REFLECTIONS ON SABBATICAL
On behalf of Brenda and my kids, I want to thank the elder team for loving and caring for us by giving us our recent sabbatical. We are also grateful to Moses and our staff and other leaders who made this possible. It truly was a blessing to me and my family.
As we prepared for the first Sabbatical we have ever had, Brenda and I sought out some spiritual mentoring to help us plan and think it through. One individual, in explaining the necessity of a Sabbatical, said that no army keeps their generals on the frontlines indefinitely. Instead, they rotate them out periodically for rest and rejuvenation in order to help them be better equipped to lead their battalions into battle. As we thought of it, this is true in many areas of life. For example, my boys are currently playing hockey; their lines are rotated off regularly to allow them and the whole team to play harder and with more focus.
Let me share a little about how I used my time “on the bench.” I spent a lot of time reading and reflecting. I also went for a lot of walks where I thought and prayed about my previous ministry experience. Some of those reflections led me to seek help from professionals and spiritual mentors to work through some of my own issues. The time of physical, mental, and emotional rest was even more important that I thought it would be. It took a couple of months to really be able to truly enter into “rest mode” and not have pastoral work dominate my thoughts. I commented to Brenda that I definitely did not know just how tired I really was in all kinds of ways until I stepped away for a time.
Brenda and I did worship at New City a few times, but we also worshipped in other churches. This was very helpful; I didn’t have any responsibilities when we showed up other than to be a worshipper. That was refreshing on its own. I didn’t have to worry about any aspect of how the service was going or have in the back of my mind that I was going to be preaching shortly.
Brenda, Evan, Rylan, and I drove our small trailer out to western Canada for a couple of months over the summer, where Brenda and I spent 55 nights in it (but who’s counting?). We drove 14,500 kilometres during this time as we visited family and friends. Kira and Brysan (along with their significant others!) flew out to join us for part of the time as well. While we do try to get back west regularly, it was very different this time. Normally, we only have time to see immediate family. The longer time available to us this time meant that we were able to include extended family and a number of friends that we haven’t seen for many years. We were also able to show our kids far more of their home province than they have seen before. We hiked in the mountains, took a trip to Drumheller to see the hoodoos and dinosaur museum, and floated down the Bow river in downtown Calgary! It was fun to see my family actually experience some things that they have only ever heard stories about.
The last couple months really was a time of prayerfully visioning what Godmight have for New City in the coming years and beginning to think through how, strategically, some of those plans and purposes could best be accomplished. I look forward to sharing more of that as that visioning time gets tested and refined by our Session and other leadership teams. But, it was sure exciting to dream!
Being away reminded me of just how much I love being your pastor! Brenda and I love what God is building in and through this church community. The sabbatical time renewed my commitment to you and to our purpose as a church. You are our family. We love and appreciate you more than you could ever know! It is now a privilege to return to the front line of our church ready to lead into our next phase. We have a spiritual battle for souls to engage in as we do our part to make disciples of all nations. I can’t imagine engaging that battle anywhere else at the moment and that is a pretty sweet spot to be in!
I look forward to sharing more with you personally and reengaging in congregational life with you. We love you New City!