Well today I was able to attend a free workshop for pastors sponsored by Focus on the Family. My good friend from Bible School, Steve Wilson, was the organizer of the event so I went mostly to support him in his ministry. I did go with lower expectations as I am not always the biggest fan of the focus on the family ministry. However I was pleasantly surprised at the caliber of speaker they brought in all the way from N.Y. His name is Peter Scazzero and he started his church 17 years ago and has stuck with it all these years. That alone was interesting as his journey closely paralleled my own here in Peachland. He authored a book entitled "the emotionally healthy church" and that was the focus of our seminar today. His basic thesis is that Emotional health and spiritual maturity are inseparable. It is not possible for a Christian to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. That when we join Gods family we need to be "re-parented" into emotional wholeness and this is the basic direction of discipleship ministry within the church. Things he mentioned were like, as a leader start with yourself embracing the new person you were called to be in Christ. Then knowing your gifts and limits, embracing grief and loss in all it forms as normal and finally he did a really good job of establishing the need for a contemplative lifestyle of silence, solitude and Sabbath.
Anyway, it was very good so I bought the book and hope to use it to teach my leadership with.
Information, audio sermon files, short writings about faith and life and how these two intersect, photos, and more.
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