Pastoral Sabbatical: Notes and Recommendations

Pastor Chuck Hayes
Richland Center, WI Church of the Nazarene
2008 Pastoral Sabbatical

Notes and Recommendations

• It would have been helpful to start with a week of disengagement from my vocational setting before beginning class work and study.

• Strength comes from quiet and rest in the presence of God.  This should receive priority in Sabbatical planning.

• Emphasis needs to be on silence and solitude.  Educational experiences, such as continuing education classes and times of travel do enrich the overall sabbatical process but should but should be balanced with times of silence and solitude.  If necessary a longer sabbatical period should be planned so that silence and solitude do not get short changed.

• It was into week four before I really started to feel the impact of time away from pastoral responsibility.

• The simple, unhurried routines of cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, washing dishes, and walking, had a healing nature about them.  There was a reminder in all of this that my identity is not just in being a pastor but in being a creation of God.

• I have not felt freedom to read purely for enjoyment of reading.  My reading has been goal oriented and vocation/production focused.  This has made the time a little less Sabbath oriented than it might have been.

• Travel which provides fresh, unhurried, encounter with the wonder of God in His creation aids greatly in efforts for personal worship and renewal. 

• The goal of a pastoral Sabbatical should not involve producing some thing tangible so much as it should involve seeking to become aware of the presence of God, listening for His voice, and responding in grateful adoration.

• It helped to have my spouse with me for as much as the Sabbatical as possible.

• Visiting other churches is a healthy activity that enriches the soul and exposes the pastor to other ways to worship.  This should be a priority activity in all future Sabbatical planning.