You look down the hallway and see two classrooms without teachers because they called out this morning….anxiety.
VBS starts in 2 weeks and you still need 3 teachers…anxiety.
One of your best teachers resigned yesterday…anxiety.
You are working on your day off…anxiety.
A parent is upset because they lost their pick-up tag…anxiety.
You have a meeting with the Pastor because a few parents are complaining…anxiety.
You’ve got so much on your mind that you are having a hard time sleeping…anxiety.
A child breaks their arm at kids’ camp…anxiety.
You have a meeting with a volunteer that is upset…anxiety.
You haven’t been able to take a vacation in over a year…anxiety.
You have to take work home because there is so much to do…anxiety.
You planned for 10 children to show up for the event…but 50 show up…anxiety.
All of your plans for kids’ camp were on a laptop and the laptop crashes…anxiety.
A parent is 45 minutes late to pick-up their child after an event…anxiety.
It rains out your big, outside event…anxiety.
You feel like you are under constant pressure…anxiety.
You feel overwhelmed with what you are being asked to do…anxiety.
No matter how hard you work you can’t seem to catch up…anxiety.
You are being asked to do something that requires additional budget money, but you have no extra budget funds to cover it…anxiety.
You are struggling with your health while trying to keep a happy face…anxiety.
There are way too many things to get done in a 9am to 5 pm work day…anxiety.
Do you relate to any of these scenarios? I do.
Around 15 years ago, I was under so much stress in ministry that I begin to have extreme anxiety. The church had grown from 8,000 to 16,000 in three years. The children’s ministry I led grew by thousands of kids.
It happened so fast that we could barely keep up. There were some weeks when we would have 200 new families check in.
I was working 60-70 hours a week to keep up. As my ministry anxiety continued to ramp up, I developed clinical depression. My anxiety led to extreme insomnia. I went an entire week without sleeping. Yes…you read that correctly…one week.
Ministry anxiety can take you to a dangerous place where you do not want to be. It can even take you out of ministry if you don’t learn how to deal with it.
Anxiety can cause you to feel nervous.
Anxiety can cause you to feel helpless.
Anxiety can cause you to have a sense of impending danger or doom.
Anxiety can cause your heart rate to increase.
