How churches are surviving pastoral sabbaticals was the topic of a recent post from Thom Rainer. He had some observations about churches that are not handling pastoral sabbaticals well. This struck a chord with me, not because I am in that scenario, but because all three of our pastors successfully completed sabbaticals in the last four years. One of our Pastors completed it in 2018, one in 2021, and the other in 2022. The Sabbaticals lasted between 4 and 8 weeks.
Having one of your key people on staff leave for an extended time is never a bed of roses, but believing in sabbaticals and ensuring they are occurring is mission critical to a church.
During our three Sabbaticals in the last years, we weathered them well, I think for the following reasons:
A Leadership Team that believes in the purpose of the Sabbatical
People in churches have a lot of different opinions on the need for a pastoral sabbatical (“I’m a hard worker and I don’t get a sabbatical!”). On the surface, that seems like it’s a valid point. But it is not for several reasons that this post doesn’t have time to cover. The Pastor, because of his week-to-week responsibilities, because of the ongoing care he provides to people during and after office hours, and a few other reasons, usually is not able to take vacations and attend workshops like you’re average Joe. The sabbatical allows for this.
Certainly, since COVID, the need for a sabbatical plan is absolutely essential for a church. In many cases, churches have relied heavily upon on on on their pastoral team to get them through COVID (maybe too heavily) and now pastors are feeling the effects of that. Also, pastors have a tendency to do too much.
But if your Leadership Team at your church does not believe in its purpose collectively, then you will have issues executing the sabbatical effectively. The church leadership may have differing opinions on the elements of the sabbatical (that’s healthy) but they cannot be in disagreement on its necessity (that’s unhealthy).
Trained people that are ready to fill gaps
You will quickly know the effectiveness of your discipleship strategy within your church or organization the minute you give someone an extended leave for a sabbatical. When someone leaves, other people need to be ready to step in. That doesn’t mean they are ready to execute the functions 100%, but it does mean the area of ministry continues to move at a God-honoring pace.
Are there people around the person leaving that have a good idea of what has to be done, when, and how? Do we have written ministry descriptions in place that detail the responsibilities? If we don’t have people around the person (whether volunteers or staff) that can easily step in, have we taken the time pre-sabbatical to train people in the role?
Congregational communication
Have you taken the time to teach into the purpose of the sabbatical? This is essential. You can’t lead sheep into new territory without guiding them properly. Getting up on a Sunday morning during announcement time and casually stating “By the way, did you know Pastor Larry is leaving for 16 weeks next Sunday? Give it up for Pastor Larry and remember to pray!” is not a good strategy. You have to devote at least 15-20 minutes to this congregational conversation, sharing Scripture and having the Leadership Team (not necessarily the Pastor) speak about its importance, likely over multiple weeks.
You will have to dedicate more time to this process the first time you do a sabbatical. Subsequent sabbaticals become reminders, but because you’ll have new people in the congregation, you’ll have to give the talking points again.
Conclusion
How churches survive pastoral sabbaticals rests largely on a well-executed sabbatical plan. Don’t assume you can navigate the sabbatical waters without a lot of behind-the-scenes discussions, leadership buy-in, and leading the sheep through it! Do the hard work on the front end, set up some accountability during, and conduct a good assessment afterward, and you will make the sabbatical way of life much easier for your church.
BTW – your Sabbatical policy does not need to be long or complicated. The easier and more concise the better (in my opinion). If you’d like to see ours, shoot me an email.