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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