This is an excerpt from my soon to be published Clergy Spiritual Health. It is part of a nine-volume series Healthy Clergy Make Healthy Congregations.
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LET THE PLANNING BEGIN
First
Find information on how to apply for a grant to help pay for your sabbatical. Go to Lilly Foundation and look for their clergy sabbatical grant program. If you get one of these, they even provide some money for your church to cover extra expenses during your Sabbatical.
Go also to the Louisville Institute and look at their grant programs. There are probably other grant programs that can assist you. Do a little research on your computer.
Second
Talk to your judicatory executive and someone on a committee charged with care for clergy. Ask how the judicatory can help with your sabbatical. Also, ask who the clergy are in the area who have been creative in planning sabbaticals? Having several conversations with such people would be good.
Third,
Take your wife out for a nice meal and talk to her about what creative activities would be refreshing for you both during this sabbatical. Sabbaticals should not be all work—they are to be restorative both for you and your family.
I had a sabbatical in which my whole family took a road-trip across the country, and we stayed in a small apartment in San Francisco Seminary. Part of our commitment was that every week we would enjoy a family event.
Fourth
Several months before the sabbatical, form a task force of some leaders in your church to plan together how the church might organize during your sabbatical but also how the church might benefit from the sabbatical. Explore how the congregation might engage in her own sabbatical activities.
Fifth
Part of planning is to listen more deeply to God about how a sabbatical can nurture your spirit and listen more closely to God’s call in your life. Take some time to simply listen to the Spirit talking to you about how this sabbatical might develop.
Sixth
In addition to some good books about planning a sabbatical, you might go to my Blog: www.smccutchan.com and search for some blogs I have done about sabbaticals.
Seventh
Sabbaticals are for spiritual, physical and relational refreshment. Have a conversation with your family about what activities you might build into your sabbatical that would energize them as well.
This is just the beginning of your planning. Allow yourself to think in creative ways and engage in conversations that might stimulate your thinking.
