Peter Scazzero

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Peter Scazzero (* 1956 in New Jersey ) is an American Baptist pastor , church planter, author, speaker and, together with his wife Geri, founder of the Center for Emotional Health and Spirituality , a center that aims to promote and disseminate emotional and spiritual health .

Live and act

Scazzero grew up in an Italian-American immigrant family in the suburbs of New York City , New Jersey. They ran an Italian bakery where he learned to work, to be productive and efficient. In 1974 he attended college and became a Christian through a Bible study group. After college, he taught English in a high school , and a year later he joined the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at Rutgers University and other colleges in New Jersey. 3 years later he studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton , New Jersey, and at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton north of Boston , Massachusetts , from which he graduated with a Masters . He then moved as a newlywed husband with his wife Geri to Costa Rica for a year to learn Spanish. They returned to Queens , New York City, where he served as an assistant pastor in a Spanish immigrant community and taught in a Spanish-language seminary. He received his PhD from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania .

In 1987 Scazzero also founded the multicultural New Life Fellowship Church in Corona and Elmhurst in the Queens in New York City together with his wife Geri . Today this parish includes several hundred people from 65 nations. He also works with his wife as a marriage and family counselor. Together, the two founded the Center for Emotional Health and Spirituality , which aims to promote and balance people's emotional health and spiritual growth.

Due to a crisis in 1996, the pastor, who was spoiled for success, turned into a pastor who paid more attention to honesty, balance and integrity. His life and his spirituality are now shaped by perceiving and allowing all feelings, careful listening, constructive conflict behavior, a healthy rhythm of life, integrated sexuality and contemplative moments. Mindful being and loving became more important to him than activities and doing.

In 2012 Scazzero and his wife Geri were speakers at the Willow Creek Management Congress in Stuttgart . They talked about the fundamental, but largely neglected, relationship between spiritual growth and emotional maturity. In November 2017 they spoke to over 600 Christian executives at Chrischona International in St. Chrischona near Basel at the Geistlich.emotional.reifen conference .

The Pauline Principle

Scazzero describes in his book The Paulus Principle: Why Weakness Can Be Profitable (English: The Emotionally Healthy Church - A Strategy for Discipleship that Actually Changes Lives , 2003) , published in German in 2008 , his biography and life journey. Above all, they were shaped by his Italian parents, whose ideals such as hard work and productivity. He became a pastor and found that his inner life and deep feelings were far more important to his ministry than his knowledge, gifts, and experiences. If we displace existing, unpleasant feelings and have no access to them, we would like to torn People Bob Pierce in the novel poison timber Bible by Barbara Kingsolver described. Spiritual growth must include spiritual maturation. In his unconditional love, Jesus offered us an exchange in which we would add and give up sin and receive his justification in return. In small groups in particular, we can address difficult issues such as control addiction, aggression, the culture of conflict, conflict resolution, forgiveness and restoration, work on them and also honestly exchange them about them. Admitting weaknesses and being true creates trust and is the starting point for change and maturation. Mentally healthy and healed people accept the talents and limits of their God-given personality, life phases, life situations and resilience. This makes them happier and leads to better self-assessment and self-care, so that disappointments and losses can turn into blessings. Grief must be felt alone and together, lived through and can only be let go afterwards. Many psalms show us a way that leads from orientation through disorientation to reorientation and helps against existing fears and depression.

Faith giants - soul dwarves?

Scazzero presents in 2011 in German published book Glaubensriesen - Seelenzwerge? Spiritual Growth and Emotional Maturity (English: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: It's Impossible to Be Spiritually Mature, While Remaining Emotionally Immature , 2006) presented his growing understanding of unhealthy piety, emotional health, and genuine spirituality. He describes wanting to "use" God as unhealthy spirituality, ignoring feelings, denying the past, living separately or without boundaries and condemning others. On the other hand, emotionally healthy are considered to be controlling feelings, feeling compassion, cultivating relationships, tackling and resolving conflicts, perceiving sexuality and allowing grief. For him, a good contemplative spirituality is a piety that lives from God's love and presence, which also shows itself in the created, includes spiritual exercises, understands life as a painful growth process, lives community and relationships in a binding way and thus supports the following of Christ . This does not happen immediately, but in stages and through resistance. Characteristics of maturity are the ability to bond, tolerance to insult, the ability to enjoy and renounce and accept God's nearness and distance. This often contradicts today's Western culture, which numb, suppress, explain away or avoid difficult and painful things. However, this would make many people sick. Scazzero is firmly convinced that we also need tried and tested rules of life such as work and rest days, breaks and daily prayers, silence and reading the scriptures in order to recognize and live God's priorities and rhythm, to grow up lovingly and emotionally. For him Joseph, Job and Daniel are good biblical examples of people who have trusted God under difficult circumstances and have grown through it. Mourning in particular, including lamenting and crying, can be a blessing when people can accept losses. Jesus also spoke of the fact that the grain of wheat in the ground must die in order to bear fruit; the greatest fruit is an intimate and deepened relationship with God.

English works

  • With Andrea Sterk: Christian Character , Series: A Lifeguide Bible Study , Intervarsity Press 1985 & 1999, ISBN 978-0-8308-3054-1
  • With Andrea Sterk: Christian Disciplines , Series: A Lifeguide Bible Study , Intervarsity Press 1988 & 1999, ISBN 978-0-8308-3055-8
  • Old Testament Characters: Learning to Walk With God - 12 Studies for Individuals or Groups , Series: A Lifeguide Bible Study , Intervarsity Press 1988 & 1991, ISBN 978-0-8308-1059-8
  • Introducing Jesus - Starting a investigative Bible Study for Seekers , Intervarsity Press 1991, ISBN 978-0-8308-1174-8
  • New Life in Christ , Zondervan, Grand Rapids 1991, ISBN 978-0-3105-4761-7
  • Love - Building Healthy Relationships, Fruit of the Spirit Bible Studies , 2001
  • With Warren Bird: The Emotionally Healthy Church - A Strategy for Discipleship that actually changes lives , Zondervan, Grand Rapids 2003 & 2015, ISBN 978-0-3105-2075-7
  • The Emotionally Healthy Church Workbook - 8 Studies for Groups or Individuals , Zondervan 2006 & 2015, ISBN 978-0-3105-2076-4
  • Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: It's Impossible to Be Spiritually Mature, While Remaining Emotionally Immature , Zondervan, Grand Rapids 2006 & 2017, ISBN 978-0-3103-4849-8 (with different subtitles: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life in Christ , Thomas Nelson , 2011, ISBN 978-0-8499-4642-4 )
  • With Phyllis J. LePeau, Jack Kuhatschek, Jacalyn & Stephen Eyre: Fruit of the Spirit - 48 Bible Studies for Individuals or Groups , Zondervan 2013, ISBN 978-0-3106-9845-6
  • Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day - A 40-Day Journey with the Daily Office , Zondervan 2014, ISBN 978-0-3103-4116-1
  • Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Course Workbook - It's impossible to be spiritually mature, while remaining emotionally immature , Zondervan 2014, ISBN 978-0-3108-8255-8
  • The emotionally Healthy Leader - How transforming your inner life will deeply transform your church, team, and our world , Harper Collins 2015, ISBN 978-0-3104-9457-7

German translations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Scazzero: The Paul principle , pages 30-33
  2. ^ [1] Website of the Center for Emotional Health and Spirituality
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Homepage of the Newlife Fellowship Church with an insight into history and development @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / newlifefellowship.org
  4. ↑ [2] Scazzero in an interview with the ERF on youtube
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated August 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Scazzero at the Willowcreek Management Congress 2012 in Stuttgart @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.willowcreek.de
  6. ↑ Rolf Höneisen: I had lost sight of love. Emotionally mature , Interview, ideaSpektrum , Liestal July 26, 2017, pp. 10–11
  7. ↑ What about our emotions? , ideaSpektrum, Liestal November 15, 2017, p. 7
  8. ↑ Peter Scazzero: The Paul principle. Why weakness can be a win, Francke, Marburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-861-22998-8
  9. ↑ Peter Scazzero: Faith Giants - Soul Dwarfs? Spiritual growth and emotional maturity, Brunnen, Gießen 2011, ISBN 978-3-7655-0881-3
personal data
SURNAME Scazzero, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scazzero, Pete (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American theologian, author, speaker, and founder of the New Life Fellowship Church in Elmhurst, Queens, New York City
DATE OF BIRTH 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH New Jersey