High Anxiety

Leaders have lots of reasons to worry … and one overriding reason not to.
High Anxiety

Picture yourself at your next gathering of church leaders. As an icebreaker, the emcee asks everyone to turn to a neighbor and say what's going well in your ministry. With a smile, you turn to the person next to you and describe your excitement over the people from the neighborhood who've started attending the church.

Then the emcee says, "Now tell the person next to you what's keeping you up at night."

What would you say?

What would you think if your neighbor turned to you and said, "Nothing. I've got no worries"?

In a roomful of leaders, that would be pretty weird. We're not sure we'd believe such an answer.

Worry is everywhere. As I wrote in my book Anxious, "If you aren't worried, you are either (1) dead, (2) comatose, or (3) seriously out of step with our culture." The majority of Americans say they live under moderate to high stress levels. This constant stress has many consequences for our health, including high blood pressure, ...

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