How Sabbaticals Can Revive Church Workers and Strengthen Your Congregation

These days, everyone is looking for rest. The world around us gets busier and busier, and people rush from one thing to the next. The truth is that many people are busy being busy.

Author Kevin DeYoung wrote, “Busyness is like sin: kill it, or it will be killing you… Just remember the most serious threats are spiritual. When we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk. The challenge is not merely to make a few bad habits go away. The challenge is to not let our spiritual lives slip away.” This advice applies to all of us, but especially church workers.

Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27–28). Sabbath, and rest in general, is a gift from God. He created us with the need for rest. Studies show how lack of physical rest wears on a human body creating mental, physical, emotional and spiritual disease. Church workers aren’t exempt.

In his book Resilient Ministry, Bob Burns quotes a pastor who says, “I feel like Frodo. In the “Fellowship of the Ring,” he’s talking to Gandalf and says, ‘I feel like butter spread over too much bread.’ I just feel like I’m tired and running on fumes.”

The church is currently in the midst of a crisis, facing a growing shortage of church workers who are considering the call of God into ministry professions. The provision of sabbatical time for these workers could be the tipping point in this critical situation.

The need for ministry sabbaticals is not a new concept. It has a rich precedent in the early history of the LCMS. In fact, a compelling case can be made for how a sabbatical not only saved the future of a beloved pastor but also the future of the LCMS. C.F.W. Walther, a revered figure in the church, wore many hats throughout his ministry, serving as the first president of the LCMS and as the President of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. His love was serving as pastor at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran in St. Louis from 1841 until his death.

Around the year 1859, the strenuous workload began wearing on Walther. While he was between terms as president of the Synod, Walther was still incredibly busy. It was during this time he had a mental breakdown, overwhelmed with ministry and life. How easy it would have been for his congregation to dismiss him and send him away quietly. Instead, they saw a dedicated servant, broken and tired. They came to him in love and sent him to Germany for a sabbatical. God brought healing and renewed Walther, and he returned a new man. In 1864, he served the Synod as president again and was more productive than before. Renewed, Walther would later write The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, a transcription of a series of lectures he gave at the seminary, which is still used today.

Ministry sabbaticals offer church workers a specific opportunity to rest and be renewed. Hence, they can return to God’s calling with new vigor and energy. It also allows a ministry to honor and support God’s servant. It is an investment in both the ministry and God’s servant. We know the need to recharge a cell phone if you want it to serve well. Similarly, when church workers’ batteries are recharged, they will be better equipped to serve well.