By Pastor Stephen Hess –
In the early 1800s there was a Scottish minister by the name of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. M’Cheyne was an extraordinarily gifted young man. He graduated from university as a fourteen-year-old and was pastoring a Presbyterian congregation of over a thousand people by the age of twenty-three. However, he worked himself to the point of burnout and his health finally broke. Before he died at the age of twenty-nine, he wrote, “God gave me a message to deliver [the gospel] and a horse to ride [his body]. Alas, I have killed the horse and now I cannot deliver the message.”
Even though we are living almost 200 years since M’Cheyne wrote those words, the dangers of ministry burnout have not disappeared. In fact, some would say that they are worse now than ever. Studies have shown that pastors are dropping out of the ministry at alarming rates. In response to this trend our denomination has been encouraging churches to implement sabbatical policies for their pastors. The hope is that by implementing these practices it would help to prevent burnout and ensure that church leaders can stay in ministry for the long haul. Our own congregation saw the wisdom in this and adopted such a policy back in 2009. This policy offers the pastor a two-month sabbatical for every seven years of service.
This spring marks eight years since I became the pastor of Highview. The last eight years have been wonderful, and I don’t feel burned out by ministry at all. In fact, I am excited about what the future holds and incredibly thankful to be part of such a wonderful congregation. Having said all this, I want to make sure that I am taking care of myself so that I can remain in ministry for the long haul. As I have talked with pastors who have been in ministry much longer than I have, they have indicated that periodic sabbaticals helped them maintain longevity in leadership and prevent burnout from occurring. To quote from one pastor, “If you wait until you are burned out to take a sabbatical, it’s too late.”
As I reflected on this, I decided it would be wise for me to consider taking a sabbatical at this juncture in my ministry. At our annual congregational meeting in January, I announced that I would be taking a two-month sabbatical this summer during the months of June and July. This sabbatical was fully supported by our Session and approved last fall. Since then, we have been putting plans in place to prepare for the summer.
Some members of the church have asked me: “What will you and your family do on your sabbatical?” The answer is that we plan to do very little. A sabbatical is intended to be an extended sabbath rest. In that sense, the purpose of a sabbatical is not to be doing lots of activities or working on study projects. Rather, the purpose is to cease doing and simply rest. In the words of Psalm 46, sometimes the Lord wants us to “be still and know that he is God.” Therefore, during the sabbatical, we will use our time primarily to slow down, rest, and have some extended time with our families.
The other question that might be on some people’s minds is: How will various ministry responsibilities be covered in my absence? On Sunday mornings during June and July, we will have a rotation of guest preachers including some of our own elders, pastors from our presbytery, and pastors from some other local churches. As far as general spiritual care is concerned, our elders and deacons will take the lead in ministering to various needs in our congregation, which is something that we are already doing. As most of you know, we assign each family unit to an elder-shepherd. These elders will serve as your primary point of contact during my absence if you have prayer needs or other spiritual concerns. We have an absolutely wonderful team of elders and deacons at Highview, and I have no doubt that our congregation is in good hands. If you have additional questions about this sabbatical, I will be hosting a Q&A session immediately after worship on Sunday May 7th where you can learn more.
During the weeks that I am gone, I would appreciate your prayers. Please pray that God would make this a refreshing time for our whole family. Specifically, we hope that this will be a time for rest, reflection, and spiritual renewal. My hope is that God would strengthen our entire church family during this time so that upon my return we would be ready for the next season of ministry at Highview.