It's nearly here!

 

I'm nearly on sabbatical. 😇

I thought a blog would be a good place for people to keep up with what I'm doing on my sabbatical.  I did it for my last sabbatical in 2010 and my church members then found it useful.

For those who don't know what a sabbatical is - it's a gift to Ministers within churches for a time to refresh, recharge and be renewed. In the United Reformed Church it's given for 12 weeks every decade. 

I read this about sabbaticals: 

"One definition of a sabbatical is, “an extended period of time offered to key leaders by the organization to equip the organization for the next season of opportunity by enhancing the leader’s skills”. This is done by providing a space away from the “tyranny of the urgent” for renewal, strategic thinking, and personal change. A sabbatical is a time for rest, study, and renewal."

So it's a 3 month period when I won't be at church, in contact with church people, leading worship etc...

And the URC asks I spend my time studying something of interest, resting and recharging my spiritual batteries.  I'm hoping there will also be fun in there!

I'm looking at evangelism at Christmas.  I'm convinced that Christmas is still one of the best opportunities to have a "captive audience" with people who don't usually come to church who are in the habit of doing so at Christmas. So I'm deliberately trying to find churches that do that well. Asking what they do, what's the attitude and those behind that, is there a church culture that enables that to happen throughout the year and what can we learn from them. 

I'm hoping to visit a variety of different sorts of churches, not just URC and see what outreach they do. Interviewing the leadership/evangelism teams beforehand, visiting in person what things I can (knowing that lots will be on the same dates so i can't get to everything!) and finding out how they went in January. 

I'll be reading some great books, going to the Evangelists Conference in January and living at a different Christmas pace than I've ever done since our daughter was born 17 years ago - since I've been a Minister for 21 years!

I'll be sharing what I'm doing along the way... come and check in and see!