At first, praise may not sound like a powerful way to overcome stress.

We believe there are at least a couple reasons why we don’t think of praise as an effective strategy against ministry stress. The first is simply that as pastors, we are usually people of action. We want to be doing something. It’s easy for us to fail to see praise as an action step that we need to take. After all, when you are praising God, you may feel like you aren’t doing anything about the problem. You aren’t having tough conversations. You aren’t working on the broken or missing systems in your church. You aren’t developing staff or volunteers. From this perspective, it can look very much as though praising God is a way to avoid dealing with stress.

Let us urge you that this is not the case. The benefits you get from praising God make it an essential weapon in the fight against stress. In fact, you won’t win the stress battle without it.

The second reason we believe many pastors neglect to use worship as part of their stress management strategies is that it appears counterintuitive in many ways. Stress is, by its nature, unpleasant — even painful. No one seeks out stress! But praise is just the opposite. It is good. It makes us feel good. We praise God for His blessings, for His provisions. How can we praise Him for something like stress?

But praise and worship is an important part of handling stress. Pastors who choose to praise God, even in the midst of their stress, are pastors who will last. You cannot neglect this God-given weapon that will help you handle stress more effectively.

– Nelson Searcy and Richard Jarman

The above excerpt is from p. 124-125 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.