When Sabbatical Reveals What You Built is Broken

A funny thing happens when you go away on a four-month Sabbatical.

You experience a time of rest and spiritual renewal. God speaks to you in new and fresh ways. You learn, you grow, and you lean into new rhythms of following Jesus.

And while you're gone, your church grows, hears from other preachers, hears God in new and fresh ways, and continues many of the rhythms you created in your role as pastor.

Then we all get back together and sort through all that God has done during the time of the Sabbatical.

And then BANG! That's when it happens. As the pastor, you notice something in the ministry that you REALLY, REALLY don't like. And then you kind of have to smile and laugh, because what you don't like is something that you passionately created and built into the life of the church years ago!

Maybe that doesn't sound all that funny to you. It sure does to me.

I was warned about this possibility during my Sabbatical preparation. I spoke with several pastors to learn from them about their experiences with Sabbaticals. I was particularly interested in hearing about their re-entry into the life of the church and leadership after being away for such a long time.

This issue was mentioned more than once! By small and large church pastors. Renewal has a funny way of showing us our ministries in a new light.

Now, this isn't a bad thing at all! In fact, I find this to be an incredible blessing and a source of excitement to see what God wants to do about this.

But it can be a time that kicks you in the ego!

How is it that you can be in a ministry for such a long time and not notice this?

Or what if it's an issue that is still lingering because you haven't had the boldness or courage to face it, and hoped it would just go away?

Whatever the case may be, this could, if you're not careful, be a time of missing out on what God wants to reveal and grow in your ministry.

As I'm just beginning in this, here are three things I'm making sure I do. Maybe this will help you as well.

Accept Responsibility

I don't think it's just me, but there does seem to be a growing trend across leadership spheres where individuals evade accountability and blame others instead. Organizations prioritize reputation protection over authentic admission, resulting in leaders avoiding responsibility to "control the narrative."

I wish I could say this never happens in the church world, but sadly, that's just not the case.

Too often, we find leaders when confronted with a mistake they made, just double down and fight tooth and nail to defend themselves, rather than admit any fault.

Coming back from Sabbatical, like I mentioned earlier, I've begun to notice a few things that I'm not thrilled about in our ministry. It's not bad or heretical. Nothing like that. I'm just not happy with it.

Some of it I built. Some of it I indirectly built by allowing things to continue that I could have stopped.

Here's my role in this: Accept this responsibility. 

I can't blame the congregation. "Oh, if these Christians would just blah blah blah..."

I can't blame other leaders. "Oh, if I just had leaders who would blah blah blah..."

I can't blame the culture. "Oh, if we only didn't live in this day and age, blah blah blab..."

I can only look at my leadership. Why did I make the decision that I made? Was it done with the information that I had at that time? Was it done to avoid or ignore something I didn't want to deal with?

I must accept my responsibility for it. That's it. That's where transformation starts.

Next comes the tricky part...

Reject Condemnation

When you notice that you have something in your ministry that you intentionally or unintentionally created, a small voice starts to whisper in your ear.

The voice says things like, "How stupid are you?", "You're such a coward!", "A better pastor would have dealt with this sooner."

I'm sure you recognize that for the voice that it is. That is not the voice of your heavenly Father. That is the voice of the Father of lies! Our spiritual enemy wants to simply kill, steal, and destroy everything about your ministry and your relationship with God.

Condemnation can come easily to those in leadership. After all, most of us are our very worst critics!

But that's not how God wants to bring renewal and change in your ministry.

Beating ourselves up, giving in to condemnation, doesn't do anything but give the devil a victory.

It is possible, during the accept responsibility phase, you may have to seek forgiveness for something you've allowed to continue too long. You may have to renounce a lie from the enemy you have believed. You may even have to apologize for something you did. That's OK. None of that is condemnation. That Christian humility is playing out in your leadership. 

And that's very sweet to experience!

Now, finally...

Start Making Changes, Slowly

Now, take a deep breath, and don't feel like anything needs to change by next Sunday.

What you've built that may now be broken took time to happen, and it will take time to seek what God wants to bring to that area of ministry.

People in the congregation may still LOVE what you now HATE. That's Ok. You had your Sabbatical to work through some things. 

Start praying, listen to the Father. He knows where he wants to bring your ministry. Trust and enjoy the process of renewal in your ministry.

So...

A funny thing happens when you go on Sabbatical.

God still does what God does.

He moves and transforms people for his glory and to see more people come to know him and the saving love of Jesus!

Oh... and if you're from my church and wondering what it is about my ministry that I now no longer like...

Don't worry. I'll start changing things slowly, you'll barely notice :)