Sabbatical stuff

I've thought for several years now that I probably need to take a sabbatical. I just didn't think it would ever fly with our church. Being a mostly blue-collar congregation, sabbaticals aren't something most people are familiar with. In fact, a lot of people don't really understand why I even get paid, much less get paid vacation.

At any rate, I've had several people lately tell me that they think I need to take a sabbatical. Apparently it's showing. Certainly it's better than just quitting. Just today my coaching huddle leader strongly recommended I take at least 2-3 months. He said their church requires all staff to take a sabbatical every 7 years. Our denomination recommends 10 years. Since I'm approaching 13 years here, I guess maybe I am due.

So, here are a few links to some sites I found with a quick google search. We'll see how this goes...

• Lilly Endowment
• Andy Rowell's blog post with some info and links
• A random article I ran across
• Clergy renewal.org
• Ideas for using sabbaticals
• Sabbatical examples
• My-pastor.com
• John Alwood: ideas for sabbaticals