03.2026 31p

Free Resource: Download the “8 Traps That Kill Your Spaciousness” ebook: 👉 https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness Churches don’t just have problems. They are emotional systems. In this episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, I introduce one of the most powerful frameworks I’ve ever learned for understanding leadership, conflict, and why anxiety spreads so quickly in churches: Family Systems Theory. Much of this work comes from psychiatrist Murray Bowen and was later brough...

Why Some Churches Thrive and Others Split 17.02.2026 31p

Why do churches with sincere faith, gifted leaders, and strong theology still split? In this powerful episode of the Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, Pete Scazzero exposes a hard truth many leaders have experienced but rarely name: church fractures are rarely about doctrine or vision—they are about formation. Drawing from decades of pastoral leadership and personal failure, Pete explains why spiritual maturity without emotional maturity is unsustainable. Churches don’t split because people...

Why Emotional Health is the Missing Link in the Global Church 03.02.2026 32p

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 ma...

5 Planning Mistakes That Kept Me Stuck—for Years 20.01.2026 32p

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 preparingFlippantly defining successIgnoring the most important work—listening to Jesus togeth...

The Monastic Pastor: Recovering the Church’s Ancient DNA for Today 06.01.2026 24p

👉FREE DOWNLOAD: Craft a Rule of Life for You and Your Team - emotionallyhealthy.org/rule 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 spiri...

Embracing Holy Interruptions: Leadership Lessons from the Christmas Story 23.12.2025 29p

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,...

Do the Work Before the Work 09.12.2025 30p

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 st...

What's Next for EHD: A Candid Conversation 24.11.2025 45p

In today's episode of The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast, I'm joined by my longtime friend and the new President of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, Drew Hyun, for a conversation unlike any we've ever released. This is a new season for EHD—one marked by fresh leadership, expanding vision, and a renewed commitment to forming leaders around the world in a deep, beneath-the-surface discipleship. Drew and I look back on our 24-year history, the shaping influence of New Life Fellowship, and ...

The Joy & Pain of Leadership Succession 10.11.2025 30p

Leadership succession is one of the most sacred — and most difficult — tasks for any pastor or ministry leader. In this episode, I share the behind-the-scenes story of my second major succession — passing the baton of Emotionally Healthy Discipleship to Drew Hyun as our new President. I've rarely seen a succession done well. And that's exactly why I knew I had to do it differently — with prayer, intentionality, and surrender. I walk through both the joy and the deep pain of letting go. I re...

Resisting Comparison: How to Embrace the Unique Call of Your Ministry 28.10.2025 33p

Too many pastors live with a low-grade ache that their ministry—and they themselves—simply don't measure up. Quietly, comparison creeps in. We look at the growth of others' churches, their charisma, their staff, their buildings… and wonder, What's wrong with me? In today's episode, I share deeply from my own journey of wrestling with these very questions. I was driven, angry, and often frustrated with my people and context—trying to build something God never asked of me. But freedom came. S...

[REWIND] Put a Stop to Your Hurried, Rushed Life 14.10.2025 28p

⚡FREE E-BOOK: Spaciousness: Avoiding the 8 Traps That Steal Your Margin - Download at emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness In this powerful replay of one of our most listened-to episodes, Pete Scazzero invites pastors and leaders into a radical, countercultural way of leading: unhurried, unrushed, and deeply rooted in Jesus. Are you constantly running at a pace you can't sustain? Exhausted, overextended, and wondering how much longer you can keep going? This episode is for you. Pete explo...

[REWIND] Put a Stop to Your Hurried, Rushed Life 14.10.2025 28p

⚡FREE E-BOOK: Spaciousness: Avoiding the 8 Traps That Steal Your Margin - Download at emotionallyhealthy.org/spaciousness In this powerful replay of one of our most listened-to episodes, Pete Scazzero invites pastors and leaders into a radical, countercultural way of leading: unhurried, unrushed, and deeply rooted in Jesus. Are you constantly running at a pace you can't sustain? Exhausted, overextended, and wondering how much longer you can keep going? This episode is for you. Pete explo...

Monks in the Pulpit: Rediscovering the Ancient Way of Preaching and Teaching 30.09.2025 33p

⚡DOWNLOAD FREE E-BOOK: 8 Marks of Emotionally Healthy Preaching & Teaching - https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/preaching/ In this episode, I invite you to rediscover an ancient path of powerful preaching and teaching — one that's been largely lost in the modern church. We're not talking about TED-style talks, clever soundbites, or performance-driven content. We're talking about preaching birthed out of deep, slow formation in Jesus. The kind of teaching that carries weight because it...

Monks in the Pulpit: Rediscovering the Ancient Way of Preaching and Teaching 30.09.2025 33p

⚡DOWNLOAD FREE E-BOOK: 8 Marks of Emotionally Healthy Preaching & Teaching - https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/preaching/ In this episode, I invite you to rediscover an ancient path of powerful preaching and teaching — one that's been largely lost in the modern church. We're not talking about TED-style talks, clever soundbites, or performance-driven content. We're talking about preaching birthed out of deep, slow formation in Jesus. The kind of teaching that carries weight because it...