Taking Time Off From The Lord's Work

Through a twitter notice from my friend @kylegoen, I found this NY Times Article to be most interesting and timely in my life.  You need to read it and discover the growing issue of clergy burnout and health issues associated with clergy in ministry who do not take adequate time off.

I'm trying to do that this week, and believe me it's hard.  I can't get away from the feeling that I need to be at church and working on some project. It's hard to just walk away from it all for a few days when you know that the work still has to go on even while you are gone.

We'll try to decompress in the coming days and get ready for a busy fall.  Not only do we have a new Sr. Pastor coming on board later this month, but it's my oldest child's Sr. year in High School. That in itself will bring lots of extra activities to the table.

As I stated last week in my 5 year wrap up, I must err on the side of my family in the coming years.  They won't be this age or this accessible for much longer.

I'm also looking forward to a "sabbatical" from work sometime in 2011 as our church allows a 5 year employee some time off to study, rest and retool for ministry.  I'm currently working through some ideas for that (Pastors Retreat Network) and will have an idea soon what I'm going to do.

In the meantime-no more blogs this week as I try to "sabbath" from the Lord's work.