Have you ever had a sabbatical? If not, why not?
January's monthly article opens the topic of sabbaticals. Feel free to comment on or discuss this article here. I would be interested in your thoughts ...
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Hi Les. Great to have your input here. I'm about to take another sabbatical (it's seven years since the last!) but it is a real juggling act. It requires having someone who can step in and do the day-to-day running of things, which we have at the moment (just getting her up to speed).
This time I'll be taking 3 individual months over the course of the next year, starting with a month of travel in June. Yes, the travel bit takes some finance but we have had 7 years to save for it (kind of). Perhaps sabbatical expenses should go in your support budget so a little bit each year goes towards it? Easier said than done, I know. The other months I'll probably spend writing, walking and reflecting a bit more. We have a caravan that may come in handy as, like you, I don't have access to a big 'hospitality fund' of any sort.
OSCAR has a list of UK accommodation (including retreat houses) many of whom give discounts to full time Christian workers. See https://www.oscar.org.uk/directory/practical/accommodation/uk-accom.... I'm sure you're ready for a sabbatical after your many years of 'giving out'. I'll pray with you that it becomes a reality.
God bless. Mike.
You are very kind Mike, and I wish you well. We will get there in the end and for now we take a serious sabbath once a week, and a week of sabbaths every seventh week. Taking a seventh month off is a bit of problem and the seventh year off came and went in 1984 and every seventh year since :>) Next week we go to a static caravan in a quite Welsh valley that has served us well and we have a tent as well, but at almost 69 our camping days are not quite as adventurous as they used to be. Always let us know if we can step in and serve you somehow and in some way. Every blessing and onwards for Jesus, as always we are with you are for you heart and soul. Les.
My wife and I have talked about a sabbatical for years, we have prayed and we are still talking about it, but we have never found anywhere to go to either rest, be renewed or to serve - or all three. The books we have read are very convincing but most authors seem to have access to almost unlimited funds and/or supportive contacts, something that we don't seem to have. We will be watching the posts and learning from everyone's experiences.
Thank-you for a great article on your sabbatical. After 15 years in missions, 11 of them in Bosnia, I am going to be taking one at the end of this year. Like you said - it does take time to plan and get things ready as I have a lot of responsibilities here on the field which I can't really switch over to someone else, but it is working out. I am also going to have to be quite deliberate in making it a sabbatical - and I like the two weeks break first as a way to ease into it...
I will let you know how it goes!
Blessings,
Belinda
Hi Mike, I loved your article on Sabbaticals...I shared it on facebook! I have not taken a sabbatical...to be honest, I have only been in ministry for 4 and a half years, so it might be too soon to take one yet! But the whole issue of rest and retreat in ministry is a valid and often overlooked one. I have constantly got to remind myself that I am not a robot that can just work 24/7, but that I need to protect my time off. I have realised if I don't, I actually just become more ineffective...so even though I might be thinking 'I can't afford to have anytime off' it is really a case of I can't afford not to. I have seen so many church leaders burn out, physically, mentally, spiritually and I don't want to get into the position where I cannot be used by God to help others. Sometimes I have been made to feel bad by people for taking a break, like I should somehow be so spiritually supercharged that I can just work every single day of the year!! I t can make you feel guilty...you get into the thinking of 'this place/these people can't survive without me'...which is of course nonsense! They are God's people and He is looking after them!! Going away for a week doesn't mean everything falls apart!!
Thanks again for a great article!!
It is nearly four years since I took my first sabbatical. I was tired, and I needed a break. I agree with all you have written, Mike. During the three months I took a trip to southern Russia, I redecorated our hall and stairs, and spent a week at our home church. All that was extremely positive, and sabbatical or no, I need to schedule in those sorts of activities again. What I had not anticipated was that when I got back to work the ground had moved; I did not really come back into the situation I had left. That led to some significant changes in my team and work. The consequences are still unfolding, and look like doing so for a while to come. But sabbatical is about change, not just for the period of the sabbatical, but in us and the situations we work in.
I've had two comments by email, from OSCAR users who aren't in OSCARactive ... both of them past or present leaders of Christian organisations:
'Mike, just wanted to say thank you for your helpful personal account about Sabbath. I think many of us will find this very helpful.'
'Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your article on sabbaticals. It got me thinking I should really plan to take one next year. Never had a sabbatical in 22 years'
Anyone else got any comments, on or off the record?
Taking your definition "the essence of sabbatical means rest from the work you normally do", my wife and I took a sabbatical thirty years after our founding of Emmaus Road International in 1983. I "announced" to my Board that we were taking a month in Israel. They did not argue with me! I participated in an archeological dig in the City of David. I worked as hard as I have ever worked...physically! But it was one of the most exhilarating three weeks of my life. What did I find? A jawbone of a fish and a Roman brick! And a bunch of pottery.
But knowing that I was digging down through the Byzantine era, moving toward the Roman, assured me that we were going in the right direction. My wife, meantime, sat at a computer, recording short stories from her 30-35 short ministry trips she had led. Our fourth week, we rented a car and traveled throughout the country, from Haifa in the north (where we spent our 55th wedding anniversary) to the south past the Dead Sea and on to Masada. It has been five plus years since that sabbatical! But the images we share are bright spots in our memory of a time well-spent! Will we take another? I doubt it. We are 80 now and find too many ministry things yet to do! For His glory! ~~~~NEAL
Sounds wonderful! In order to disengage we usually have to engage with something else, so I think being absorbed in something else is a good way to break from the thing you're usually absorbed in most of the time. I'm touring across the USA as part of my sabbatical ... dropping in on a few treasured friends ;-)