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

Life comes at us like a hurricane sometimes, and it’s difficult to remember the very things that will help us most. If you find that you are in this position, and you need to make praise a bigger part of your life, then simply begin where you are. Ask God to forgive you for your lack of worship, and start praising Him.

To further encourage you, remember the benefits you will see from praising God through your stress.

• Praising God reminds us of how great God is. It is common for us to exaggerate the size of our problems, while we underestimate God. If anything, we should reverse the trend: we need to see our problems as small and inconsequential.
• Praising God gives a great example to our congregations. Our church members struggle with the same things we do: stress, disappointments, frustrations. They need to know how to deal with it. What better role model than their pastor, who can show them the importance of praise in handling stress.
• Praising God brings great peace to our lives. There is no doubt that we can all use more peace in our challenging lives. When we take time to focus on who God is and what He’s doing for us, it brings us peace.
• Praising God gives us a renewed focus on our calling. We get stuck easily in the mud of ministry stress and frustration. But God called us for a specific purpose: to lead His people. When we praise God, we remember our calling.

With all these benefits to praise, we hope your response as a Renegade Pastor will be to immediately begin worshiping God and continue to worship Him, no matter what storms you are enduring.

– Nelson Searcy and Richard Jarman

The above excerpt is from p. 132-133 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

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

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.