Managing Stress Monday: Taking Care of the Other Part of Us

The below excerpt is from my book The Renegade Pastor’s Guide to Managing the Stress of Ministry.

It’s safe to say that, as a culture, we are obsessed with our physical bodies. We spend billions of dollars on beauty aids, books on health and fitness, and nutritional supplements. We spend countless amounts on exercise equipment and gym memberships. We act committed, as a society, to taking care of our physical bodies.

But as pastors, we are different. We have a completely different set of priorities, a higher focus. We are concerned with our own spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of those around us. We understand that our earthly bodies are temporary, that no matter how much care we take of our physical bodies, they will one day die. Meanwhile, our spirits live forever. As pastors, our calling is to nurture that eternal, spiritual part of our congregation.

We completely agree that our focus needs to be on growing and feeding our spiritual lives. But we also know how important it is to take care of our bodies. In fact, we don’t think it’s an either/or proposition, where we must choose between our bodies and our spirits, as though we can nurture only one or the other. We firmly believe that you can – you should – nurture both your spirit and your body, along with your mind as well. In fact, we believe it’s a sin to solely focus on one aspect of ourselves to the neglect of the others.

– Nelson Searcy and Richard Jarman

The above excerpt is from p. 86-87 of The Renegade Pastor’s Guide to Managing the Stress of Ministry.

Pastors Nelson Searcy and Richard Jarman share their secrets to effective stress management with practical steps and insights that you can start implementing immediately! God wants you to be a fruitful, faithful minister of the gospel. He wants you, as a Renegade Pastor, to rise above average as you pursue God’s best for you, your family, and your ministry.

P.S. – Click here to grab your copy from Amazon today!

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

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About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.

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