Hi, my name is Pete Gazzaro. I'm welcome you today to the emotionally healthy leader

podcast. And our theme is loving your enemies, the saint makers, loving your enemies as saint makers.

And I've said often that leadership flows out of healthy discipleship, starting with our own.

You can't develop leaders in a church without great discipleship, the quality of our discipleship, starting with our own. You can't develop leaders in a church without great

discipleship, the quality of our discipleship directly relates to our ability to develop great leaders.

Well, that begins first and foremost with us. Now, as goes the leader, so goes the church,

so goes the ministry, so goes any organization. We cannot give what we don't possess. We can only

give what we do possess.

And one of the central areas for every leader is how we deal with folks that we will define

today as our enemies. I actually learned this principle of enemies as saint makers at a

trappist monastery many years ago at a conferences they were doing

each day for visitors to the monastery for the week. And the number two person running the monastery

talked about how enemies exist within their own community. And that is the greatest challenge

of their own discipleship is loving their enemies,

those who irritate them and drive them crazy.

And I was just in shock.

I'm thinking, here's this.

People are praying eight times, seven, eight times a day, and enormous amounts of time in prayer and silence.

And yet they're wrestling with difficult love.

That's their biggest challenge. And I was like, wow,

that there's no escaping it. It's the very heart of the Christian life. And so I want to talk to today about how you, as a pastor, as a leader, respond to those who are your enemies. Now, every leader has them. Now, I'm

to refer to those who drive you crazy. An enemy is someone who drives you crazy, someone who gives

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