Summer sabbatical

I finally announced my summer sabbatical in our worship gathering yesterday morning. Jane and I will be on sabbatical from our church from Monday, May 6th through Sunday, August 4th.

We have hired a friend - who happened to be looking to do some interim pastoral work - and I think he will be great for our church. Daughter Carrie will be handling the office duties on a part-time basis, and I think she will be quite an asset too. I also think our present leadership team is the perfect fit to handle things this summer.

I can't say that everything went exactly as I had hoped, but I am happy that everyone so far has been quite supportive. I am pretty seriously burned out (and have been for quite some time), and my wife and I could really use some time to heal emotionally and spiritually. I really do see this as a positive step for our little church though too. As much as I need a break from being a pastor, they need a break from me being their pastor as well.

My plans are a little up in the air still. Initially I intend to take at least a week just to try to get physically healthy again. I am pretty run down, so I will try to sleep as much as possible, exercise, meditate, and just try to get my head clear. After that I hope to do some reading, run, visit with some friends and some people who I hope can speak into my life, continue with the counseling, maybe work on my guitar playing (or maybe not play at all, I don't know), and Jane and I mostly hope to be able to worship at various churches this summer. I will probably take a few trips back home, maybe a few other places, as well as our whole-family vacation in June. So I have a feeling this 3 months is going to fly by and it will be over in no time. But I'm going to try to enjoy it while I can. I seriously need some rest, rejuvenation, and spiritual/emotional renewal.