I was raised as a PK in the Church of God. Our family took vacations — we would miss a Sunday or two during the summer & a Sunday during the Holidays. My dad retired from ministry in the 90’s. Since 2011, we have attended two non-denominational churches — one for almost eight years & this one now for going on three years. In both churches the pastors have taken extended sabbaticals during the summer & throughout the year, the pastor is present about eight months out of twelve.
I had this conversation with someone from a Methodist church recently. He was telling me his pastor received a three month sabbatical. Wow________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
How many of our pastors are bivocational? This adds stress and pressure to the ones already present in the pastorate.Camp meeting isn’t vacation.Working youth camp isn’t vacation.Sometimes even vacation isn’t vacation.Want to know the truth? Far too many of us have never learned to relax and deal with stress. The idea of sabbatical is a good idea on paper but in all honesty, it’s just too impractical for the largest percentage of our pastors and churches________________
Most COG churches don’t have the leadership infrastructure to support a month(s) long sabbatical. Most COG churches don’t have the financial resources to fund such an endeavor either. To pay a pastor’s salary and also financial remuneration for pulpit supply would put a major strain on our smaller churches. Let’s face another fact. We don’t do well with leadership vacuums. Many of our churches are built around the charisma of the senior pastor. In addition to his preaching ministry, he does most of the hands-on ministry as well. I’m not saying this is biblical at all.
Is it actually vacation or is he ministering in other venues? I attend a large church as well and yes my pastor takes off a number of times a year, but I know at least half of those are in leading seminars and such that he really enjoys doing. Just curious. My pastor (and our shared pastor for most of the 80s/90s if you are who I think you are), worked way too hard sometimes and having lived across the street from him for a while I know he didn’t get 2 days a week off like most of us non-pastors. But they don’t make them like that anymore I don’t think, he (and your dad) was a tough old bird.
Comments of RR and Da Sheik are spot on. I was raised as a PK. As a family we NEVER had a vacation where a motel or Hotel was used except for the General Assembly.He treated ‘His People’ like family.Dad considered Camp Meeting as a vacation and ‘filling station’ (his words). If dad had a fault it was putting the church above his family. Right or wrong, he still raised an over all well rounded family.He would take us into the mountains and ‘camp’. Meaning mom and dad slept in the car the kids outside on the ground in blankets. It was always mon/Tuesday or Thurs/Fri. LO________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/