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A Time Well Spent: The Blessing of a Sabbatical by Kevin Wiebe
“D
o you have any plans yet?” Our church’s board chairman had just reminded me that I was about two years away from the time where our policy recommends that pastors take a sabbatical, and was curious if I had any hopes or plans for how to use that time. We were sitting in a Wendy’s restaurant having lunch together and we talked about the various possibilities. Now that I have taken a 16-week sabbatical (post-convention through October 2019), there is so much that I have learned about the benefits of this, and I have been truly grateful for the way our church’s leadership handled it at every turn. So, as a pastor, here are a list of things I appreciated about how my sabbatical was handled to enable me to make the most of this opportunity.
Planning Ahead
As you have already gathered, this was planned for well in advance. It wasn’t something I
14 The Messenger • March 2020
brought up as if I was begging for them to follow their written policy, but was something our board brought up with me well ahead of time. As such, it gave me ample time to dream about what I could or would do, with some options being missions trips, time spent studying or in classes, or many other possibilities.
Planning for Meaningful Activity
As I prepared for this sabbatical, a line from a song called Breathe You In by Thousand Foot Krutch was ringing in my ear: “It’s time to rest, not to sleep away.” It differentiates between sleeping, and meaningful activities that function to make us rested. This means that it is more than just sitting idle for months on end. A sabbatical is meant to be a change of pace, a slower pace, but something that is done with purpose that pours into our souls in different ways instead of requiring us to do things that can feel like it is taking something from us.
