Why the Fuss over These Recommended Books?

So what about these books that Kerith Creek recommends? As a review, I looked over my old posts on these books by Peter Scazzero. (I never would have remembered these things had I not blogged them for my own personal research), and so here's a recap of what they are about, just incase someone thinks I am making a big deal about nothing (see last post).

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In October of 2005 I signed up for a class in our former church. Lesson 2 of the workbook of The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero was (appropriately) entitled Something is Desperately Wrong. Here are my old notes that I dug up…

Even though I had done my homework and prepared extensively on the section on Romans 7:7-25 about our warfare with sin (which I commend Mr. Scazzero for including), this Bible passage was not discussed during class. All of our class time was spent on discussing our results of the emotionally/spiritual maturity inventory questionaire, and then reviewing the questions in the questionaire. Although it is peppered with Scripture references to make it appear biblical, I disagree with the premise of this (man-made) quiz.

For example, questions #18) I am rarely judgemental or critical of others, and #39) I rarely judge others but instead am a peacemaker and reconciler. This is not so simple as giving yourself a 1,2,3 or 4 as this really depends on what this refers to. True, we are not to judge non-Christians, but are we not told to judge, rebuke, admonish, reject, mark, avoid, and correct those within the church and the things they teach? ( 1 Cor. 5:12,13: “For what have I to do with judging outsiders, do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges.") There many scriptures verses like this: Titus 1:13, 3:10, Romans 16:17 and Col.1:28 "And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with wisdom, that we may present every man complete to Christ". How do you admonish and teach and correct without judging (with God's plumbline)?

It may seem like a small point to be stuck on, but perhaps the reason there are so many examples in Mr. Scazzero’s book of ’emotionally unhealthy” Christians is BECAUSE we aren’t using the scripture to judge and admonish sin and practice biblical church discipline. As 2 Timothy 3:16 states, the scripture is enough ..."All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate (perfect- KJV), equipped for every good work." So why do we now need another book to tell us how to be complete? We are even being told to read books written by non-Christians to help us reach 'transformation and healing' when we have the Word of God and the power of His Holy Spirit!

I propose that the problem with the church today is not emotional immaturity but a lack of understanding of the Scripture, as demonstrated in the first lesson (as the beautiful messianic Psalm 69 was misused and totally misinterpreted for Mr. Scazzero’s purposes of showing that David had 'feelings' too).

In our homework, we were supposed to read chapters 2 and 3 of the main book. Many sad stories of fallen people in ministry are told. Like Reverend Sonny (in the movie “The Apostle”) who has just had his wife divorce him after he had numerous affairs, in a jealous rage he attacks his wife’s lover(the youth pastor) with a baseball bat and he dies, Sonny leaves town, gets a ’new calling’ from God, starts a new church, has a fling with "Tootsie", gets in a fight, is arrested and sent to jail. He has a temper, he is a womanizer, drinks too much. Yet, observers ‘cannot deny the evidences that Sonny is a true believer in Jesus Christ’.

Then Scazzero goes on to say that “most of us in Christian leadership and in the church can relate to more about him(Sonny) than we like to admit.” Huh? Can this be this true? If ‘most’ Christian leaders in today’s churches can relate to Sonny, then we are in big trouble. Because I would say a leader like that is not really a Christian. Jesus said, "You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7) And what does that fruit look like? “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Now those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with it’s passions and desires“. Gal. 5:22-24

Then there was the story of another couple who needed to step down from their ministry for a time to experience ‘emotional healing’ by looking deep beneath the surface of their spirituality, drawing their boundaries and breaking patterns, living within limits, staying home more, embracing grief and losses of the past, and learning to ‘incarnate with one another like Jesus‘(???)...oh ya, apparently they also allowed the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures to impact the emotional component of their persons... meanwhile they still struggle with temptation to fall back into old destructive patterns...Then Mr. Scazzero says, “Yet, the quality of their ministry now has a depth to it that could have only occurred under an emotionally healthy board and a congregation that understood emotional and spiritual health as inseparable."

Huh?

And finally, at the end of Lesson 2 in the “Going Deeper” section, the recommendation is to arrange a movie night to watch the movie "The Apostle", invite people to share how they related to Sonny’s life, and continue keeping a “Feelings Journal.”

Argh! Some of these 'new things' just don't line up with scripture. But I agree with him on the title - something is desperately wrong!

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Then there were these things about the book:

In Chapter 5 of Peter Scazzero’s book The Emotionally Healthy Church: "Look Beneath The Surface," the following names are used by Peter Scazzero as examples to make his points:

• Daniel Goleman - behaviour and brain psychology and science guy who has been learning mindfulness meditation training from Buddhist monks.
• RICHARD J. FOSTER - psychologist, Quaker, founder and president of Renovaré, best known for his book, Celebration of Discipline.
• Dag Hammarskjold – mystic and UN former secretary general 1953-1961), founder and designer of the creepy meditation room at the UN.

More things 'beneath the surface' included the genogram (based on the Bowen family systems theory) that is also highly recommended in this book. And then there was something he said on page 71, “Regularly, I spent a day in prayer and fasting at a Jesuit retreat center near my house-and I still do.”

Hmmm. Read more here: Look Beneath the Surface and here: Continuing our look below the surface... if this interests you.

There was also the alarming influence of contemplative Leighton Ford who writes the foreword of The Emotionally Healthy Church - see Looking back at the foreword to find out more about that. Of course, these things were all combined with a lot of anti-biblical psychology of the world about finding your true self (Be True to Yourself) and finally, I had had enough of this book (see Enough is Enough). All that fun studying led me to purchase his next book which brought to light even further the kind of spirituality Peter Scazzero teaches as healthy…such as this kind of thing:

What happens when a pastor has an ‘experience’ with the Trappist monks? Peter Scazzero's experience launched him into...

“…a journey over the next two years to visit a variety of Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox monastic communities to learn more. From Taize, France, to the Northumbrian community in England to the monks of New Skete in upstate New York…(we)participated in all kinds of variations of the Daily Office."
(pg.158, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality)

-Breathe In, Breathe Out
November 20, 2006

And as mentioned previously, for a brief recap of what’s basically in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, click HERE.

Mind you, these are rather all old posts and the links might not work (and a few I would no longer link to today for various reasons). Let's just say some of my edges may have softened, and some have sharpened since then, so keep in mind these are all just personal opinions I wrote at the time, nothing written in stone, but I have tried to measure them with God's Word. If I am wrong, if these things actually are taught in the Bible, my humble apologies. Mr. Scazzero himself is surely a very nice man, and I don't intend to attack him personally, but we are instructed in God's Word to test everything. While we cannot judge a person's heart, we can judge a person's public teaching. And so that, in a nutshell, is a brief glimpse into what I found these books to be about and why the alarm bells went off the minute I saw that they were recommended by Kerith Creek, a ministry of Focus on the Family Canada.

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Related reading:

Discernment in an Age of Deception
Defining the Believer's Biblical Call to Judge
by Bob DeWaay
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue94.htm