The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast

Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success
For most of my early ministry, I led from my gifts. Teaching, vision-casting, faith, I had those in abundance, and little else. So I built my leadership on them, hid my weaknesses, and made sure no one saw me struggle. Then a painful church split exposed the whole thing. I spiraled into a two-year depression before I hit rock bottom, and found Jesus waiting for me there.
In this episode, I walk through the second of four reversals from my new book: the move from charisma to weakness and limits. Jesus was born to a peasant girl, lived thirty ordinary years, and refused the power offered him in the desert. Paul, facing leaders with every credential he lacked, chose to boast in his weakness instead. "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."
If you've been measuring your ministry by the world's scorecard- gifts, platform, impact- this episode will show you a better one. Weakness isn't a hindrance to what God wants to do through you. It's the doorway.

Reserve your spot at our upcoming Global Leaders Conference.
September 30 – October 1, 2026
14th St. Salvation Army, NYC
(Live Spanish Translation available)
Register Now: https://ehd.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/3421612
Learn more about the EH Global Leader Conference 2026: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/conference

Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success
I was taught that no one rises above their intercessory prayer life. If revival wasn't happening, that meant I hadn't prayed hard enough. So I prayed. We held five morning prayer meetings a week and monthly half nights of prayer, pleading with God to move. He did, slowly. Not the outpouring I was hoping for. Prayer turned into duty, something I dragged myself through rather than something I wanted.
Two things changed that. Time with Trappist monks who taught me to listen more than talk. And years spent inside Luke's gospel, watching how Jesus actually prayed.
This week, I open the first of four reversals from my new book, EH Success: The Move from Praying for Results to Praying for Communion. Jesus didn't pray to get things done. He prayed to stay with the Father, to hear him, and to receive strength from him. That's a different kind of prayer than most of us were taught, and it might be exactly what your prayer life is missing.
Learn more about the EH Global Leader Conference 2026: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/conference

Free Resource: Craft a Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.org/rule
In 2004, I stood in front of a building we couldn't afford to renovate, a staff team with the wrong people in the wrong seats, and a list of problems that all traced back to my own failures as a leader. I thought about resigning. I thought I'd taken the church as far as I could.
Most of us know that feeling. Not enough hours. Not enough margin. Not enough emotional or spiritual energy for one more thing. And under that kind of pressure, we get reactive, anxious, driven.
This week, I go back to 701 BC and a king named Hezekiah, surrounded by the most powerful army in the world, with no way out. What he does under that siege is still exactly what we need today. Four practices, not theory, that show you how to find rest when the pressure won't let up.
This isn't about managing your calendar better. It's about what you do the moment the walls close in.
Listen now, and grab the Rule of Life resource above to start building this into your own life.
Reserve your spot at our upcoming Global Leaders Conference.
September 30 – October 1, 2026
14th St. Salvation Army, NYC
(Live Spanish Translation available)
Register Now: https://ehd.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/3421612
Learn more about the EH Global Leader Conference 2026: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/conference

Free Resource: Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.org
You were made for glorious work. But you were also made to stop.
Most of us know how to produce, build, plan, and push through. What we struggle with is the hidden life. The stopping. The surrendering. The trusting when no one can see it.
In this episode, Pete Scazzero explores one of the most countercultural truths in Scripture: you are not God. And that is the best news you'll hear all week.
Drawing from Genesis, the life of Jesus, and two ancient disciplines (Sabbath and the Daily Office), Pete unpacks why our refusal to stop is rooted in the same rebellion as the garden. And why living in God's rhythms isn't weakness. It's the path to freedom, fruitfulness, and true maturity.
If your calendar is driven by fear, your ministry by insecurity, or your pace by the crowd's demands, this episode is for you.
Stop. Listen. Be free.
Reserve your spot at our upcoming Global Leaders Conference.
September 30 – October 1, 2026
14th St. Salvation Army, NYC
(Live Spanish Translation available)
Register Now: https://ehd.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/3421612
Learn more about the EH Global Leader Conference 2026: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/conference

Most leadership teams know how to brainstorm. Very few know how to discern together.
After more than 40 years of leading, one of my deepest regrets isn’t moral failure. It’s how many things I led that God never actually asked us to do. We had the money. We had the momentum. We had the energy. But we were moving fast  and we were missing God. 
In this episode, I share what I’ve learned the hard way: adrenaline is not the Holy Spirit. And brainstorming is not discernment.
I walk through five practices that can transform how your leadership team makes decisions  not out of anxiety, urgency, or ambition, but out of quiet listening, surrender, and communal hearing.
This is slow work. It’s countercultural work. But it produces what every exhausted leader is desperate for: more peace, more freedom, and more alignment with Jesus.
If your team is making big decisions right now, don’t miss this episode.
Learn more about the EH Global Leader Conference 2026: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/conference