Hello
Emmanuel,
Before
I get into my topic for this week’s MMP, I want you to know we have a lot of
stuff coming up in the next few weeks.
Mother’s Day is Sunday and while it is important to celebrate the gift
of motherhood, it is also appropriate to understand the difficulties this day
represents for many women. We will
explore both sides because… well… God is on both sides.
May
12th - Karen Scherra,
Executive Director of Clermont County Mental Health & Recovery Board
will speak briefly on the issue of Heroine addiction in Clermont County.
May 19th is Pentecost. You are invited to wear red. We will also be welcoming new members to
Emmanuel! AND we will be blessing the
hands of any healthcare workers who are in attendance. They need their hands blessed. They care for a lot of people.
May 26th is Memorial Day
weekend. We will honor those who have
fallen so we can have freedom from oppression.
Also, the Youth will be sharing about their 30 hour famine.
Now for my topic: The Sabbatical, part 1….
The United Methodist Church encourages clergy
to take a sabbatical every 4 years. A
sabbatical is essentially a period of time during which the pastor takes off for
various reasons. In many cases,
sabbaticals are used for clergy to refresh, renew and get back in touch with
their Call to ministry. Sabbaticals can
also be used to pursue education, to help recover from serious illness or other
needs that require extended time off.
They can also be as short as a few weeks or as long as a year.
I am in my 17th year of ministry and
have never had a sabbatical. Obviously I’m
not a huge fan of them. There’s the
egotistical side of me that is convinced the church would simply disintegrate if
I took extended time off. I know this
isn’t true at Emmanuel, but it helps me feel important in any case. And, yes, I know the church has been around
2,000 years, most of it happening without me.
Therefore, my argument is a weak one…… so…..
With the encouragement of the Staff-Parish
Relations Team (that’s a nice way of saying they are pushy), I am taking a
sabbatical from July 1st through August 11th. There are a few different reasons why this is
good timing:
First,
quite frankly, I need rest. I don’t
admit this easily. In normal
circumstances I would see no need for a sabbatical of rest. However, the good news is that I’m not in a
normal circumstance. As far as churches
go, Emmanuel is a high energy, fast paced church that has a crowded calendar
and relatively fast growth in numbers and spirit (i.e. the first few paragraphs
of this article which only lists events in the area of worship, never mind the
other 11 ministry teams). Change
happened fast at Emmanuel and my work pace has had to multiply in speed to make
sure Emmanuel stayed healthy through it all (particularly in the first 2 years
of me arriving here). Emmanuel is
healthy. I am overjoyed. I am also tired.
Second,
it is time to revision. Most of you are
familiar with the Discipleship Pathway (circle chart). It is a pathway that has allowed us to grow
and develop into a healthier church. We
have approached a size in which the circle chart has challenged the
organizational structure of the church.
I’ll elaborate on this in another MMP, but to put simply, our leadership
structure is being stretched to handle the quantity of ministry that is being
implemented. We need to reorganize how
we dream, plan, and evaluate so that we can have room for more growth. Otherwise, we could stagnate in ministry and
a stagnating church is not a healthy church.
I need to figure out how to get this done to give the church the best
opportunity to continue ‘making disciples of Jesus Christ’.
Third,
and finally, I need to consider how to re-invent myself. I can only say the same joke so many times or
tell the same story so many times. While
I personally have tried to branch out and stay creative and fresh, I have also
found that, based on my previous 2 appointments, I have about 4 years-worth of
material. Add to the fact that Emmanuel
is entering territory in which I have never experienced. Emmanuel is about to face challenges I have
never helped a church face. I better
stay ahead of the curve. The
effectiveness of my leadership depends on it.
This sabbatical will give me a chance to spend time with other churches
and learn from them.
I
will be writing and speaking about this impending sabbatical in the weeks ahead
because I know it can be a nervous time for us.
Work is being done to prepare for those six weeks too. However, if you have questions in the
meantime, feel free to talk to me or Bill Maskiell (chair of SPRC) or Vicki
Hensley (Lay Leader) about it. They are
smart people (and pushy).
2013
can possibly be a real positive fork-in-the-road for Emmanuel. Let’s be ready for it.
God
is Good,
Pastor
Joe
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