This winter my church decided to provide me with a three month sabbatical. It was intended to give me some uninterrupted time to rest and recharge my batteries. It began on June 1 and will last till August 31. It's been a little over a month since I began my sabbatical. Let me describe how it has gone so far.
I have served Stony Brook Fellowship for nearly 10 years so this sabbatical was timely and needed. But at the same time I've never received a sabbatical before in my 21 years of ministry so I wasn't sure what to expect or know how I would enjoy the time off. So far I have enjoyed it very much.
The first week I did pretty much whatever I wanted to (besides completing the "To Do" list my wife keeps creating for me). I got up when I wanted to, went to bed when I wanted to, mowed the lawn when I wanted to, went for a walk when I wanted to, watered the flowers when I wanted to and so on. My most frequent activity was reading (look for a review of some of my reading in a future blog).
The second week was mostly taken up by attending the Believer's Church Conference. I chose to attend this conference not because I wanted to so much as that I thought it would be good for me. It was more academic than the conferences I usually attend. In fact, some of the lectures and presentations were well over my head but as the conference wore on I began to pick up the theological jargon pretty well and even dared to ask the odd question when feedback was called for. It was a stretching experience and one I don't need every day but it broadened my perspective on the christian community, especially the Anabaptist interpretation thereof.
The third week I hung around home mostly, reading a lot and helping out my wife in her home based business. I'm discovering that one of the things that shapes the course that a sabbatical will take is how available your spouse is to drop what she is doing and accompany you on your moment by moment "inspirations." My wife runs a bookkeeping business and is very busy attending to the twelve or so clients that she presently has. But my sabbatical has also been a pleasant experience for her as, for the first time since I entered the ministry, her work has priority and she has my undivided attention. For example, unlike when I'm working, we are able to make whatever plans we wish for our evenings. In fact, I have to admit that the first few weeks I had to remind myself not to feel guilty when, after supper, I didn't have plans to attend to some kind of church work. What, I don't have a meeting tonight? What am I going to do now? This has been quite an adjustment, and a rather pleasant one, I might add.
The fourth week saw us take four days off to travel to Minneapolis to see some ball games. We had a great time. We enjoy doing this at least once a year. Many people will be surprised to discover, however, that shopping isn't a big part of these excursions. Yes, we did spend half and hour at the outlet stores in Burnsville but, these are my wife's words not mine, stopping at the outlet shops was a colossal waste of time (do you hear me cheering?).
Another reason for our trip to Minneapolis was to attend Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul where Gregory Boyd is the pastor (During my sabbatical so far, we've had the pleasure of visiting a variety of churches). I have come to appreciate Gregory Boyd's writing and wanted to check out his church and hear him preach. We both came away very impressed both with the content of his sermon as well as the worship service as a whole. This is a mega church, not something that attracts me at all, but somehow they are able to stay free from the glitter and glamour so often associated with mega churches. The music was good, but not over the top. There seemed to be a concerted effort not to draw attention to the band and worship singers but to focus the attention on God. Greg's message was great. He was talking about the return of Christ. He, being an American Evangelical, and a Baptist, led me to expect a typical premillenial approach with all kinds of extrapolations from the books of Daniel and Revelations. But this is where he blew me away with his presentation. He went to great lengths to warn against clinging to "we'll escape the tribulation" theology. His main point was for us to be the kingdom in the here and now, loving people like Jesus does, and identifying with people's suffering. Very refreshing. Gregory has written a number of books but a book of his that I read recently is The Myth of a Christian Nation. This sermon and the book I just read lead me to say, he may be Baptist but He sounds like an Anabaptist (more about this later).
Let me conclude with some summary comments about my sabbatical so far. First the positives. I'm getting the rest I so badly needed. I have also been able to free myself of the burdens and concerns that come with church ministry at least to a great degree. In fact, I can now go several days without thinking, "I should really visit so or so," or "I should give him or her a call." Even potential sermon outlines and ideas pop into my head less frequently. Also a renewed hopefulness about church, myself, my world, is mushrooming inside of me. I'm learning to relax. I now actually join in on conversations with friends, telling stories, adding humorous comments (at least I think they're funny), and actually laughing out loud. These are all good things that I'm experiencing because of my sabbatical.
But there also some negatives, at least right now I see them that way. Time may change this perspective. We'll have to wait and see about that. For one thing, I'm dying from info starvation. Sometimes I can hardly stand it that I don't know how things are going in the church. I long to know how certain people are doing. Are they progressing spiritually, and so on. I genuinely miss the fellowship in the church and seeing the people, all the people. Sometimes I don't think I will make it to September 1. Then I remind myself that this is good for me and for the church. We're all learning that SBF is not my church and neither does it need me to survive. And that may be the biggest positive of this whole experience. Learning experientially that I am not indispensable. God doesn't really need me, it just gives Him pleasure to use me.
And then there is the 0-2 start for the Bombers...
