Rest of the Summer

Journey along with me this summer:

After 14+ years serving at Green Valley Church, I have the opportunity to enjoy a second sabbatical (my first one was about 7 years ago). I will be gone for six weeks of sabbatical and two weeks of vacation starting June 18.

I'm really excited about participatng in Pastors on Point which is a story-based discovery process that unpacks a person’s satisfying achievements from throughout their life to uncover their essential “operating system” in terms of energizing circumstances, gifts and motivated abilities, engaging subject matter, ideal roles and even overall purpose in work and life.

I'm also thrilled because I'll be able to lead a group from our church to Scotland, England, and France. I also plan to read, reflect, and visit several churches and talk with godly mentors.

My objectives:

• To experience a mid-ministry tune up, recharge, and refocusing as I enter my second set of 15 years as a lead pastor.

• To better understand and appreciate my strengths and implement a plan to leverage them for greater effectiveness in ministry and life.

• To better understand my stress points and implement a plan to minimize them for greater effectiveness in ministry and life.

• To include my wife, Cindy, in the discovery process.

Here's a cool quote I relate to: Speaking of the sabbatical his church gave him, Pastor Mark Buchanan writes:

“No, I don’t deserve it. Like being born in peacetime and not war, like being forgiven, or kissed, or told you have beautiful eyes. I never earned a minute of it. I don’t deserve a scrap of it. But I feel deeply obliged to the people in my church who have allowed me it. Obliged, not to come back smarter, or thinner, or more eloquent, or more studied up, though all of that could help. The obligation I feel is not to pay them back. These things don’t work that way, on some barter system where the church trades several months of leave in exchange for shorter, pithier sermons. The obligation I feel, rather, is to come back restored.”

Here’s how you can track with me:

Read with me. I've selected The Rest of God; Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath, by Mark Buchanan, as the book I'd like people to read along with me. Mark Buchanan has been described as the "best new Christian author you’ve never heard of." You can get your copy at the usual places: ISBN-10:0849918707.

For extra credit (or if you just like to read good books), I'm also reading the following books;

The Sabbath– Abraham Joshua Heschel
Church Unique – Will Mancini
The Reformed Pastor – Richard Baxter
Hidden in Plain Sight – Mark Buchanan
Why We’re Not Emergent (by Two Guys who Should Be) – Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
Cure for the Common Life – Max Lucado


Blog with me. Check back her often as I will be chronicling my experiences and reflections.


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