A friend attended a special event at our church recently and remarked to my wife, “I don’t see your pastor here.” Rita explained that our pastor was taking a sabbatical this summer. The reply was, “Well, is he coming back?” The idea of a sabbatical for a pastor or staff member is still not understood by many church members. They either see the sabbatical as a way to ease a pastor into termination or deal with a problem. Quite to the contrary, the church that provides a sabbatical for a ministerial staff member is not only doing a good thing for the minister but for the church as well. The practice is being encouraged by organizations that provide grants for pastoral sabbatical, but many churches now build this into their personnel policies as well as their budgets. When I was chair of our church’s personnel committee several years ago, we expanded the sabbatical program to provide a sabbatical for every minister after each five years of service...
Comments from a Christ-follower on things that matter to him