At Creation God set the pattern of a day of rest in every seven day period. A Sabbatical is an extension of this pattern – in the Baptist Church, a quarter (3 months) rest every seven years. It’s now 14 years since my ordination, I served for 20 years as a volunteer in ministry prior to that (as many of you do, or have). I admit to having felt tired for the last six months; not exhausted or burnt out, but more emotionally tired than physically or spiritually. I have a fairly good “work/life balance” most of the time – not perfect, but sustainable. But I’m ready for a break.
At College, when discussing Sabbath, I remember someone saying “we don’t rest from our work, we work from our rest“. I dismissed it as semantic nonsense at the time, but I’ve never forgotten the phrase and have reflected on it often, and now know it to be truth. Following the pattern set by God in Genesis, we work from our rest; we work from the energy we gain through resting. Our Sabbath rest was never intended to be a pressure valve from overworking. Rest shouldn’t simply be about recovering. We should reset and re-energise to enable us to work for the next day/week/season.
It has been said that a Sabbatical allows us:
“…to dramatically disconnect from life and work as usual and explore who we are at our core and bring ourselves more fully to God and His call upon our lives. Extended Sabbath time can be especially important for a time of transition into a new phase of life or ministry.”
My responsibilities at RBC have changed dramatically in the last seven years, and the transition had to be managed through/alongside the global pandemic, a transformation of the Ministry Team, some significant challenges, and overseeing a Building Project. So I’m looking forward to that “dramatic disconnection” and the space & time it will afford me.
As the Rev. Ricky Rew from Rayleigh, of course the best way I can think to help explain my Sabbatical is with five alliterative points beginning with R:
Release – put down the many responsibilities of leading the Church and shepherding the people; some have said that leading a Church is like herding kittens – leading a large Church even more so…
Rest – enjoy the “spacious place” (Psalm 18:19) which is created when you don’t have a daily/weekly/monthly routine, or a calendar to constrain you; family time – doing as much or as little as we want to, quality time
Reset – it’s time to evaluate my established disciplines, priorities & rhythms, and where necessary, to reset them to ensure my long-term spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing
Reflect – on the past 7 years; what has passed is important, but what lies ahead is more so; the former is the foundation for the latter; to help me reflect and learn I’ll spend time reading & studying, with 4 key areas of focus for prayer & reflection (see below)
Restore – see image above – the car on the left requires more than a little attention & maintenance; notice that the cars are still the same “vintage”, some characteristics may change (one is left-hand one is right-hand drive), but generally in much better condition at the end, and arguably fit for purpose once again; I can’t promise I’ll come back looking any better, but hopefully both feeling and functioning better.
Key Themes:
- Personal Discipleship – time with God in prayer & praise; listening for His voice and further exploring & understanding how my call has changed; and resetting my own spiritual rhythms/practices
- Ephesians 4 – this passage was how God challenged me about my change of call from a focus on Youth/Children to “general” ministry, so I’m going to spend some time in Ephesians 4 in particular, and exploring the five-fold model of ministry (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers)
- Leadership development – this is an area I’ve long had a personal interest in, and relating to the “equipping” element of Ephesians 4, I have a passion to pursue;
- Ecclesiology & Church Growth – this is specifically something I feel God has been nudging me about and given our recent experiences, it’s something I’m a bit reticent to explore, but I want to be obedient to God’s plans for us; God has been growing us in our discipleship and Spirituality, and also numerically, and when I shared recently some of the possible ways we might respond to that growth (and deal with the challenges it presents) there was a real excitement amongst us – so I’m going to be thinking about distributed models of Church / new expressions / planting.
I know it’s not unheard of for Ministers to return from their Sabbatical and announce that they’re moving on, and I’ve had a number of people ask me if I plan to do that. So I want to reiterate two things that I’ve said at different times and in different contexts:
- I’ve promised that I will be obedient to God’s call when I hear it (if you know my story, you’ll know that’s not always been the case) but “what I have vowed I will make good” [Jonah 2:9]
- I have never been more convinced of my call to Rayleigh Baptist than now
I have no intention of moving on, and not even a tiny inkling that’s what God has in store… [that will either delight or disturb you 😉😁]
It has been said that “if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life“.
Whilst there have been some difficult and painful challenges, I thoroughly enjoy my role, working with the RBC leadership team in the broadest sense (Staff/Elders/Trustees/Ministry Leads) and I count it a privilege to shepherd the Church Family (or herd the kittens – whichever picture feels most appropriate).
We have an exciting new chapter ahead of us, and although I’m looking forward to the break, I’m also looking forward to what God does amongst you whilst I’m on Sabbatical, and to what He has in store for us as we continue the adventure together when I return.
