Book Review: Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero

Emotionally Healthy Discipleship: Moving from Shallow Christianity to Deep Transformation

Since the intention of InspiritEncourage is to encourage people in their walk with Christ, discipleship is the key topic in biblical lingo. So, I thought that Emotionally Healthy Discipleship would have some good insight into the topic and what healthy discipleship looks like.

Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero is written mainly for churches and church leaders who are looking to address discipleship and move their members to maturity in Christ. It outlines some issues that churches often live with and offers an assessment for individuals to understand their own level of health in relation to discipleship. The greatest portion of the book then discusses seven keys to maturity in discipleship.

Problems Churches Face in Maturing Disciples

Scazzero spends the first 15 percent of the book describing the depth of the problems that churches face in developing disciples: tolerating emotional immaturity, emphasizing doing over being, ignoring church history, defining success wrongly. The examples, both personal and simple contrasts of ‘a day in the life’ to illustrate these issues help recognize them and also see the end goal while still only looking at the obstacles. This is important information to understand the general health of a group and even for individual readers.

Seven Marks of Healthy Discipleship

The personal evaluation takes some time to answer as it consists of evaluations for each of the seven marks of an emotionally healthy disciple. It is appropriately placed before the topics are addressed to understand our own maturity.

The bulk of the book discusses the seven marks of healthy discipleship. I truly appreciate that the first topic is about our relationship with God – being with him rather than doing for him. This aspect cannot be overemphasized in my opinion. Scazzero also highlights that we give or do from the well that is filled by our Lord alone and if that well is dry due to lack of relationship and time with Him, then problems ensue. Unfortunately making love the measure of success is the fifth point that the author addresses, which many (myself included) might find more important in order.

The topics that Scazzero notes as marks of emotionally healthy discipleship are important. I think what he doesn’t spend enough time on is how difficult it is to walk others through identifying key personal obstacles and addressing them. Many of the marks are ones that I have embraced to get to my current point of maturity, and I know that there is more still to address to grow as a disciple. While time is mentioned, that this maturing takes years, the resistance of church members will also be an obstacle to overcome, and the author does not offer any insight into it.

3.5/5 stars for Emotionally Healthy Discipleship

I thought this book would be a stand-alone, whereas it really gives a decent overview of the topics and the importance of each, but closes by leading readers to the two curriculum packages that Scazzero has developed over the years. It was kind of a sales webinar but in written form. ‘If you like this teaser book, then buy our classes, too.’ I joined one of the classes mid-way through a few years ago, and found that the resource, as it was used in that class, didn’t give me enough understanding of or connection to the underlying objective of emotional and spiritual maturity. But that is a review for another time if any.

I was looking for good material for discipleship on InspiritEncourage, but found it is more geared toward churches or groups that are looking for new discipleship or maturity resources. I can probably use some of the information but will need to alter it considerably, and a church or group would have to then develop something form this book or use the additional materials from Scazzero. In that sense, the book is lacking in implementation material and is ‘only’ an introduction. There is a good foundation, but additional resources are needed to follow through.