My Ramblings

I can't believe it's here; the first day of my six-week sabbatical. The months leading up to this day have been busy and hectic. I have put a lot of extra time and effort into preparing myself and the church for this extended absence. In thinking over these things on my drive home yesterday a couple things came to mind. First, I am only going to be gone six weeks, this should not be such a big deal. The reason the church has made such a big deal of it is because I have made a big deal of it. I think a couple of things play into the difficulty of going away: one, I am the only pastor and only full-time employee on staff at the church and two, due to my own failure to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, I still do a majority of the tasks necessary to keep the church business and the church services running from week to week. Taking this break has forced me to delegate many of the tasks that should have been delegated a long time ago. Also, during this time, I am...

My six-week sabbatical begins today. It is strange to think that I won't be back in the office for over a month. The Potomac District , in its effort to plant new churches and rejuvenate plateauing congregations is encouraging the pastors of the district to occasionally take time to rest. Each year the District approves a certain number of sabbaticals. Of course, ministers can take a break any time they like, but with District approval comes funds to help pay for some travel during the time off. The meeting that this sabbatical was approved the board changed the district's sabbatical guidelines. Under the former guidelines, the District has certain expectations of its ministers on sabbatical. To the best of my memory, some of those guidelines are as follows: ministers should take at least four consecutive weeks off ministers should not preach for at least two of those weeks in a row two weeks of the sabbatical should be used for a family vacation the minister should spend time...