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Each person in leadership has a certain amount of stress. Stress can’t be avoided completely. However, when stress is unmanaged, it can lead to serious health problems. The impact on our health may include high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, headaches, muscle tension or pain, chest pain, fatigue, changes in sex drive, stomach upset, and sleep problems. ...

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“What do you do?”

I’d been asked the question a hundred times before, but this time was different.

This time, I didn’t have a job title or a paycheck to inform my answer. I no longer held a position of leadership in ministry, nor did I have a people with whom to exercise my gifts and talents, my callings, and my God-given leanings.

So I didn’t say ...

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My husband and I decided the time had come to introduce new ministries into our church. We’d planted the church over a year prior, and we now had enough support to build specific ministries for women, men, and youth. We would start small, and grow in God’s timing.

We didn’t expect the ups and downs that we’d experience in the months ahead. Growth came ...

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Early in my life, there were countless times I felt left out. Even when I was included, I often felt like I didn’t fit in. Because of this, I am drawn to the needy and disenfranchised, naturally gravitating toward anyone in the room who seems lonely. Many women leaders experience this as well. In my own loneliness, it feels safer to be the one reaching out than the one ...

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I started my first full-time ministry position as a youth and family pastor shortly after graduating from seminary. I had been married for a little over three years, my husband had a stable job, and we had recently purchased our first home.

Just like that, my biological clock started ticking.

After about a year of acclimating to our new church and my new position, we started ...

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The woman who has it all always look flawless. She’s an immaculate homemaker, devoted mother, stylish decorator, exciting wife, gourmet chef, thoughtful friend, and successful worker. Before you get down on yourself for not measuring up, though, realize that the woman who has it all is a mythical creature as rare as a unicorn.

Whether it’s having it all, doing it ...

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One of the greatest privileges of ministry is having a front-row seat to the life change that happens when God is at work in someone’s life. Ministry goes beyond our job to a calling that brings us purpose and fulfillment. We become swept up in the adventure and excitement of seeing God move and change lives, and we are willing to sacrifice anything and everything for ...

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“It’s just a busy season. I promise I’ll be home more when I finish this project.” I apologized to my husband as I raced out the door for an early-morning meeting that would be followed by a full day and a late-night event. When I snuck into bed later that evening hoping I wouldn’t wake him, he sighed and quietly said, “It’s not just ...

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“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you,” wrote Maya Angelou in her novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In over 25 years in ministry, I've seen this to be true in the lives of so many, including my own. It is why I see a counselor.

One of my very favorite passages in Scripture is the story of a woman who is invited by Jesus to ...

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Many leaders have mixed feelings about Lent. Perhaps you’ve noticed that some of your congregants use Lent as a way to gain God’s favor rather than repenting of sin and consecrating themselves to God. Such misguided theology can make Lent a burden rather than a tool to make us more Christ-like. What about you? Have you lost sight of what Lent is all about?

For ...