Back in September, I first announced to you that the elders of Good News Church had been discussing “pastoral sabbaticals.” And at that time, I told you that we’d be giving you more information as time went on and the implementation got closer. So here’s an update.
WHO: The current idea is that Good News Church pastors would take them - once every seven years. We got the idea from a book by Wayne Cordeiro, Leading on Empty. He is a pastor who went through a significant and debilitating period of ministry burn-out and wrote a book on watching out for a pastor’s spiritual, physical, and emotional health. I am the only pastor who is approaching the completion of his seventh year of ministry here. Right now, the elders plan on me taking the first one and then evaluating the idea more after that.
WHY: Well, there’s a lot that could be said: Many recognize that pastors have a job that is more emotionally and spiritually draining than many other jobs. Other people (in fact, the book I mentioned above says this) that pastors often don’t get to take time off during many holidays as some other people do, and that those days should build up over the course of seven years and then should be taken all at once. However, I feel that the most compelling reason was this one: Many pastors who don’t take a sabbatical voluntarily end up taking them involuntarily. Here’s a quote from the book:
“Sadly, what we do not observe willingly is often imposed upon us forcefully. Sickness, ministry fatigue, an emotional breakdown, a moral failure, or giving up will cause a compulsory stoppage or reduction in ministry. But often it seems more permissible if the time off is due to a breakdown rather than the wisdom of avoiding it.”
That paragraph made a lot of sense to me. I basically thought I wouldn’t have an extended stoppage of ministry until something bad happened that forced it upon me. However, upon further analysis, that seems like a dumb idea. I realize now that taking a sabbatical before there is a problem is a wiser way to handle this. Many pastors take long breaks from ministry, switch to completely different careers, or simply switch churches every 3 or 4 years. We wanted to prevent that by considering pastor sabbaticals as an alternative solution.
WHEN: At this time, we are thinking that it would begin in May 2018 and cover much of the summer.
WHY ARE YOU SAYING ALL THIS NOW? To be honest, I’m trying to ease people into this idea. I think for some of you, this concept could be totally foreign, and I didn’t want to spring it on you in May. Also, I’ve heard stories of pastors taking sudden sabbaticals because of an active crisis. And I figured some of you might think, “What’s wrong? Why does Mario have to take time off? Is everything ok with him and Heidi? Is he in sin? What’s going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about?”
To allay those fears, I’m trying to set things up so that when May gets here we can say, “Listen everyone, this is something that has been in the works since September 2017. It is not in reaction to any current crisis. Everything is fine. Mario has every intention of coming back. This is just a way of doing some preventative care for our pastors.”
Lastly, if there are any of you who want to know quite a bit more about this, we recommend you read the book Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordeiro. It is available on Amazon.
