Emotionally Healthy Church, The (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

From the Back Cover

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 tools that 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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310246547
• ISBN-13: 978-0310246541
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,567 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a Good Book, January 1, 2004

By	R. Kirkham "jrkirkham" (Rushville, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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PREMISE: Too many of our churches are led by people who claim spiritual maturity, but lack the ability to live godly lives because of their emotional immaturity. Now . . . do we know ahyone like that?!?

PLAN: We must (starting with the leaders) grow in emotional maturity. Here are the basic steps . . . 1) We must look below the surface of our lives, 2) We must come to grips with the scars from our past, 3) We must learn to be honest about our brokenness and become vulnerable. (I have noticed that those Christians I most admire have the ability to be open and honest about their lives.), 4) We must learn how to say, "No" and follow God rather than be pushed around by others, 5) We must not run from the pain of life, but rather embrace it and learn to grow through pain, 6) We must take the lessons we have learned and step into incarnational ministry as Jesus did.

POSITIVES: The author writes from personal experience. After many years of seemingly successful ministry as a pastor with a rapidly growing church plant and invitations to speak in a growing number of seminars across the country he finds himself with a crumbling marriage and a major church split when one of his staff defects and starts a new rival ministry. The pain of this experience woven through the pages of the book lend an air of credibility to the message.

PROBLEMS: There aren't many. The author's mix of counseling techniques and spiritual formation could cause the reader to raise his or her eyebrows, but I don't consider this much of a problem. I like to be challenged by what I read. The author waxes and wanes hot and cold in a place or two. I liked some chapters better than others, but that's normal for me. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because I am not certain right now if the book will cause a change in my life. I only give 5 stars to those works that change me.

PREDICTION: This book will become an important work among pastors and in church leadership training.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive guide to enhance emotional health in your church, September 22, 2005

By	Wilbur Fong - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Scazzero's thesis is that the emotional health and spiritual health of a Christian are inseparable. The discipleship model of the church must nurture emotional growth in order to foster true spiritual maturity. Scazzero suggests six principles in building an emotionally healthy church: (1) Look beneath the iceberg; (2) Break the power of the past; (3) Live in brokenness and vulnerability; (4) Receive the gift of limits; (5) Embrace grieving and loss; and (6) Make incarnation the model of loving well.
One benefit of this book is that Scazzero has integrated various topics of emotional health and Christian spirituality into a single volume, providing the backbone for a comprehensive discipleship course on emotional health. Daniel Coleman pioneered emotional intelligence. Edwin Friedman and Ronald Richardson developed family systems theory. Henri Nouwen wrote The Wounded Healer. Henry Cloud and John Townsend advocated boundaries. Parker Palmer relates vocational discernment and accepting limits. Jerry Sittster and Nicholas Wolterstorff shared how God may be doing soul work through experiences of grief and loss. Numerous experts have talked about listening skills, self-differentiation, and empathy. Scazzero's contribution is in pulling these resources together; weaving them masterfully into a coherent work; and providing compelling reasons why this work is important for the emotional health of the church.
A second benefit is that Scazzero has taken an evangelical approach by making a noble attempt to build his six principles on biblical foundations. For example, Scazzero takes the secular Emotional Intelligence material and slips a theology of grace underneath. The Gospel provides the motivation, power, and security for us to look beneath the surface (principle 1). Similarly, principle 3 is built on Paul's theology of weakness; principle 5 on the biblical basis of lamenting found in the Psalms; and principle 6 on a theology of incarnation. In this respect, Scazzero may have gone beyond the work of some of the masters listed above.
The third contribution is that Scazzero has taken the application of his principles beyond an individual to the entire church. The Copernican revolution begins with the senior pastor. Its effect rings out to other staff, elders and board members, the congregation, and to the wider community in concentric circles. Scazzero shares his experience at New Life Fellowship and outlines many practical suggestions on how these principles may be implemented in preaching, education, small group, and counseling ministries of the church.
I recommend this book to all church leaders who desire to take emotional health seriously and to implement a discipleship strategy that will change lives.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Beginning Toward A More Effective Discipleship, July 6, 2006

By	Keith M. Abolnik "Teacher/Pastor/Musician" (Apple Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Emotionally Healthy Church effectively addresses an overlooked need in the North American Church. Although the premise that emotional health and spiritual health must be wholly integrated is not a new concept, it certainly has been a neglected truth in the past few decades. The result of such neglect has sabotaged our effectiveness in producing healthy disciples, and healthy churches. Since our current approach to discipleship has failed to bear the fruit of genuinely "mature" followers of Christ, perhaps this book has been prophetically written for "such a time as this."

Mr. Scazzero's six principles for bringing about an emotionally healthy discipleship are passionately written from the perspective of one who has personally been struggling with these issues, who has now found a way to recognize (and consequently help his readers to recognize) the unaddressed/unmet needs of our emotional/inner life. He can then reveal to us the appropriate steps to be taken in finding the pathway to wholeness. The fact that the author has struggled in such a personal way assures the reader that this is not just another theoretical approach to church health/growth.

Although this book is very helpful and insightful, I personally found it lacking in laying out a clear strategy for discipleship. The author did give examples of people who were addressed in specific areas of weakness, but failed to outline how the disciplinary/recovery plan was implemented with the kind of detail that would help other pastors deal with similar situations. I would like to have seen a detailed outline of the use of leadership and people skills in addressing the issues with the lives of his staff members and parishioners.

The Body of Christ is both organic and institutional. Most discipleship methods are institutional and impersonal. Because we are all individuals there can be no cookie-cutter method or approach to genuine discipleship. I like the ideas given in this book because they deal more directly with a personal/relational way approach to our mandate to "make disciples." However, I think this idea could have been more developed. Perhaps the author's new book will bring more to light on this issue.

Since all ministry flows through relationships, it then behooves us to maintain a healthy relationship with Jesus (the vertical/upward), people that comprise our circle/world with mutual influence (horizontal/outward), and with our self (inward). It is this last relationship that is so often neglected, which results in a myriad of problems in our other relationships. Very few people understand their relationship to themselves. Though it isn't quite stated this way, the six principles outlined by pastor Scazzero all have to do with that self relationship.
One of my favorite quotes refers to when we stand before God He is not going to ask us "Why weren't you Moses?" or "Why weren't you Billy Graham?"- (my insertion), but "Why weren't you - you?" Too many pastors, and consequently their congregations don't know who they are. We spend much too much time trying to be like other people, instead of discovering and being who God created us to be. I would also have liked to have found a chapter (or more) on the pathway to self-discovery. Finding out who you really are - who God created you to be. Something to get people to the point of emotional health will help clear a way for them to discover the unique person God has created them to be. A sense of confidence in who you are, and a clarity of your uniqueness in calling is essential to emotional health and in helping others to take hold of the same.

I do recommend this book to all, especially church leaders. This work is an excellent beginning to opening the dialogue with the larger Body of Christ in re-shaping our method in fulfilling the Great Commission to "Make disciples of all nations (ethnos)."