The same is true of me and the ministry I help lead, Dare 2 Share. I’m on the road a lot, preaching across the country in various venues. When I’m back in the office, there are meetings to participate in, books to write and money to raise. All of this, combined with leading and loving my own family, can create quite a bit of stress that can wake me up in the middle of the night with those various “Oh no!” moments of realization.So how do I navigate all of this stress? I have developed seven habits over the last 27 years of ministry which enable me to keep on keeping on. My prayer is that these disciplines will be adapted and adopted to your own ministry context and give you the stamina you need to victoriously navigate the always demanding and often rewarding stresses of ministry:
Discipline #1: Work Out Consistently
Now I’m no Crossfitter or Spartan Race type athlete (although I have tremendous respect for my hommies who are that committed to elite physical fitness). No, my fitness “regimen” is designed to be in shape enough not to die early and to have more than enough energy to make it through the demands of ministry.
My workouts are formulated to get as much pain in and sweat out over the course of 30 minutes that I possibly can. For me this usually means doing Insanity Max 30 or Body Beast in the makeshift “gym” of my basement. I crank out the workout second thing in the morning (after morning devos) and then move on to the rest of my day.
Having been out of shape in my late 20s (I weighed a junk-food-induced 225 pounds for awhile) I know the kind of impact that a blubbery, buttery body can have on the rest of one’s ministry. My energy levels were low, my production levels were medium and my temptation levels were high.
Getting in shape helped change all that. For more on this check out an article I wrote called Holy Sweat!
