That's Not A Sabbatical
When a pastor takes extended time off that's unscheduled and on an emergency basis, it's not a sabbatical, even though that’s what it's often called.
NOTE: I plan to share many personal stories about my experiences in ministry. To be clear, the goal is not to collect sympathy and warm hugs. What I’m sharing happened a long time ago. I have processed and recovered.
The point is that these are common experiences for pastors. With that in mind, please take the following from these stories:
Assume your pastor is facing challenges of similar intensity that he can't share with you.
Pray for the protection of his heart and soul as he navigates these challenges.
I hope you’ll better understand the pastoral experience and support your pastor - not blindly as if he is perfect, but biblically because he is not. He needs care, support, encouragement, protection, and correction just like you do.
The Burnout
I was a few years in and I was struggling. Those early years had been filled with learning and growth, but also hard experiences of attack at the hands of church members and other leaders. (I recently described some of these experiences here.)
It was January and we were in Mexico on vacation with our girls who were 13, 11, and 9 at the time. I was probably already experiencing burnout even though I couldn’t identify it.
At the resort breakfast table one morning, a church elder called. I answered, thinking it must be some emergency—perhaps a sudden death in the church family. It wasn’t; it was something far more mundane. It wasn’t an issue I needed to do something about, but it was enough to stir up the anxiety I had tried to leave back home.
I remember asking him why he would call me while I was on vacation with my family. His blunt response was, “I work on my vacations. You can too.” I struggled to enjoy the rest of our vacation.
By July of that year, I was fully burned out and struggling to function. This was due not only to numerous similar interactions but to my own tendency to overwork while taking too little time to rest and recharge. I came to a breaking point.
We Called It A Sabbatical
At a meeting with the elders, I broke down in tears. I poured my heart out about my pain and exhaustion. I was dealing with the regular duties of a Lead Pastor plus an intractable conflict with another pastor, while also offering consistent emergency care for a congregant who was in the midst of a serious mental health crisis.
Through tears, I mustered enough courage to say, “I don't think I can keep going. I'm going to need some time off.”
I was approved for an indefinite leave that ended up being eight weeks. I went to see our family doctor, met with my counsellor weekly, dialed in my physical fitness, and did all the hard work that I needed to do to recover. I returned with a new resilience and learned to correct my habit of overworking and taking on more than I could handle.
We called it a sabbatical. A few years later, when I better understood the meaning and purpose of a sabbatical, I realized that’s not what it was. It was emergency stress leave.
Distortion
My experience is common among pastors.
Our view of sabbaticals in the Evangelical church is distorted. When a pastor takes extended time off that's unscheduled and on an emergency basis, it's not a sabbatical, even though that’s what it's often called.
We have good intentions, but we’ve become skeptical. Out of this skepticism, sabbaticals have become a hodgepodge of helpfulness and hesitation. Too often, a sabbatical is prescribed when all other options have been exhausted—a last-ditch effort to pull a pastor out of a tailspin.
The evidence of this fact is policies like this one that I found in my files:
“It is expected that a person receiving a sabbatical will return to the ministry left behind… for a minimum of one year. Persons failing to complete this minimum requirement are required to pay back half of the salary received during the sabbatical and forfeit any accumulated severance benefits.”
The document that paragraph came from is full of wisdom about the purpose and need for sabbaticals, but this section near the end is an inserted safeguard. And I know why it’s there.
Last Ditch Effort
Too many exhausted pastors take a sabbatical, discover it’s not the fix, and resign shortly after returning. After a few bad experiences with pastors leaving, churches and denominations hesitate to offer sabbaticals, and if they do, clauses are added to ensure a pastor returns to his post for a prescribed length of time.
No one benefits from this type of requirement. If a pastor is struggling and unsure he can continue even after a “sabbatical,” this policy will deter him from getting the rest he needs. If a pastor seeks God during a sabbatical and hears a genuine call to another assignment, he’ll be financially penalized if he responds to the call.
(If some pastors intentionally use a sabbatical as a "final benefit" before leaving, that's wrong too. I'm not personally aware of a single case of that happening, although I can see how it might happen.)
From our perspective as pastors, we have to do better with this. Better with daily rhythms, better with a weekly sabbath, better at taking the vacation time offered, and better with extended times of rest.
What’s Your Experience?
I’ll write more about the need for sabbaticals and my experiences, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Feel free to leave a comment below or send me a direct message.
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Michael Krahn is a pastor, the husband of Anne Marie, and the father of Madeleine, Olivia, and Sophia. Make a connection on Facebook, X, or Instagram.