Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

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In the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Edition, The Great Commandment is referred to “Commandment, The New” and states the following: Eventually, God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health and the spiritual practice of slowing down and quieting your life to experience a firsthand relationship with Jesus. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution in Scazzero, in his church, and now in thousands of other churches.

The Bible never encourages self-love! People may not like their life circumstances or the way they are or feel and may even say they hate themselves, but what they don’t like and/or hate are those things that make them feel uncomfortable and even miserable. People don’t need to love themselves more. They need to love God and others more. In fact, a sign of perilous times in 2 Tim 3:1-2 is that “men shall be loves of their own selves.” And this is exactly what is happening with the psychotherapeutic mentality that is promoted by Scazzero. The Great CommissionEmotionally unhealthy leaders also engage in more activities than their combined spiritual, physical, and emotional reserves can sustain. They give out for God more than they receive from him. The demands and pressures of leadership make it nearly impossible for them to establish a consistent and sustainable rhythm of life. In their more honest moments, they admit that their cup with God is empty or, at best, half full. I like to say it this way: Their “being with God” is not sufficient to sustain their “doing for God.” Scazzero only brings confusion to any biblical understanding of the nature of humans by mixing in false psychological concepts of what a person is by nature. Is anyone born with a “true self” before being contaminated by parents and the world as erroneously claimed? Or are they blank or clean slates? No! The Bible declares that we are all descendants of Adam and therefore born in sin. To achieve the state of emptiness, they employ a “mantra,” a word repeated over and over to focus the mind while striving to go deep within oneself. The effects are a hypnotic like state: concentration upon one thing, disengagement from other stimuli, a high degree of openness to suggestion, a psychological and physiological state that externally resembles sleep, but in which consciousness is interiorized and the mind subject to suggestion.

That is why the GENOGRAM is one of the core tools in both parts of the Emotionally Healthy Discipleship Course.

Contemplative Prayer Movement and Its Origin – Compiled by S.E. Ray

My work has always been done in local, intimate settings such as our local church when I was Lead Pastor and now in my work mentoring leaders/pastors. While I have done some traveling to speak in the past, it was always difficult for me. The increasingly alien and impersonal nature of it finally grew to this point when I realized this season was over.

As a result, I was not present with myself, with God, or with others. I saw my sadness as something to be overcome through prayer and Scripture. I would declare, "the joy of the Lord is my strength!" while ignoring the deep cries of my heart. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Cor. 3:18.)

The God Who is [Already] There

Why? I have a deep sense from God to focus on prayer, study, the mentoring of pastors/leaders, and writing (in particular, The EH Marriage Course that will include a book, workbook and streaming video). Leadership can be a painful journey - especially in a church or ministry that depends on the depth and quality of the relationships within. Some of the most influential writers who have popularized contemplative prayer in the evangelical church are Richard Foster and Brennan Manning. Both these men have written popular Christian books about contemplative prayer. And both quote the Catholic mystics such as Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating. That is why the GENOGRAM is one of the core tools in both parts of the Emotionally Healthy Discipleship Course. First, by meditative techniques and disciplines there is a desire to reach an alternate state of spiritual consciousness in which unknowing rather than knowing is the goal. In past centuries, that monastic goal often took years to attain. But in recent times, Father Thomas Keating, quoted freely by Scazzero (Thomas Keating, Intimacy With God: An Introduction To Centering Prayer, in Daily Office by Scazzero, p. 44) along with Father M. Basil Bennington [famous quote: “The soul of the human family is the Holy Spirit], found a way to attain mental silence and unknowing in about 20 minutes. Father Keating attended the 6th annual Christian-Buddhist meditation Conference recently. Here he presented this centering prayer short cut to “Nirvana” to Asian Buddhist monks. Father Keating was praised as a good bridge between Christianity and Buddhism. An attendee stated that his centering prayer seemed to tie in with Transcendental Meditation, yoga mantra meditation, the Jesus prayer and Hindu readings on meditation.

That deep sense of “sentness” applies also to giving visionary leadership to EHD in her mission to “transform church culture through the multiplication of deeply changed leaders and disciples” as well as delivering weekly EH Leader podcasts and occasional speaking at EHD events and webinars. Peter Scazzero: Emotionally healthy leaders possess a significant level of self-awareness and, as a result, love well. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Whether married or single, most emotionally unhealthy leaders affirm the importance of a healthy intimacy in relationships and lifestyle, but few, if any, have a vision for their marriage or singleness as the greatest gift they offer. Instead, they view their marriage or single-ness as an essential and stable foundation for something more important—building an effective ministry, which is their first priority. As a result, they invest the best of their time and energy in becoming better equipped as a leader, and invest very little in cultivating a great marriage or single life that reveals Jesus’ love to the world.The truth is – unclear and unmet expectations have the power to rip apart relationships, divide staff teams, blow up families, and sink entire churches. That's why expectations are a matter of life and death! Peter Scazzero: Without being immersed in Scripture on a daily basis, I don’t believe it is possible to lead others for Jesus and to Jesus. How can we unless we are listening to him? For the first 17 years of my Christian life, my emotional life was completely divorced from my spiritual life. Or so I thought. Emotionally unhealthy leaders tend to be unaware of what is going on inside them. And even when they recognize a strong emotion such as anger, they fail to process or express it honestly and appropriately. They ignore emotion-related messages their body may send—fatigue, stress-induced illness, weight gain, ulcers, headaches, or depression. They avoid reflecting on their fears, sadness, or anger. They fail to consider how God might be trying to communicate with them through these “difficult” emotions. They struggle to articulate the reasons for their emotional triggers, their overreactions in the present rooted in difficult experiences from their past.