Lead Pastor on Sabbatical

 

    Calvary's personnel committee has approved my sabbatical leave beginning in 2023.  Calvary's personnel policies handbook states, "Upon the completion of ten (10) years of service at CBC...the Lead Pastor will be given twelve (12) calendar weeks of sabbatical leave."  Furthermore, the handbook also declares the purpose of such a sabbatical: "This sabbatical is encouraged for new experiences, continuing education, and a time of rest, relaxation, reflection and renewal."

    My ten year anniversary as Calvary's lead pastor took place in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.  The pandemic was accompanied by two pastoral staff vacancies.  It did not seem wise to me to take a sabbatical during such a time.  I asked the personnel committee for an extension so that I could stay through the calling of an executive pastor, a student and young adult discipleship pastor, and a Spanish-language discipleship pastor and the "relaunching" of Calvary with a new strategy after the pandemic.  The personnel committee graciously granted me the extension.

    My twelve-week sabbatical leave begins January 2 and ends March 26, 2023.  During this time, David Chan, our executive pastor, will be the acting lead pastor.  Members of the pastoral staff team will participate in a preaching rotation for our Sunday gatherings, with an occasional guest preacher.  Furthermore, Pastor Chan will oversee a pastoral residency program, where one or more individuals will take on pastoral staff responsibilities to assist the pastoral team and to gain training and experience for the resident.  Our pastors and deacons are prepared to address pastoral care needs.

    Sabbaticals are not common to many professions outside of academic and religious domains.  Some of you may wonder what is a sabbatical and why do pastors take them.  It should be noted that a sabbatical is not a vacation.  It is an intentional time for renewal that includes study, reflection, spiritual refreshment and a resetting of physical and emotional health practices.  The nature of pastoral ministry requires such a leave in order for the pastor to remain healthy and for the church to benefit from a pastoral staff that is healthy and renewed periodically.

    Our state convention, known as Texas Baptists (BGCT), answers some questions regarding pastoral sabbaticals in their Sabbatical Resources page.  For a brief article from Thom Rainer you can visit his Five Reasons Your Pastor Should Take a Sabbatical.  For a little longer article that has some interesting statistics regarding pastors you can read SoulShephering's article on it.  Focus on the Family has a helpful booklet on this topic:  Sabbatical for Ministers: The Benefits for Pastors and Congregations.  There are dozens of other helpful articles that can be found on the internet but these provide a few examples.

    In my request to the personnel committee, I stated my plans for this sabbatical as follows,

• Rest: Have the opportunity to enjoy weekends and evenings off; disengage from work related emails, texts messages and phone calls;

• Relaxation: Enjoy extended family times; some recreational travel;

• Renewal: Spend significant time in prayer, Bible reading, journaling, seeking to reset rhythms of spiritual health and searching for God’s direction in my life and ministry, process some of the losses I experienced during the pandemic; take some prayer retreats either in some of our Texas Baptist encampments or Camp Buckner; attend a conference or two such as the Truett Pastors Conference on January 27-28;

• Reflection: Read several books.  Some of them are books I have had on my desk regarding leadership, missions and discipleship.  I also hope to do some research in areas such as women in ministry and church governance.  I hope to write some as well.  The writing might be in the form of blog posts, articles and potentially a book draft.

• New Experiences and continuing education: I hope to do research and learn about how to publish a book and how to produce more content for blog posts and podcasts.

I believe that these twelve weeks will serve me well to reset and renew me after twelve years of exciting but very demanding ministry at Calvary.

    I am thankful to Calvary for your support, for the personnel committee for their care, and for our staff who is willing to cover all the bases during my absence.  Most of all I ask for your prayers during this time.  That it may be meaningful and that God may accomplish his purpose both in my life and in the ministry of our beloved church.  I will miss you but I look forward to see you again no later than Easter Sunday!  (I will preach on Sunday, January 1st before I leave on sabbatical).