Sabbatical Update

The past few years have been intense. I’ve led through the loss of my dad and stepdad, my mom suffering a traumatic brain injury, and the challenges of a global pandemic. On top of that, I’ve spent the last seven years helping rebuild a church that experienced a painful split. My soul was weary, and I was exhausted. Thankfully, our elders approved a ten-week sabbatical, providing the rest I desperately needed.

About a week into my sabbatical, a friend texted me, asking how I was doing. I replied, “I’m more tired than I realized.”In those first days, I took more naps, slept in, and yawned more than I ever imagined. My exhaustion ran deeper than I had known or acknowledged.

I wonder if you might feel the same. Maybe a key staff member recently left your team. Perhaps you’ve navigated the tensions of the latest election cycle or carried the weight of your congregation’s struggles. You go home physically, spiritually, and emotionally drained. Like me, you might be more tired than you realize.

Sabbatical forced me to slow down completely. It felt like pulling over on a long road trip, engaging the emergency brake, and shutting off the engine. I’m not naturally good at rest, but three weeks of stopping entirely brought renewal. For the first time in a long while, I started dreaming again—about ministry, discipleship, and reaching our community.

But God wasn’t done. In the weeks that followed, He did some of His deepest work in my soul. As I spent time alone with Him, He revealed my struggle with control. He reminded me to trust Him fully to care for His church. I realized God cares more about me as a person than about my role as a pastor. He shepherded my soul in ways I hadn’t let Him before.

You might not have ten weeks to take off, but you can still rest. Start with a Sabbath day and allow God to speak to you in your deepest need. 

Big Bear: Summer 2012

This summer, while on sabbatical, we scheduled in some time to see my mom and Jerry up in Big Bear Lake.  Big Bear is my home-town and I have some great memories of growing up in that little mountain town that I am thankful I can share with my family.

While in Big Bear we did some of the normal things that I love to do: eat at Teddy Bear, try to catch lizards with my girls, feed the ducks, hit the zoo and eat at La Montana.  Here are a few memorable pics from our trip.

Sophie and Leah looking at a deer

Sophie and Leah riding the animals!

Leah trying to pet a mountain lion who wants to eat her

This is how you eat a pancake!

Pondo Summer Camp 2012

While on my sabbatical, this last summer, I had a really cool opportunity to speak at my first summer camp.  I have done a couple winters at Pondo and have really enjoyed them but after summer camp I was so stoked on the ministry that Pondo has!  I loved how they format their summer camp; the time is great, the location is wonderful, the cost is doable and the staff is caring.

While I don't have any plans to write about what I spoke about or how Chapel went I do want to tell a story I will never forget.

My oldest daughter Sophie loves animals.  She would have every animal that she could get her hands on if I would allow her to.  Every time we see a dog she wants to pet it and she knows the breed of many dogs.

This summer at camp we saw a few lizards running around and Sophie very much wanted to catch one.  One day after getting our lunch, with my hands full, Sophie saw a lizard just outside the Chapel.  She asked me to help but I had my hands full.  Sophie started chasing the lizard around, who was no small lizard, and he almost ran into chapel but someone stopped him from doing so.  After that he ran under a small pile of wood.  Sophie started moving the wood and got him to run out from it.  Then it happened; when the lizard was in the middle of the walk area Sophie pounced on him and caught him!

Sophie caught a huge blue-bellied lizard all on her own.

For the next three hours Sophie held that lizard as her prized possession.  She pet the lizard and showed him to everyone she encountered.  She was so stoked on her accomplishment and enjoyed every moment she had with that lizard before we asked her to release him back into the wild so he could have dinner with his family.

Disneyland 2012

This summer, while on sabbatical, we took the girls to Disneyland for their first time!  Needless to say we had a blast with them!  Here are some of the unforgettable moments.

Sophie and Leah getting their first time at Disneyland button

Family in front of the big castle

Dumbo!

Sophie wanted to drive but then decided her candy was better

Sophie rockin her hat and my shades

Sea World 2012

While we were in San Diego we took some time to head over to Sea World to make sure Shamu was doing ok and eating his vitamins.  Sea World holds some very fond memories for me from my childhood with my mom, sister and grandma.  While on sabbatical I was blessed to be able to take our family there for an amazing day with my wife and girls.

This was the girls second trip to Sea World; the first time we went was for Sophie's 2nd birthday and at that time Leah was only 6 months old.  This time was great for both of the girls to see all the sea life and get to spend some quality time as a family.

Before heading in to the Shamu show we decided to stop by and see the whales real quick.  This was a huge treat to be able to see the whales up this close!

While in the show Leah wanted to take a picture of her and Shamu.  This was a huge treat for me because I think when I was younger we weren't able to afford getting a stuffed animal when we went to places.  This time we made sure to save up so we could eat all the popcorn and pretzel's we wanted (thanks Charity).  In addition to seeing Shamu we basically did the entire park (except see birds on the map that Sophie noticed).  We saw the sea turtles, the sharks, the penguins, the polar bears, the dolphins, the sting rays and The Sea Lion and Otter show.  I wish I had a picture of Charity and I from this day because I am so glad that she encouraged us to take the girls to Sea World.  She knew how tired I was and how much I needed this time with our family!

Beach Week

So I have been slowly giving some updates from what we did on our sabbatical this last summer.  I know the info is dated but it has been extremely helpful for me to relive these moments.  As I have already said, sabbatical was probably the best thing I have ever done in my life.  I shared that prior to my sabbatical I was near ministry burnout and I am so thankful for South Hills Church Community providing this opportunity for my family!

View from our house

The "Second Chunk" of my sabbatical we planned to get away and to things that refresh us.  This meant taking a month long road trip all our California that we ended up dubbing our "West Coast Tour".  The West Coast Tour started out in beautiful Oceanside, CA where we stayed a beach house for the week.  This week was filled with seeing great friends, eating great food, relaxing on the beach, eating ice cream, going to church, catching sand crabs and watching dolphins jump.

In true fashion Charity has all the good pics on her phone but I have the memories in my head.  It was great seeing Tanto and His wife, having Conrad, Karen, Deagon and Bobby over, meeting up with Matt for lunch, seeing Lauren and her family.  The BBQ with the Bower's and Berry's was great for my soul catching up with guys I love and respect.  I was so thankful that JP drove up to see me for a little and that we were able to grab dinner with Trish and Bella one night.  Finally getting to meet Justin's wife.  I really appreciated how many of our friends prayed for us and prayed for us to have strength and renewed strength in ministry!

When we started out our week in San Diego I knew that I was still spiritually drained and we were pretty active while in San Diego but I was so thankful to be able to spend time with our friends.  Good friends really do cheer up your soul!  Thanks friends!

May Lake Day

As I said yesterday, the goal I had for the second month of my sabbatical was to just have fun.  This included a whole bunch of fun with my family but also some fun with my friends.  One day I went onto the lake with the guys, and a few girls, for some: wake boarding, wake surfing and cliff jumping.  I love hanging out with these guys and all the crazy things we have done together!

I don't have all the pics that we took but here is my favorite one of me wake surfing.

Here is a pretty cool video that Spencer filmed

Here is Spencer killing it wake surfing!

The spiritual side of this, for me, is that when I was a young man I thought that being a Christian was boring.  I thought that all Christians did was sit around and talk about the Bible.  One thing that I have hoped to do in my life is to teach young people that you can be a Christian and have LOTS of fun!

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:3-4 (NIV)

Chasing Francis: Book Review

Book Title: Chasing Francis

Author: Ian Morgan Cron

Pages: 253

Publisher: NavPress

Recommendation: Yes! Read it! 

Favorite Quote: "Thomas, why does it feel like God's abandoned me?" I asked at last.
Thomas sighed. "Sometimes God's presence is most strongly felt in his absence."


During my sabbatical I read only a few books (in addition to the Bible) and this was one of them.  Now the interesting thing about this book is that is spoke deeply to my heart given the condition of my heart.  The even more interesting thing about this book is I have no clue who recommended it!


The book is a fictional story about a lead pastor from the Northeast area.  He (Chase) is about 38 years old and comes to a crisis of faith.  The tough thing about this is that Chase comes to this crisis while leading the church when he encounters the death of a young girl.  This culminates when Chase stands on stage, one Sunday morning, and announces to his church that he is not even sure if he believes in God.  After this he walks off the stage and leaves the church.


This obviously leads to an interesting outcome in the life of the pastor.  His elders encourage him to take some time off so both they and he can figure out what is going on.  During his time off he calls his cousin, who is a Franciscan Monk, in Italy.  Chase ends up going to Italy for a couple months (I think) to seek God and figure out what is missing in his life.  I am not going to give the rest of the story away but I will encourage you to pick up the book and see what it would like to seek after God in news ways. 

Spiritually Empty

Three months ago if you would have asked me how I was doing I would have given you the answer that most Americans give when asked that question: "I'm good"

If you would have pushed me a little on that answer you probably would have gotten: "I'm tired"

As I reflect back on the last couple years of my life I realize that I was constantly "tired".  I was tired of school, I was tired from being woken up at night by our daughters, I was tired of ministry being tough and I was tired of not spending time with Jesus.  The day after I left for sabbatical I took a picture of my phone and it was a good representation of where my life was at; I was empty.  You could also say: tired, drained, exhausted, depleted, empty, not full and pretty much any other word that relates to those words.

Now I understand that writing about this subject makes me vulnerable but I have to image that I am not the only one out there who has experienced this.  Now I also understand that not everyone is given the opportunity that I have been given (a sabbatical) to address this issue.  In reality it took me about three weeks of sabbatical before I actually realized how drained I was.

One glaring issue was that I had made my quiet time just that.  I would read the Bible, try to pray and failed to sit and have a relationship with God: it was definitely quite.  Let me share a handful of things that I began to realize on sabbatical that is going to change in my personal walk with Christ as I move forward in life (at this point I am not talking as a pastor but a believer in Christ).

NO MORE QUIET TIME
Maybe you have called the time that you spend with God on a daily basis your "quiet time" I want to push back on that verbiage.  Over the last couple months I have become convicted that I do not want the time that I spend with God to be quite.  I want the time I spend with God to be interactive, communicative and uplifting.  I want to sit on my face before God.  If I feel I am not hearing God's voice I want to read the Bible out loud.  I am going to switch up my relationship with God to be multi-faceted and interactive but in ways that will require me to shut up and listen.

INTENTIONAL GET-A-WAYS
During my sabbatical I was able to get a few days in Utah, by myself, to connect with God.  There is something important about not just getting away but about being intentional with that time.  I'm not going to take too much time here since I will go more in-depth in a few days on this topic.  To wet your appetite go check out Mark 1:35.

DOING LIFE WITH OTHERS
While on sabbatical I realized how important friendships are to my life.  When we are busy some of the first things to go are our time with God and then our time with others.  You cannot read the Gospels and tell me that friendships are not important.  Jesus calls us to a life with others, share meals with others, be real with others and walk with others.  I had neglected that in my life and realized that is going to change as I move forward.

MORE TIME WITH MY FAMILY
I'm not sure if most people would include this in their spiritual health but I cannot see it being separate from my spiritual health.  I make that statement because as the leader of my home it is my responsibility to take care of my family.  One thing that God spoke clearly to me is: "Love your girls."  That will be a main focus in my life from here on out.  I have put other things above the needs of my family too many times and moving forward I am going to make sure that is not the case.

In conclusion I want you to think about this verse and ask yourself: "Who is in control of my life?"

"Come to me, all you who are wearied and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Matthew 11:28-30

Hawaiian Vacation Round Two

As I attempt to recap most of my sabbatical I wanted to take another post to talk about the blessing of our Hawaiian Vacation.  It was so rad to have our family there to spend time with, but also, to watch our kids so Charity and I could get some "us time".  One of those times was taking a helicopter ride around the island of Kauai.

One of the blessings of the ride we took is that the helicopter actually lands at the waterfall featured in Jurassic Park.  Having never ridden in a helicopter before this was a treat for me to experience.

Charity and I sat shotgun in the helicopter and it was such an amazing view of the island.  Heading into sabbatical I was pretty tired/exhausted and taking this ride was a great reminder of all that God has created.  Its interesting to me how a ride like this was able to lift my spirit some and show me more of the beauty that God has created.

Check out this video of the Na Pali Coast from our ride

Hawaiian Vacation

The day after my graduation from seminary our family jumped (we actually walked) on a plane that was headed to Kauai.  Looking back on my sabbatical leaving town immediately was the best decision we could have ever made!  We spent the next ten days in Kauai with my family and had a GREAT time.  The girls loved hanging out with their cousins, I loved seeing my sister and it was great having Oma and Opa there.

Kauai was filled with adventure so I think its going to take more than one post to share but for starters I had a great time with my kids!  Kauai is filled with chickens; they are every where and Sophie and I had a great time catching them.  This is a pic from the first morning we caught a chicken.  Sophie was so excited to hold it!  Leah held one but quickly let it go to watch her sister.  My sister (Beth) also has some made chicken catching skills while holding her son!

One thing I promised the girls was that we would get shave ice every day.  Shave ice is pretty much the best invention in the world and I enjoyed every time we ate it.

Finally, for this post, I have to mention how much fun I had snorkeling with my wife and my sister.  I love being out in nature, I love chasing fish around the ocean and I love being able to see more of what God has created!

God knew this was how we needed to start our sabbatical!

Will Return: July 2012

This will be my last blog post for the next two months

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you are just going to have to go through the archives to see the crazy things in my head.  If this is your first time popping in, just come back in a few months!

I have been on sabbatical for ten days now and I think that leaving town, initially, has helpful for me to disconnect from full-time ministry but I have noticed that I have some auto-responses that need to die for this to be the best use of my time.  That being said, here is what I am going to "go dark" on for the rest of sabbatical.

Facebook
I will be disabling, or deactivating, my Facebook account here in the next couple days.  I am sure that many of you are shocked, amazed, maybe encouraged or just not sure how you would live without Facebook.  I have noticed that checking my Facebook takes time away from my family.  I am not sure I would have noticed how much time if I was as busy as I normally am but I have noticed and I am acting on that.  No more posting rad pics of my fam, checking in at amazing restaurants or stopping in to stalk others.

Twitter
This may be the most difficult one for me but I think it's a must.  I have noticed that I am not checking my feed and have used Twitter like I use Facebook; to post and get out.  Twitter has been a place for me to get encouraged, share wins, and stay connected with friends I don't always see.

Instagram
This has become a new found favorite for me.  I love seeing what my friends are doing, seeing the cool pics they post and adding a few myself.  I feel like I am so new to Instagram that leaving this soon sucks but it needs to happen.

Blogging
This will be one of the more difficult ones for me.  I love to sit down and write out my thoughts about what is stirring in this crazy brain I have between my ears.  I remember when I first saw blogging and was certain it would never pick up; but boy was I wrong.  I enjoy reading my friends blogs which allows me to keep up with what they are doing, what lessons they are learning or how to pray for them.  I will miss the blog world for the next two months.  I will miss being able to get my thoughts out of my head and process through them.

With all that said you can be sure that I will come back slowly but surely.  I do not plan to re-enter the technology world all at once.  This sabbatical thing is going to be a crazy lesson for me in the next 10 weeks but I am excited to see what God is going to teach me and speak to me.  Please pray for me, my family and our church while I am away.  If you wanna talk to me just give me a call!

Peace out; see ya soon!

Sabbatical Goals

Much of the last six weeks of my life have consisted of preparing for my sabbatical.  This includes: training people to lead while I am out, having meetings that need to be had, creating teams to function in my absence, eating lunch with rad people, more meetings and more preparation.  To be honest I am shocked that I get to take a sabbatical and so ready at the same time and so thankful to my church!

As I have been preparing for my sabbatical I have been also preparing my soul for what God wants to teach me through this time.  As I have been praying I have come up with three things that I really want to focus on during this time.  I am sure that the wording could use some massaging on these but here is the basics on this:

God: Refreshing my relationship with the Lord
This is going to be the most important aspect of my sabbatical (and the main reason sabbaticals are granted to pastors).  I want to get some amazing times with God in places that I connect well with God.  For me this is going to mean getting up to the mountains every chance I get!  I want to get up to Duck Creek for a spiritual retreat, spend some time in Big Bear, maybe stop by Hume Lake and hopefully get to Lake Tahoe towards the end to connect with God.

Marriage: Learn to love my wife in a way she feels loved
My wife helped me craft this statement since I was having a difficult time figuring out how to word it.  For the last seven years I have helped to build the church and worked hard on seminary.  With the time that has taken there have been situations where I have neglected my wife.  My  hope is that on sabbatical we will  get some times that refresh our marriage and help me learn how to be a better husband (than I already am).


Family: Effectively co-parent our children
I originally wanted to say: "love my kids more" but Charity was quick to let me know that I am a great dad.  We both agree that taking a sabbatical will give us time to figure out how to get on the same page with parenting.  I don't want to say that I am absent dad but Charity definitely takes the lead on parenting right now and that has to change.

If you are curious how you can pray for me on sabbatical; here are three major ways!

Sabbatical Breakdown

Yesterday I blogged about my upcoming sabbatical and how thankful I am to get the opportunity to have this spiritual refreshment break.  Today I want to line out some plans that I have for sabbatical and how I plan on getting the most out of my sabbatical.  Now what I am going to line out has come out of many conversations from pastoral leaders who are much smarter than I am and have taken sabbaticals.  I am so thankful for the older pastoral leaders, and mentors, in my life who have helped to shape this time.

Month One: Disconnect
The counsel I have taken from these mentors in my life is to take the first month to really just disconnect from the pastoral ministry.  I leave on April 26th and we are heading straight up to Redding, CA where I will graduate from Tozer Theological Seminary on April 28th with my Masters of Divinity.  It will be great to finish my masters work at the beginning of sabbatical to have free time to just disconnect from ministry and spend time with God.  Practically this means that I will not be checking email or taking phone calls (related to church).  I am seriously considering deactivating my Facebook during this time also.

Month Two: Have Fun
From what I have compiled from the mentors in my life I will taking the second month to just have fun with my family.  Pastoral ministry is very demanding and this often means few days off and having to miss important family events.  For the month of June I plan to be in California spending some time at the beach, taking my kids to Disneyland one day and then seeing our family.  It will be great to have time to just sit with our family members and hang out!

Month Three: Re-engage
This is the part that I heard can be the most difficult.  While I am away the leaders at my church will all be working as hard as they normally do and even a little harder to help out in my absence.  This last month will be a time where I slowly re-enage back into ministry.  I will start meeting with my Executive Pastor to get caught up on what has taken place while I was away.  I want to make sure that I re-engage well.  One of the pastors I spoke with strongly encouraged me to not just come back and plan on working a full-week but to  come back a week early and work two half-weeks so that I can maintain a healthy pace.

Right now this is the overall plan.  I am sure that there will be minor tweaks to the plan but I would prefer to enter the time with a plan and make some adjustments than just expect that everything will work out fine.  I am very excited to get some extra time to connect with God and I plan on taking some spiritual retreats to Utah while I am away, chasing my kids around and expecting God to prepare me for my next run in ministry.

Sabbatical

Something that I heard about early in ministry was this spiritual refreshment break called a sabbatical.  Now I had just heard rumors of what a sabbatical was but all I really understood is that it was generally a three month break from ministry (some people took more time while some people took less).  I knew that some guys took it because they were hitting a rough patch and some guys took it because it was part of their church policy.  I had seen some pastoral staff leaders take a sabbatical but it still didn't register in my mind the need for it and the main purpose.  I knew that there were some principles of it found in the Bible but I never took the time to study them since it seemed like something I would never have.

Throughout my time in seminary some of the professors would talk about sabbatical and how to get the most out of that time if it ever was allotted to you.  November 18th marked seven years of leading for me at South Hills Church Community which offered me the opportunity the to take a sabbatical.  Starting on April 26th 2012 I will be out on sabbatical for twelve weeks which will put me back in the office around the middle of July 2012.  Now that I have been in pastoral ministry for over nine years I fully understand the need for a sabbatical and what the purpose of this break is all about.

This is such a huge blessing to me that our church is giving the time off for spiritual refreshment, personal development and time with my family!  The last seven years of ministry have been such a huge blessing to me and I am so thankful for everything that my church has invested into me to help me grow into the pastor I am.  At the same time I am very much looking forward to my sabbatical for some intense spiritual renewal.

Here are some facts about ministry that play into the need for a sabbatical:

• Ministry is tough
• Ministry is demanding
• Ministry can be lonely 
• Ministry is not a 9-5 job
• Ministry requires a deep connection to God

Throughout my ministry career I have seen some amazing wins and had the opportunity to grow immensely.  But I also have seen some difficult situations, been in intense conversations, and encountered situations that broke my heart deeply.  My goal is to use this post to prepare our church for my absence during May, June and some of July.  Tomorrow I will write more about sabbatical and how I plan on breaking down the time to get the most out of this opportunity.