5 Steps to Your First Sabbatical

If done well, a pastor’s sabbatical will glorify God as they come back eager to be a blessing to their family, church, and community.

By Mark Dance

According to Lifeway’s Greatest Needs of Pastors study, 45% of pastors say they struggle with consistently resting. Ministry fatigue is perhaps the most common struggle I hear pastors talking about. More pastors would experience a longer and healthier ministry if they consistently practiced both sabbath and sabbaticals.

Sabbaticals are more of a supplement to a sabbath lifestyle than a substitute or a shortcut. I’m convinced every pastor needs a sabbatical at least every five to seven years. Many never ask for one because they don’t know how or don’t think they need one. But it may be within reach if you do it well. If done poorly, however, you could be sabotaging chances for yourself as well as other pastors behind you in that church.

Here are five steps I encourage pastors to use to help their church implement sabbaticals.

1. Set realistic expectations

You will come back refreshed

Jesus regularly pulled away from the field for rest after heavy seasons of ministry, as did many leaders in the Old Testament. We also see King David seeking rest after an exhausting season of conflict in his family and kingdom.

So David and his men proceeded along the road as Shimei was going along the ridge of the hill opposite him. As Shimei went, he cursed David, threw stones at him, and kicked up dust. Finally, the king and all the people with him arrived exhausted, so they rested there.” — 2 Samuel 16:13-14, CSB

You will come back refocused

Some pastors are forced into a sabbatical because they stalled spiritually or spiraled emotionally. These feel more punitive in nature, like a mandatory time-out for bad behavior. If that’s your situation, God may use this time away to turn your strut into a limp.

A preferred scenario is proactive in nature. God uses sabbaticals to sharpen our focus and vision for the next season of ministry. You may experience a brand-new vision or have your current vision clarified and reinforced. Moses returned from the mountaintop with a veil, a couple of tablets, and a passion that only comes from extended time in God’s presence.

“God uses sabbaticals to sharpen our focus and vision for the next season of ministry.” — @markdance Share on X

You will come back responsibly

Responsible pastors won’t try to make up for lost time by playing catch up at a feverish pitch. A pastor recently told me his lead pastor came back from a sabbatical with a torrent of new ideas he expected to be implemented immediately. In this case, don’t be like the angry Moses who tossed the tablets and struck the rock. Your staff will be excited for you, but they may also be exhausted from picking up your slack.

2. Walk patiently through the process

Sabbaticals can be awkward for both pastors and churches. Outside of the world of academia, you can pretty much assume few understand, much less care about, granting you a sabbatical. This can be changed, just not easily or quickly, because they have no personal point of reference.

Start by finding an advocate to champion your sabbatical for you. Be careful to make sure you both understand and respect the appropriate channels of approval. If your church already has a sabbatical process, follow that process respectfully and improve it later, if necessary.

Sabbatical requests need to be made before the annual budget is finalized so staff won’t ask for unbudgeted money mid-year. If you show up in the middle of a budget year with a half-baked plan, don’t expect everyone to get excited about it.

3. Articulate the purpose

Sabbaticals need to be more than ministry vacations, or they will build more resentment than momentum. In my last two churches, I helped members get their minds around a sabbatical by referring to it also as a “ministry project.” Make it easy to understand since people associate sabbatical with sabbath, which simply means “to stop; cease striving.”

Clarify the obvious wins for you and your church. Is there a book or ministry initiative you need to do some off-site research on?

If your sabbatical is a response to ministry burnout, tell them how you plan on getting healthier spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

4. Clarify specific goals

Communicate your specific goals during the application process, then afterward come back and share how you achieved those goals. Much of what happens on a sabbatical is not goal-oriented or measurable, but do your best to communicate what you are hoping to accomplish and why.

“Much of what happens on a sabbatical is not goal-oriented or measurable, but do your best to communicate what you are hoping to accomplish and why.” — @markdance Share on X

I spent my first sabbatical interviewing 12 pastors about church growth and relocations because we were in the middle of both. In retrospect, I should have dialed that down to a handful of interviews and spent more time resting and refocusing, which is what I did the last week. The fact is, I didn’t realize how exhausted I was at the time.

During my second sabbatical, I spent weekdays in remote Arkansas cabins reading, resting, and writing a sermon series which would plant the seeds for a book. I preached those sermons immediately after returning. I would commend you to invest more time into soul care and rest than I did on my first sabbatical.

5. Express genuine appreciation

For those fortunate enough to get a sabbatical, you should realize you received a gift, not a reward. Don’t say you deserve it, because the Bible doesn’t require it. Instead, be intentional to say “thank you” before, during, and after the sabbatical. This will help guard your heart from entitlement.

Be prepared to get less than you initially ask for. Three months is too much to ask from a church with no history of sabbaticals. Another popular alternative or addition to a conventional sabbatical plan is an annual summer sabbatical every July.

Here’s the plan I used for my staff that you can use as a starting point.

Sample first sabbatical plan

• Pastoral ministry staff only
• Eligible after every five or seven full years of service
• Six weeks with the full salary and benefits
• A special project in their field of service, requested in writing
• Considered on a case-by-case basis (can be rejected/amended)
• Approved by lead pastor, finance, and personnel committees
• Set budget for reimbursement of expenses
• Applications to be made 90 days prior to sabbatical
• Guest preaching expenses included in sabbatical budget
• Conclude with a formal written and oral report

My prayer is God will prepare you and your church for this important investment in your long-term soul care. If done well, your sabbatical will glorify God as you come back eager to be a blessing to your family, church, and community.

For permission to republish this article, contact Marissa Postell Sullivan.