Leadership and emotions …

A quick way to strike fear into the heart of some church leaders is to mention the word “emotions.”

Many leaders are mentored to keep their emotions to themselves, the idea being that emotions will impede sound spiritual leadership.

Tell that to Jesus.

G. Walter Hansenin provided the following insight about Jesus, the ultimate “spiritual leader,” and His emotions in an article for Christianity Today:

I am spellbound by the intensity of Jesus’ emotions: Not a twinge of pity, but heartbroken compassion; not a passing irritation, but terrifying anger; not a silent tear, but groans of anguish; not a weak smile, but ecstatic celebration. Jesus’ emotions are like a mountain river cascading with clear water. My emotions are more like a muddy foam or a feeble trickle.

The famous 18th century preacher, Jonathan Edwards, argued opposite of what many of today’s church and ministry mentors teach, claiming our religion without emotion is empty. Jack Deere, in Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, writes:

In 1746 Jonathan Edwards published a book, The Religious Affections, in which he argued that “true religion must consist very much in the affections,” Edwards saw that one of the chief works of Satan was “… to propagate and establish a persuasion that all affections and sensible emotions of the mind, in things of religion, are nothing at all to be regarded, but are rather to be avoided and carefully guarded against, as things of a pernicious tendency. This he knows is the way to bring all religion to a mere lifeless formality, and effectually shut out the power of godliness, and everything which is spiritual and to have all true Christianity turned out of doors.”

Edwards went on to say, “As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart. This manner of slighting all religious affections is the way exceedingly to harden the hearts of men, and to encourage them in their stupidity and senselessness, and to keep them in a state of spiritual death as long as they live and bring them at last to death eternal.”

Church leaders, like every other human being on the planet, experience emotions and need to experience them fully.

However …

Yes, there is a “however” because it’s also true emotions that are poorly processed, undirected, and mis-applied can be harmful rather than helpful, something well-establish in a significant body of research. In his book, None of These Diseases, Dr. S.I. McMillen says, “Medical science recognizes that emotions such as fear, sorrow, envy, resentment, and hatred are responsible for the majority of our sicknesses. Estimates vary from 60 to 100 percent.” One patient was told by his doctor, “If you don’t cut out your resentments, I may have to cut out your intestinal tract.”

If emotions are an important part of the whole human experience — and the whole disciple experience — how do we unbottle our emotions and apply them to our living, and our leading, in healthy and Christlike ways?

A key to answering that is understanding that emotions don’t “happen” to us; a profound reality about how human beings function is this:

Our thoughts create our emotions, and the combination of our thoughts and emotions create our behavior.

We use language like, “You make me so happy!” “You make me so mad!” “You made me so sad!” “You make me so confused!” None of those statements are true on their face; no one can climb into your head and push a button for happiness, sadness, anger, fear, etc. Every emotion we experience comes from our own thinking, what we “say” to ourselves (“self-talk”), and those thoughts create our emotions.

And those thoughts can only create emotions that are parallel to our thoughts.

Thoughts of anger, hatred, or envy can’t produce the emotions relating to love.

Finally, it’s the combination of our thoughts and emotions that produce our behavior.

There are a few challenges with all of this:

One, it turns out that of the many thousands of thoughts we have every day, most of those thoughts are irrational. And if our thoughts create our emotions, and can only produce emotions parallel with those thoughts, many of the emotions we experience are irrational as well. If these thoughts and emotions aren’t challenged, or redirected, they can only produce behavior fitting of irrational thoughts and emotions.

One particularly concerning issue in all of this is, as we have irrational thoughts, which then produce parallel emotions, we can find ourselves responding to our own emotions, driving our thinking from irrational emotions fostered from irrational thinking.

That’s the kind of emotional experience you don’t want to have as a leader, or simply as a person.

The bottomline?

How a leader processes his or her thoughts specifically, and then the emotions fostered from those thoughts, is critical because it determines their behavior.

Is it any wonder, then, that God makes His starting point in His transforming work in our lives to be with our thoughts?

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect,” Romans 12:2.

“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes,” Ephesians 4:21-23.

“Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, ‘Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?’ But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ,” 1 Corinthians 2:15-16.

If God is transforming us to have “the mind of Christ,” then we can think like Him, which also means we can have emotions like Him, and that combination will produce behavior like Him.

Scotty