What to Do When People in the Church Cause You Stress

We have been discussing the various types of stress, and we hope that you have been intentional in taking the action steps we presented here for personal stress, physical and emotional stress, as well as leadership stress. In wrapping up this series, we talk about how to deal with people stress.

Without people, there could not be ministry. That is worth saying again. If there are no people, there is no ministry. When you think about the people that have come to know God through your church or ministry, you realize that God has allowed you to be part of something miraculous. We have much to be thankful for when real life-change happens to people.

That being said, we may at times run into a person that is a stress-producer in our lives. Wouldn’t ministry be awesome without that ever occurring? The reality is that it has happened, it may be happening now, and it will happen again. What do we do when someone who we are called to serve and instructed to love induces stress in our life, leadership, or ministry?

You can be having a great week. You may be riding a wave of winning events that your church is celebrating with you. But your ride comes to an end when a stress-producing person tries to take you for an emotional ride. You can love and serve them without boarding their emotional train with them. If they get angry, you do not have to be angry with them. If they are sitting in the sad section on that train, stand beside them, try to elevate their spirit, but do not be pulled down into sadness with them.

Ministry is people. You are called to serve stress-producers, too. There is a right way to go about it. In this video, we consider ten stress-reducing ideas on dealing with people stress. Let go of some stress as you watch it.