By Tim Adams
I’m sure you are familiar with the Sabbath from Genesis and perhaps Leviticus, along with the Jewish practice of worshiping on the seventh day of the week. And indeed, the Greek “sabbaton,” stemming from the Jewish “Shabbath,” all mean “rest.”
What is more difficult to understand amidst the hustle, bustle, stress, endless emails, phone calls, and texts is the importance of you, as the pastor, stepping away and taking a sabbatical for yourself and your family.
It’s so easy for us to get caught up in the daily happenings of our churches. The constant demands placed on us by our position, by our members, and by the world at large. Your life is filled with meetings, visitation in homes and hospitals, more meetings, sermon prep, preaching, counseling, more meetings; I don’t have to tell you, you live it every day.
It can become so easy to lose sight of our own self-care when we are in constant response mode. It’s so simple to become addicted to what I call “the need.” To be the one that is called, the one that shows up when no one else will, the first to arrive and the last to leave. The weight of responsibility for your church can feel like a physical weight on your shoulders and the idea of stepping away for an extended period of time seems alien, a concept that surely will lead to the downfall of your church, right?
It depends on how you have led the church, if you have grown leaders from within the laity, and if you can trust those them to lead the church effectively and successfully in your absence. This is part of your job as pastor, to grow and develop lay leaders, right? The church is not about you, but about growing people in their relationship with God and supporting them in their development, including taking on leadership roles.
As the leader, you need to make sure you are taking the time, creating the space and margin for yourself to recharge, unplug and turn off from the daily grind of pastoring and, like Jesus did so often, go and spend purposeful, intentional time with God, with your family, away from the pressures and chaos the church brings.
In Leviticus 25, God tells Moses about how the land will get a Sabbath every seven years and will go untended. The concept of the Sabbath is throughout Scripture and should point us clearly to the concept that rest, rejuvenation and renewal are important to God, and therefore should be important to us. Not just as a weekly sign between us and our God, but as a regular practice for our pastoral leadership to take extended time to recharge their batteries so they can continue in their effectiveness and growth of our churches.
How can we expect to lead a church for 10, 15, 20 years into an ever-deepening relationship with God if we are not invested in pursuing that for our own lives, taking intentional time towards pursuing God’s course for the church, asking what His vision is, seeking His leading for the coming years?
This isn’t meant to be a yearly practice, but I think if we look at Leviticus 25 as an indicator, every seven years seems like a good starting point to take one month, six months, perhaps even a year off – let God lead you in that. And I don’t think we should limit this to Senior Pastors, either.
Every pastor and ministry leader should get a similar break; as a former tech director for a mobile church and a volunteer for 23 years straight at various churches, I can tell you that burnout is a very real thing and should be guarded against in all our volunteers and leaders. Regular time off is a way to mitigate that.
Maybe the idea of taking a month off or longer scares you because you don’t know what will happen. Maybe you feel guilty to take time for yourself and your family. I can’t help you wrestle with that, but God can, and you should approach Him with those thoughts. We are told to “take every thought captive to Christ,” and this is no different.
I know of at least one denomination that actively encourages their pastors to take extended sabbaticals because they know how important it is. Again, if rest is so important to God, it should be to us, too.
You were put in leadership and ministry for a reason, and I’d be willing to bet that for most of you, God had a big part of that trajectory on your life. I’m likely not telling you things that you don’t already know, but reminders are helpful to actually getting a goal accomplished, right?
I’ll conclude by emphasizing that Jesus said that “His yoke is light,” and God said that “He knows the plans He has for you. Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
That doesn’t sound like He wants you to burn out, collapse under the weight of your responsibilities or the expectations of others. Why would these promises be for everyone but pastors? They aren’t – they are for all those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior.
We are living in a time in history that is unprecedented in its attitude towards God and Christianity, what I call a “post-God” society – yet people still seek His face. That means our job as ministry leaders isn’t over. There will be more trying days, weeks, months, and years to come. Crisis, drama, conflict, and pain are often the trees that make up the forest we find ourselves in and it might feel like you’re needed now more than ever. Beware our enemy, my friends, the “father of lies,” and “the accuser of the brethren.”
Maybe the resistance you’re feeling towards a much-needed sabbatical is not coming from the good fruit in you, but the old betrayer of our hearts, our sinful nature. We are told that we shall know them by their fruits and if the fruit of what you’re experiencing or feeling is guilt, shame, trepidation, fear, or anything that doesn’t come from God, then you should rebuke that spirit, send it packing and seek God for His leading…and probably go book a long weekend somewhere because I’d be willing to bet that God is calling you to take a breather!
Tim Adams spent over 20 years volunteering in church technical ministry and now focuses on helping small churches achieve technical excellence through equipment upgrades, training, sharing best practices and teaching leadership how to cast God-sized vision.
