Less Stress

Stress is the leading cause of many of the major illnesses that exist today. In the life of a hard working and biblical pastor, there are a lot of areas that can cause stress.

Now Jefe isn’t you normal hard working pastor. He does an excellent job at pastoring the Vision Baptist Church, but he is also the president of the Baptist College for World Evangelism. Between those two jobs, stress is definitely on the rise. On top of that he also travels out of the country almost every month to aid one of our missionaries. Last month he was in South Africa with missionary Kevin Hall, the month before that he was in Peru with his son, Chris Gardner, and this coming January he will be in Burkina Faso with Missionary Keith Shumaker.

As you can imagine pastoring a church, running a training center, and traveling all over the world can definitely bring on some major wear and tear.

With all he has going on, I am constantly trying to make sure he stays comfortable. If he is traveling and has to stay overnight somewhere, I try make sure that some essentials things are taken care of. He has to have an air conditioned room if it’s hot and no matter what the climate he has to have a fan.

When in an airplane I try my hardest to make sure he has an exit row aisle seat. I would love to always make sure he goes to 1st class but our budget really doesn’t leave any room for that.

Last month I bought a special cushion for him to sit on because of his bad back.
When we got back from a trip one time, the other guys in the office put a small refrigerator in his office and filled it with Diet Mountain Dew. They also are always trying to see what they can do to make him a little more comfortable to take away any extra stress.

You should always be on the look out to see what extra things you can do to make sure your 1st man stays comfortable. A lot of the times it’s the little things that make a big difference. Give attention to details.

John the Baptist

A good friend and mentor of mine, Tony Howeth, gave me some great points for my post today.

It comes from the life of John the Baptist in the book of John and chapter three.
Verse 26- John’s disciples wanted to compete with Christ. A 2nd man does not compete but compliment.
Verse 28- John knew, respected and loved his place. He said, I am not the Christ. It was not a matter of dishonor but acknowledgement of his purpose in serving God.
Verse 30- John wanted to lift up Christ. He was humble and willing to decrease that Christ could be known.

John the Baptist definitely sets a strong example being a great 2nd man to Jesus. It’s not about us but about Him. As a 2nd man the ministry can’t be about my ministry. It has to be about serving the Lord and complimenting the 1st man’s ministry.

John the Baptist could have gotten prideful and desired to have the preeminence but he knew his rightful place. Make sure as a 2nd man you don’t take the preeminence. Do your job and take your correct place. Don’t try to advance yourself over what the 1st man wants you to be.