Somewhere over 4000 years ago, in that perennially troubled part of the world we now call the Middle East, an elderly gentleman heard God speak these words:
“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you, I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1-4).
This man, whom we call Abraham, obeyed the call, left the place where he was, and began a journey that would last the rest of his life.
It does not require extensive familiarity with the story to recognize that Abraham was not perfect. He tended to lie under pressure. Despite his faithfulness, he often deviated from the path of complete faith. While he listened to God, he sometimes took matters into his own hands. By the end of his journey, I believe he would tell us that he was not a perfect leader. He was, however, better than he had been at the beginning.
Three religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—trace their beginnings to Abraham. Each reveres him as a foundational figure. We all celebrate that Abraham believed in God, trusted God, and obeyed God. This is what I want to discuss in this blog.
The journey to healthy leadership is not a simple one. As I’ve been preparing for this series of blogs, I’ve been joking that the blog should not be titled ” Emotionally Healthy Leadership” but “More Emotionally Healthy Leadership.” In the end, I’ve entitled the series “Healthier Leadership.” Although the book emotionally healthy leadership is in some ways foundational to this series of blogs, I’m going to be giving you some of my own reflections. One of my reflections has to do with the word “emotionally.” We do need emotionally healthy leaders. We also need spiritually healthy leaders. We need physically healthy leaders. Leadership is holistic. The leader leads not just with their mind, not just with their emotions, not just with their spiritual fire born of an encounter with God, but as an embodied being. We lead with all that we are and can become.
The Call
Leadership begins with a sense that we are called to be leaders. When I was quite young, I became a Cub Scout, a camp counselor, a Boy Scout, and then an assistant camp director. I was also president of my high school’s student body. After a few years of practicing law, I attended seminary and became a pastor, eventually leading larger churches. In each case, something inside me urged me to pursue roles I felt utterly unqualified for and incapable of fulfilling.
Every leader has a calling. They may not even know they have the call. Think of the president of a company. That person may think they achieved their position because of ambition. Nevertheless, behind that ambition is the creator God, who made them what they are. Over the years, I have read many leadership books. When I wrote my dissertation, I wrote about the spirituality of leadership. These books recognize that leaders, whether in business, politics, the church, private charities, or social organizations, have some common qualities. They have the physical endurance to undertake the responsibilities of their position. They have the mental capacity to understand problems and their solutions. They have the emotional capacity to read people. All good leaders have these capacities to 1° in another, and the best leaders have exceptional energy, emotional intelligence, and mental acuity. They may have developed these abilities throughout their lives, but the leadership capacity came from another source.
And, of course, there is that subtle thing we call luck, chance, or opportunity. In every leader’s life, there is a moment in which the future opens up, and they step through the door towards their destiny. I can think of two examples from my own life. I was an average student, a poor athlete, and not socially at ease with people. One day, completely unexpectedly, I had the opportunity to become the student body president of my high school. There were 600 people in that class, and I would suspect that I rank somewhere around 590 in the capacity to lead. But God, who knew what he had in store for me, opened the door.
Many years later, I was a lawyer. I wasn’t happy practicing law. I was very active in our church and had served as a deacon, elder, and Sunday school teacher for many years. One day, the door opened, and I had the opportunity to attend seminary, although I had a wife and four children. There’s nothing that I could’ve done to have made that possible. I prayed about the opportunity to serve God and perhaps become a pastor someday. But it was God who opened up the door.
The Promise
When I teach the story of Abraham and his response to the call of God, I often point out that Abraham had a motivation. Too frequently, we think of the spiritual life as entirely spiritual, unconnected to our physical lives. I don’t think that’s true. In the case of Abraham, he was a 70-year-old man, the leader of a tribe of people, and without an heir. In Abraham’s day, that was a considerable problem. It meant that his family would no longer be leading the tribe of the Hebrews. It meant that his wife, Sarah, whom he loved, would likely fall into poverty without anyone to take care of her. Abraham did not obey God in some disembodied way and connected to his own life or problems. He followed God because he wanted to have a child. When God promised him that he would make him a great nation, he promised him that he would have at least one child, which would be the beginning of that great nation. We are no different.
The second aspect of Abraham’s story that interests me is the realization that he didn’t fully understand the promise. He grasped the idea that he would have a child. But what if you and I had told him that he would be the father of three world religions and that many people around the globe, who did not share a single gene with him, would be his children by faith? He surely would have thought we were ridiculous. Often, we ask God for something we desire, and He grants it to us. However, when He does, it is in a way that we could never comprehend at the time of the promise.
Kathy and I served churches from the East Coast to the Mississippi River, to the Canadian border, and throughout southern Texas. We’ve led missions that took our churches and us to Africa, Asia, Central America, and most recently, Mexico. One day, I found myself standing on top of a hill in West Africa, reflecting on the Great Commission, where God says He will send His disciples to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19). I looked at a project we had just completed, one with my name on it, and I thought, “Son of a gun, I made it.”
If someone had told me in 1991, when we left Houston, that I would preach in Africa, the Philippines, Honduras, and Mexico, I would’ve thought they were crazy. God is taking me much further than I envisioned. I thought I would simply become a pastor and have a lovely church somewhere in the United States, complete with four white columns at the front and two rows of pews divided by a center aisle. I envisioned wearing a black robe every Sunday while preaching from a Calvin pulpit. I was mistaken. What God had in store was even better than I had dreamed.
The Blessing
I often discuss what I refer to as “Shepherd/Servant Leadership.” Abraham was a shepherd, and all the patriarchs served in that role at various times. King David was also a shepherd. Jesus is known as the “Good Shepherd.” Leadership involves guiding people; it is about leading a group from one place to another toward a better situation- physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and organizationally. That ideal place can be a church that thrives both spiritually and physically, a successful business, a charity that meets the needs of its clients, a family filled with happiness and joy, or a strong and lasting marriage. Leadership exists wherever individuals engage in a common endeavor, and the leader’s goal is to guide those people and the organization entrusted to their care.
This brings us to the servant aspect of Shepherd/Servant leadership. Abraham is told that when he obeys God, he will be a blessing to others. He will receive a blessing, but he will also bless other people. We bless others whenever we meet or help to meet their most basic needs. People need love. People need respect. People need trust. People must be corrected when they are wrong and guided on the right path. The leader’s role is to serve the organization and the people they are called to lead.
It’s been my own experience, and the experience of every leader that I know, but this is not always easy. I have a good friend who was the president of a nice-sized company. We talk almost every week in retirement. Interestingly enough, we often talk about times when we had to do something we didn’t want to do. I’ve had to fire people, and so has my friend. No sane person enjoys holding another person accountable for the final time. I’ve had to uncover wrongdoing and spent hours and hours thinking about financial statements that did not make sense. I was doing it for the organization, not because I liked it. Every leader must do a lot of things they don’t enjoy doing. It comes with a territory.
Attending meetings, working long hours, managing conflict, and addressing organizational failure are all challenging, draining responsibilities, yet leaders must confront them. Selfish and self-absorbed leaders shy away from the tasks they dislike. Conversely, good leaders tackle both the tasks they enjoy and those they loathe. Through this process, they develop the ability to serve others.
America today is afflicted with narcissistic leadership. It occurs in business, politics, churches, charities, and everywhere else. One unfortunate feature of losing a Judeo-Christian consensus about morals is the emergence of people who serve only themselves without the moral constraints of a religion that teaches self-denial.
Some time ago, I researched a company that I cannot name. The president was narcissistic to the point of being a sociopath. He created a culture built on fear and greed. Because of his position, he could hide this behind the façade of being a servant leader. In a way, he was a servant leader, but the person he was serving was himself. Eventually, the company collapsed, and his leadership was discredited forever. His name will go down in history as a failed leader.
The Challenge
Returning to Emotionally Healthy Leadership as we conclude this week’s blog. In the book Emotionally Healthy Leadership, Peter Scazzero tells his personal leadership story and provides many examples for leaders. [1] Most examples come from the church, where he eventually was an experienced and effective leader. However, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to apply a lot of what he says to every other kind of organization.
He begins with four core internal tasks that every leader must undertake. They are:
Internal: Facing our own shadow or false self, leading out of our marriage or singleness, slowing down for loving union with God, and practicing Sabbath delight. In secular terms, he means we must understand our false self, not ignore our primary responsibilities to family and others, slow down to make wise decisions, and be willing to rest. Rest, even for second people, isn’t acknowledgment that we are not in charge of everything, nor should we be.
External: Every leader also has four external tasks to undertake. These include planning and decision-making, creating a culture and building a team, exercising power and maintaining wise boundaries, and knowing how to begin and end a period of leadership.
At the center of emotionally healthy leadership is a profound recognition that who we are as leaders is more important than what we do. The people with whom we interact daily are more certainly formed by who we are than by what we do. Therefore, we must focus our attention first on spiritual matters.
Copyright 2025, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved.
[1] Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Leadership (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015).