Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

The season of Lent is upon us with all its many extraordinary gifts. As followers of Christ, we are invited to spend forty days engaging in practices…or eliminating one or more practices…that open up the possibility for us to engage God more fully. As a church, we have decided to do something this season that we have not done in quite some time. We are inviting all interested members and guests to study a book together that we believe will challenge us to think, and hopefully, to respond differently as we live out our discipleship.

The book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, is written by Peter Scazzero. Peter founded a large, multiracial church in Queens, New York and served as its Senior Pastor for twenty-six years. Due to the success of his book, he now serves as a teaching pastor. Peter, and his wife, Geri, also founded Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, a groundbreaking ministry that equips churches with a deep spiritual formation paradigm that integrates emotional health and contemplative spirituality. Because of our focus on all aspects of health in our Wellness Wednesday programs, we thought this would be a great next step to take.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality shares the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality and provides biblically based, reality-tested ways to break through negative patterns that prevent us from enjoying the abundant life that Christ offers. Scazzero speaks from his personal experience of living half of his adult life trying to do Christian spirituality “without an integration of emotional health.” He describes this way of living as “deadly – to yourself, your relationship with God, and the people around you.” If you would like more information about this book or ministry, visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org.

We will begin the study on Wednesday night, March 8 at 6:45 pm in the Chapel. Pastor Rick and I will lead discussions together each Wednesday night of the Lenten season. No sign-ups are required. If Wednesday nights don’t work for you, feel free to form your own discussion group or enlist members of your covenant group or circle to join you. You will be able to find materials on-line for each week of Lent that will guide you through the book. We will also leave printed materials at the front desk as soon as they are available. You will need to purchase your own book.

We have prayed about and discussed what would be a great step to take together this season. We hope that you will consider joining us in whatever way works best for you. It is amazing what we can learn from each other as we all seek, with God’s help, to become more healthy and whole.

Love and blessings, LuAnn