By Laura Stephens Reed

In the world of ministry, many congregations offer their pastors an extended time away after a certain number of years of service. This gift might be called a sabbatical or a renewal leave, but typically it’s a one to three month period (preferably on the longer end), and it is in addition to any vacation or professional development days the minister has accrued. The church continues to pay salary and benefits during the minister’s sabbatical. Often the details are either part of the church’s standing sabbatical policy for pastors, if there is one, or built into the terms of call that the congregation and minister agree upon at the end of a pastor search process.  

Sabbaticals are important because they renew ministers’ energy and enthusiasm for ministry and guard against burnout. Pastors tend to work long hours, including many nights and weekends. They carry the weight of their congregants’ individual and collective pastoral care and spiritual growth needs. These concerns are difficult to set aside, even when ministers are not in the office. A stretch of time away, then, allows pastors to unwind in ways that a few short days off do not.   

The concept of a sabbatical might be new to your church, either because previous ministers did not take one or because it’s been a while since a pastor has been at your church long enough to be granted one. Sabbaticals sometimes, not always, take place over the summer, so that makes this a good time to ensure everyone is on the same page about what is happening. 

Here, then, is what your congregation needs to know: 

There’s a plan in place for who covers what pastoral responsibilities. Many church members worry about who will take care of ministerial functions when the pastor is away. Know that your minister has thought through all the details, hopefully in concert with other staff and lay leaders, and delegated the essentials to others in your congregation, a supply pastor and/or clergy peers in the area. 

Your pastor likely won’t be in direct communication with church members during the time away. If a sabbatical is truly to be rejuvenating, your minister won’t reach out to you or respond to your attempts at contact. This doesn’t mean your pastor doesn’t care. It simply signifies the minister’s recognition of the physical, emotional and spiritual load of pastoring and the desire to serve you better by coming back rested and excited. 

Your pastor probably won’t come home with a work product. When many people think “sabbatical,” they conjure up an image in which a professor takes a semester off from teaching to research or write for publication. That’s not what a ministry sabbatical is. (It’s also why more churches and denominations are moving more toward “renewal leave” language.) Instead, the job of a pastor is to reconnect more deeply with God, others and self during the time away. 

Just because your pastor has a sabbatical doesn’t mean she will leave. Some ministers are so crispy-fried when they get to sabbatical. Knowing this, a lot of churches build in a one-year clause to the sabbatical policy: the pastor must stay with our congregation for at least a year upon return. Most often, your ministers take sabbatical because they want to stay longer with you, and rest and rejuvenation make that possible. (Pro tip: make the time between sabbaticals shorter if you don’t want your pastor army-crawling toward sabbatical.) 

Don’t bombard your pastor as soon as he returns. There will be a lot to catch up on, and your minister knows that. But you don’t want to undo on day one back in the office all the good renewal your pastor has experienced. Trust that your minister will address the most important matters first, then work steadily toward all the other details in due time. 

Church members can grow as leaders while the pastor is gone. This is a big yet often overlooked point! Laypeople are gifted and capable. The minister’s sabbatical can be a chance for the laity to exercise some muscles for teaching, preaching, worship leadership and more that they usually don’t or can’t when the pastor is present. Who knows what you might discover about yourself, your discipleship and your vocation if you step into new-to-you roles? 

Sabbaticals can be good for everyone. Did you know that churches can take sabbaticals too? It’s true! Congregations can get tired, just like their pastors. (I think we are all still a bit fatigued coming out of the pandemic.) Maybe your church suspends all meetings except for the ones that absolutely must happen during the minister’s sabbatical. Maybe your congregation goes down to a single worship service or puts studies on hiatus. Because wouldn’t it be great if everyone was rejuvenated for mutual ministry once the sabbatical is over? 

Sabbaticals are a gift. If your church doesn’t provide one for the pastor, please consider writing a policy to make it so. It shows that the congregation knows how much time, energy and love the minister puts into the work. It inspires gratitude in the pastor. And it codifies in practice a theology of rest that we have in scripture from the earliest chapters of Genesis. God rested, so humans (all of us!) have the opportunity and even the responsibility to do so as well.   

Laura Stephens-Reed is a clergy and congregational coach based in Alabama. She has been credentialed as a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation and as a Certified Mentor Coach, and she sits on the faculty of two coach training schools. She has also been trained as a Congregational Consultant and an Intentional Interim Minister by the Center for Congregational Health.