What Is A Sabbatical And Why Am I Taking One?
On Sunday at Element Church, we ended our sermon series called Confessions Of A Pastor with our Conference Superintendent Steve Strutz bringing the word. Element is a part of The Evangelical Church of North America, and Steve is the superintendent of the Western Conference in that denomination. Not only does Steve lead our Conference, but he is also the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical in Billings, MT.
Steve brought us a great word on “reading the gauges in our life” and then took some time unpacking to our congregation a three month sabbatical that I will be taking this summer starting May 22nd through August 27th. Below is a video where Steve unpacks the sabbatical to our congregation. I would encourage you to watch it if you were not in church Sunday and call Element Church home!
As Steve stated, this is not something that I sought out as the pastor, but it is something that we are receiving with thanks and excitement from the church! Since the time that Steve proposed this to our leadership team this past summer, Pastor Derek (our Executive Pastor) our staff and leadership have been working hard on creating a plan that would allow this extended time away from ministry while pushing ahead with the vision of our church.
This is not a “crisis” sabbatical it is a “calculated” one. Sabrina and I are great, our ministry is great and our calling to Element has not changed. The prayer is that this sabbatical would provide a season to rest, study, renew and be re-engergized for the next season of ministry God has for us here at Element.
We’ve created an FAQ sheet that answers just about every question we could think of about a sabbatical and Element Church’s sabbatical policy specifically. You can download that FAQ sheet HERE. If you have questions beyond that, please let us know through the channels listed on the sheet.
We love Element Church and want to be the pastors here for as long as God will allow us. We understand that for the church to be healthy, the pastor needs to be healthy as well and this is a part of that goal and process. Thank you Element Church and its leadership for this gift! We are incredibly grateful to receive it and continue in leadership with you!
