Pastor, how about a month off?

"You bet," sayeth most all of us at one time or another.

Ah sabbaticals. I'm on one now but had to retire to get it. The usual route to a sabbatical for most of us is to (a) resign, (b) get fired, or (c) retire.

Back in 1999 Baptist Press did a piece on a small town, average sized church pastor who took a sabbatical. It was a story most of us could identify with:

“I was not overworked; the church was not asking too much of me. That was not the problem,” he said. “The problem was that I needed a freshness of purpose in my life and in the church’s life.”

The solution agreed upon was five weeks off, unheard of among SBC churches unless the church is a mega or large church.

I like the concept but am not certain that many churches would grasp it.

I can hear the conversation now,

"Brethren, I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted" the pastor might explain to the deacons, "could we work out a sabbatical, a month or so when I could be away?"

"But pastor," one of the deacons might respond, "you only work one day  a week anyway. How could you be exhausted?"

Megachurch pastors can be exhaused. Large church pastors can be thought to deserve a sabbatical every few years. But average sized churches? Probably not.

Bring up the idea of ministry burnout to your church and you're probably toast in their minds from that point on.

Be open and vulnerable and disclose that you are mildly depressed to the church and you are likely viewed as damaged goods to them, worthy of whispers in the hallways.

 Bryant Wright is on sabbatical right now. I don't begrudge him that.

Johnny Hunt gets every August off and two years ago notably extended that through mid-September.

I'm guessing that average sized and smaller churches do not love their pastor any less than a megachurch loves theirs but I'd speculate that smaller churches would look askance at a request for a sabbatical.

Here is one smaller church pastor's story:

On June 4, 2006, I drove to the church for evening worship intending to announce my resignation.  After 21 years as a pastor, and 27 years in professional ministry, I had hit a wall.  I was not only exhausted; I was empty.  My faith had not wavered, nor had my commitment to ministry or my church.  Like a car that had run out of gas, I just stopped.  Fortunately, by the time I pulled into the parking lot, I had reasoned myself out of such a drastic act.  When pastors run out of steam, they generally do one of three things:  they move to another church; they get sick; or they do something stupid.  I came very close to my stupid!  Instead of resigning, I walked into the service and announced that I was prepared to teach, but I was unable to teach, and that I would see them next week.  The congregation witnessed what I had been fearfully anticipating for several years – a total shutdown

His church gave him five weeks off.

Many pastors could identify with the problem, depression, burnout, shutdown, but few could identify with the solution, a sabbatical.

One of the ways that associational missionaries, state convention workers, denominational press, and SBC leaders could help the tens of thousands of workaday, average church, average pastors is to regularly promote the concept of an occasional sabbatical even in smaller churches.

Money is tight all around at every SBC level but I bet that there would be a lot less profitable ways for state conventions to budget money than to put a sum aside for grants to churches who wanted or needed to give their pastor a month or so sabbatical. This would give the idea a modest push among smaller churches.

I can envision a state convention program whereby churches were told, "We will fill your pulpit at no cost to you if you give your pastor a sabbatical month off." State conventions and associations would benefit by having an extended opportunity to share some of their work in a church over an extended period. Such an incentive would be persuasive to many churches who fret over finances and supply honoraria if the pastor is out.

In the past I have been pessimistic about the idea of sabbaticals being realistic in average and smaller sized SBC churches but I think it is doable and is certainly worth encouraging.

Some pastors might need to start thinking and praying about it, although you could just act like a fighter pilot and stubbornly believe that others may crash and burn but not you, you've got the right stuff.

I wouldn't risk it.

Chronic Clergy Complaining Syndrome

I love the brethren, my ministerial colleagues, fellow soldiers of the Lord, partners in our common calling of pastoral ministry; however, there is a malady that is common only to us: Chronic Clergy Complaining Syndrome (I recognize that my brethren have an unnatural and perhaps unhealthy love for alliteration and am happy to feed their addiction). Perhaps you have seen it, or, had it.

I haven't overlooked that the data show that "clergy rank among the highest rates of obesity, depression, high blood pressure and adult-onset diabetes when compared to other professions" (from an informative Associated Baptist Press article here) and acknowledge that many of the brethren seem to lack the ability to manage their job tasks with the result that they are frustrated, unsatisfied, and unhealthy.

Nonetheless, I have heard enough to have identify three areas where I believe that our church members and others might consider us to be, well, whining about our calling. See if you recognize these. Disagree if you wish. Feel free to try and convince me I am wrong in my assessment here. Perhaps I am.

Pastoral ministry is extraordinarily stressful, moreso that other occupations.

It can be. It might be. There are unhealthy churches and the brethren might be advised not to tarry too long in those. But setting ourselves and our ministry as exceeding all others in job demands and stress probably isn't realistic.

Pastors do endure the complaints of members, their unrealistic expectations, the pressures of being a pastor of a church, the emotional toll of hearing peoples’ difficulties, and of dealing with folks in the crises of their lives.
There is some truth to this but one might compare clergy to other ‘helping’ professions – nursing, hospice care, and the like. The truth is that since we deal with people, we deal with all of life events for our people – the joys and the sorrows.

If the Lord isn’t sufficient in the life of the pastor as he ministers to others, perhaps another occupation would be better; regardless, I rather think that the average layperson responds with half an eye roll when his pastors talks about how hard it is.

Preaching a sermon is like working an eight hour day.

Oh, please. Please, please, please don’t try this one on your congregation. You may get plumb tuckered out by a thirty minute sermon on Sunday morning but don’t tell the guy who manages a restaurant and works a 80 hour week how hard it is. Laypeople give a full eye roll to this old saw.

I’m underpaid for the level of my education.

No you are not. You are paid what the market considers you to be worth. Sure, your MDiv is worth less in the marketplace than a BSN, or an MBA even though it may have required more credit hours but none of us have the right to expect to be compensated commensurately with our education. You should have gone into a field where a degree and skills obtained thereby translates readily into money. An MDiv should make you a better minister and therefore has value even if the value is not expressed by increased compensation.

Plodder’s suggestions to help the brethren avoid unbecoming whinefests:

1. If you think preaching a 30 minute sermon is like working an eight hour day, take a nap on Sunday afternoon.
2. If you think you are underpaid, find a better paying occupation. You are in an occupation you chose. No one forced you into it.
3. Talk to some eightysomething retired pastors about compensation and other job related matters.
4. Figure out a way to be paid a dollar every time someone says, “I wouldn’t want your job.”
5. Thank Jesus for your high calling.

Hope this helps.