The Emotionally Helthy Church Begins With… (Pt 2)

The Emotionally Helthy Church Begins With… Me.

More from The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero:

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

In Chapter 4 Scazzero provides the reader with a spiritual/emotional maturity inventory questionaire. The inventory is broken into 2 parts. Part A includes questions that help the reader work through general formation and discipleship issues. Part B looks at the emotional componants of discipleship and is broken into sub-sections (For section titles see chapter breakdown below).

While I scored fairly well on each componant, I was able to see gaping holes where a higher maturity level will help me become a better disciple of Christ and a more healthy leader in the church. I do not want to become just another statistic of a burnt out minister who takes those around me down as I flame out. I don’t want my peers to experience this either. We are the body of Christ. Let’s change the statistics.

The rest of the book is brokendown into chapters that corespond with the 6 emotional componants of discipleship from Part B of the Spiritual/Emotional Maturity Inventory:

• Look Beneath the Surface
• Break the Power of the Past
• Live in Brokenness and Vulnerability
• Accept the Gift of Limits
• Embrace Grieving and Loss
• Make Incarnation Your Model for Loving Well