Sunday, August 8, 2010

Quote of the Day (Rev. Pete Scazzero, on Clerical Stress)


“It’s hard to lead a contemplative life on Queens Boulevard. But the insight I gained from the Trappists is that being too ‘busy’ is an impediment to one’s relationship with God.”—Rev. Pete Scazzero, pastor of the New Life Fellowship Church in Elmhurst, Queens, quoted in Paul Vitello, “Evidence Grows of Problem of Clergy Burnout,” The New York Times, August 2, 2010

When he was attending St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, N.J., in the early 1970s, I can’t say that I thought of the ministry as a future career for Pete Scazzero.

But, as is obvious from even the most superficial reading of The Bible, God continually confounds expectations, including in the latent possibilities He sees in someone who can bring The Good News to others. In particular, it’s obvious now that Pete’s infectious exuberance for life and interest in other people could help him connect to the multicultural congregation he leads today in Queens.

Discovering that this friend of my older brother had turned his life, in a serious way, to Christ was only the first of the surprises I’ve learned about him lately. A year ago, while browsing in my local Borders store, I found copies of the Rev. Scazzero’s The Emotionally Healthy Church.

Then, last week, while reading Paul Vitello’s front-page New York Times piece on the potential for burnout experienced by today’s clergy—and of their increasing recognition that vacation is necessary for them to continue their work—I was startled to learn, on the jump to the inside pages of the newspaper, more about Rev. Scazzero.

It seems that he not only advocates the same “rhythm of stopping,” or daily praying, that is practiced by Trappist monks, but that his two books on “emotionally healthy” spirituality are bestsellers and that he is “the unofficial leader of a growing counterculture among independent pastors who reject the constant-growth ethic that has contributed to the explosion of so-called mega-churches.”

I haven’t seen Pete in years and time changes us all, irrevocably and sometimes drastically. But I have to think he is the same warm, friendly guy I knew when he was a teenager. I’m thrilled to hear about his fulfilling current life, and hope he can continue to lead many people to Christ.

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