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