Introduction

A Word of Encouragement

Greetings fellow traveler and welcome to the "Sabbatical Handholds" Solomon page. If you're here, you are most likely considering or requesting a sabbatical. Our hope with this document is that we could provide some "handholds" for you as you begin the process of dreaming and discerning with the Lord what your sabbatical season should be like. As you read, please keep this important thing in mind: no two sabbaticals will look exactly alike, so feel freedom to renew in your own way! During a sabbatical, your "role is to rest," and as long as you're accomplishing that goal, you will find some modicum of success! Below you will find a collection of tips and suggestions which we hope will help you as you plan. 

Proverbs 16:9 tells us, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." During the planning and execution of your sabbatical, keep this verse in mind and be willing to surrender your plans to the Lord as He establishes you during this time of renewal and recovery. We hope and pray you sense the Lord and His Spirit during this process, and we ask Jesus to guide you as you plan. God bless! 

I've Been Asked to be a Sabbatical Advisor/Coach?

First off, thank you for considering or agreeing to be a sabbatical advisor to our staff. As you can imagine, a sabbatical is a unique and powerful opportunity to hear from God. However, potential “downsides” do exist – people have experienced discouragement, loneliness, isolation, and loss of perspective. A significant part of the solution to avoid these pitfalls is a spiritual friend, and that's one of the most succinct ways to describe a sabbatical advisor. The sabbatical advisor doesn’t do much teaching or directing, rather they take the initiative to come alongside and listen, clarify, suggest, and possibly protect. A sabbatical advisor shepherds the staff through the sabbatical process, helping them achieve their God-directed goals. The content below could be helpful for you to read, so you have a sense of what our staff will be walking through. If any questions come up along the way, please don't hesitate to reach out to our liaisons below.

Overview of a Sabbatical

What is a Sabbatical?

A sabbatical is an extended time of spiritual rest, renewal, rejuvenation, reflection, and refocus. It is not a vacation or Paid Time Off (PTO), nor is it only continuing education.  It is a guided process where one deliberately trusts God for the outcome as they disengage from normal ministry responsibilities and leadership involvement for study, rest, renewal, and evaluation of life and ministry. This can include reading books, attending seminars, studying, writing, prayer, etc.  A sabbatical has an intended purpose and plan at the outset. This plan and purpose should be agreed upon between the local church leadership or ministry and the employee. At the conclusion of the sabbatical, individuals will be expected to give an account of their sabbatical time to both their local ministry leadership and to Reliant.

Why Offer Sabbaticals?

They're a Tool for Longevity: As many of you know, much of ministry is accomplished from the inner life, and many of the challenges and difficulties faced in the field often take a toll on this inner life in unique ways. Sabbaticals provide field staff with an opportunity to stop, assess, and reflect on how their own walk with Christ is going and provide a season of respite from the unique physical, emotional, and spiritual demands of ministry. All that to say, we have found sabbaticals to be one of the most effective tools for longevity that our staff have. Said another way, "The messenger must embody the message," and when this is no longer true, a sabbatical can be an impactful strategy for recovering the personal message of the Gospel of Jesus.

They're a Safeguard Against the Cult of Personality: Sabbaticals also offer a safeguard against the cult of personality, because it requires key leaders and key up-front teachers to step away for an extended period of time. Pragmatically this requires pulpits to be filled, responsibilities to be covered, and information to be de-centralized. All of these things create opportunities and latitude for other leaders to step up and take on various responsibilities. And it also gives great opportunities for the congregants to be impacted by other leaders from up front. 

They Create a Helpful Leadership Vacuum: From this, Sabbaticals also create a natural leadership vacuum for younger leaders to be inspired to step up into. Multiplying skillsets into youger doesn't happen organically, and by stepping away for a season, your leadership roles can become new opportunities for excited young staff to sink their teeth into. 

There are loads more reasons to offer and take sabbaticals, but in short, they're good for the staff, and they're good for the ministry at large, and we hope by offering them, that our partner ministries will embrace and institute a rhythm of sabbatical into the lives of their organizations.

Testimonials

How to Communicate with Donors

• After your sabbatical has been approved we recommend sending out a prayer letter to your ministry team that announces the sabbatical and casts vision for how they can support you through the season.
• We suggest that this communication is sent out 2-4 weeks prior to your sabbatical starting
• If you feel apprehensive about telling your team that you're taking an extended break from ministry that is totally understandable, but keep in mind, that a majority of your ministry team will be excited for you to have this season of rest, and if they support other ministry organizations, they will most likely know this is common practice for support-based workers.
• There is no magic formula to this specific letter. Best practice is to be honest, be helpful, and offer handholds for how they can partner with you and pray for you during this time.
• This prayer letter is also a unique opportunity to make a special gifts ask, so that you can have some financial flexibility in the account your responsible for to reimburse potential expenses. (Note: please see what is reimbursable
• Once your sabbatical ends, we also encourage that you send a "recap update" and let your team know how the time went and what is next for you.

Typical Phases of a Sabbatical

The timeframe below is based on a typical "6 month" sabbatical. Depending on your circumstance your sabbatical may be a shorter length. If so, just adjust the timeframes to fit your window of time

Scaffolding for your Sabbatical

Have you ever seen a historical building being renovated? The first step to this restoration process is for scaffolding to be constructed around the edifice. This scaffolding provides support and access as artisans and restorationists do the heartfelt work of bringing out the beauty beneath the layers of time. Your Sabbatical in many ways is a restoration project and the Holy Spirit is the our gracious artisan doing the healing work of renewal. During this process you'll want scaffolding around you so you have the support in place for the Holy Spirit to do His work. Below you'll see three primary modes of scaffolding. These are just starting points - feel free to add in any further supports that will help you find success.

Sabbatical Advisor

A sabbatical advisor can be a trusted friend, mentor, counselor, or spiritual director. It is not a formal role and they don't need to be affiliated with Reliant or an employee with Reliant

The main qualities you'll want your advisor to meet are:

• Someone you trust and listen to
• Someone that can come alongside you to listen, clarify, suggest, and possibly protect 
• Someone who is willing to help guard against loneliness and isolation
• Someone who is available to meet with you for a minimum of once per month
  • You can meet more often if so desired

Sabbatical Rhythms

Sabbatical rhythms are daily, weekly, and monthly practices that can act as anchors in your schedule. Many staff have reported feeling unmoored as they stepped back from their ministry duties. Establishign some rhythms in your schedule can help you with this feeling of drift. Sabbatical rhythms will also require some experimentation as you figure out what works and what doesn't work during that first month. Feel free to cast aside any planned rhythms if they end up not serving your sabbatical practice.

Here are some examples of the various rhythms. These are just a starting point, feel free to different rhythms that may work better for you.

• Daily Rhythms - These are sabbatical practices and spiritual disciplines that you would like to practice every day. Some examples of daily rhythms are:
  • Scripture readings
  • Scripture memorization
  • Prayer walks
  • Devotional readings
  • Light physical activity
  • Journaling
• Weekly Rhythms - These are sabbatical practices and spiritual disciplines that may not be realistic to do every day, but you would benefit from doing somewhat regularly. Some examples of weekly rhythms are:
  • Extended times of silence and solitude
  • More intense physical activity
  • Meeting with a close friend for coffee
• Monthly Rhythms – These are sabbatical practices and spiritual disciplines that may not be realistic to do weekly, but you would benefit from doing somewhat regularly. Some examples of monthly rhythms are:
  • Meeting with your sabbatical advisor
  • Meeting with your sabbatical support group
  • Going on a spiritual retreat

Optional Sabbatical Support Group

Anyone taking a sabbatical is in danger of experiencing lack of community, loss of perspective, and a sense of isolation. While we all need times alone, we live and minister in community. To meet this need for community you may find it help to establish a sabbatical support group. Ideally, this group consists of 3-5 people who have a good relationship with you. This group meets with you (and your spouse if married) each month to help process your journey in a safe environment. You facilitate the meetings, sharing first your current progress and then asking for input. (If possible, your sabbatical advisor can participate in the group.)

Caveat: The Sabbatical Support Group is optional, and may not serve every person's sabbatical. Consult with your sabbatical advisor on whether or not a sabbatical support group would serve you during this season.

Here are some handholds for what you should be looking for in a support group. Ideally, the people in your sabbatical support group should meet the following criteria:

• Have your best interest at heart
• Willing to speak truth to you
• People with whom you’re willing to be transparent and vulnerable
  • Transparent means being open and honest about yourself
  • Vulnerable means inviting others to speak into your life
• Willing to meet monthly for the duration of the sabbatical

If people in your support group are looking for further handholds on their roles, feel free to share the list below with them:

• Provide community for the staff on sabbatical and help offset isolation
  • Help them be fully known and fully accepted (Gen. 2:25)
  • Help them feel cared for and understood (Phil. 2:20)
  • Keep their best interest at heart
  • Speak truth to them
  • Meet monthly with them as a group
    • Beware of canceling an SSG meeting because a few people will be absent
      • There are only 6 opportunities at most to meet, so the times are precious
  • Help them work through their sabbatical plan
  • Expect and encourage them to be transparent and vulnerable with you
  • Pray regularly for them

Goals & Objectives

Goals and objectives are similar to sabbatical rhythms, in that they can provide some structure and a point in the horizon for you to walk towards as you battle feelings of being unmoored. Goals and objectives need to be approached with caution as they can often become surrogates for "work." As you create a list of goals and objectives, be sure to share them with your sabbatical advisor and support group (if applicable) to help vet them and ensure that they will serve you in your sabbatical project.

As a rule of thumb, we usually discourage house projects being on your list of goals and objectives.

What is Reimbursable?

• Reasonable expenses for travel, meals, and lodging for the employee to participate in activities in which the intent is for training, mentoring, intense study, meditation, and reflection or similar purposes
• Meal per diem can be given for significant time away from the home. See Per Diem - U.S. for further details
• Spousal and family travel, meals or lodging expenses must be deemed reasonable and necessary and are taxable if approved
• Books, conferences, study courses (Reliant Education Reimbursement Program may apply)
• Reliant sabbatical approval is required before any expenses can be reimbursed

Resources

Books and Articles

• Planning Sabbaticals 
  • by Robert C. Saler
• Clergy Renewal: The Alban Guide To Sabbatical Planning 
  • by Richard Bullock & Richard J. Bruesehoff 
• Confessions of a Former Sabbath Breaker
  • by Eugene Peterson
• Sabbatical Guidelines
  • Resource from the Navigators that we referenced for our handholds above
  • You'll need to be logged into your Reliant email to download this file

Sample Away Messages for your Email Inboxes

One of the best safeguards you can set up during your sabbatical is to have a helpful and clear away message. Below you will find some sample messages that you can feel free to copy and customize to your context.

Sample 1:

Sample 2:

Sample 3:

Retreat Centers & Programs

We do not currently offer any official recommendations for retreat centers or programs. If you're curious about these options, please reach out to people within your network or movement that have take sabbaticals and see if they have any suggestions or recommendations.

Credits

Many thanks to the following people:

• Steve Brown at Navigators for sharing their Sabbatical Handbook, which provided much quotes, inspiration, and guidance for the handholds above. 
• Gaia Stanley at New Life Church for her wisdom and insights on how to sabbatical well.
• Eugene Peterson for advocating for pastoral balance and rest during his time on earth.

Questions?