|
Being Still: A Spiritual Gift for Ministry and Mission Effectiveness |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Angelique Walker-Smith |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2007 |
|
Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis, IN |
|
|
|
|
|
Angelique Walker-Smith recounts a sabbatical that underscored the importance of finding approaches that would more carefully define the difference between a focus on “the doing” of ministry tasks versus “the being” in ministry. Approaches that she calls “standing still” with God. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reflections on a Broken Sabbatical |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Walter Hermanns |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2007 |
|
Holy Communion Lutheran Church, Racine, Wisconsin |
|
|
|
|
|
Walter Hermanns offers a refreshing draft of insights into the possibilities and locales for ministry that he discovered unexpectedly from the vantage point of a wheelchair during his sabbatical. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sabbatical As Fitting Room — A Pastoral Paradigm
|
|
|
|
|
|
By:
James Lamkin |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2007 |
|
Northside Drive Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA |
|
|
|
|
|
After thirty-three years in the ordained ministry, James Lamkin offers three seminal pieces of his credo that can help other parish clergy pay attention to the emotional processes within their congregation. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It’s a Big Big Big Big Big Big Big World: Sacred Serendipities
|
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Marion Aldridge |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2006 |
|
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of South Carolina |
|
|
|
|
|
Marion Aldridge developed his sabbatical plans to ensure "scheduled shocks" that would help him attend to the voices of those in his church and culture that the Christian community has for too long ignored. In the process, he discovered a world beyond his comfort zone where the fresh winds of the Holy Spirit are blowing and Christians are called to minister. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Pilgrimage through Latin America |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Tom Smith |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2006 |
|
St. Rita Catholic Church, Louisville, KY |
|
|
|
|
|
Tom Smith discovered the experience of a pilgrim as he traveled in various Latin American countries in order to understand better the cultures and religious practice of his Hispanic immigrant parishioners and why they have chosen to immigrate to the United States. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dancing in the Sea |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Janet Wanner |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2006 |
|
Westlake Community Church of God, Indianapolis |
|
|
|
|
|
Janet Wanner describes how with the help of a group of writers she developed a plan for her sabbatical that allowed her to dance in a sea of practices beyond her “home” tradition and thereby enriched her relationship to God and her ministry in congregation and ecumenical settings. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reflections on Ministry |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Virginia Herring |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2006 |
|
Holy Trinity Church, Greensboro, North Carolina |
|
|
|
|
|
Virginia Herring recounts a pilgrimage with her daughters into Celtic spirituality that has taught her to “bless the more mundane parts of ordained life” as the ever new beginning of a desperately needed reconciling ministry. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clergy Renewal Programs (Part II): Renewal is Key to Pastors' Sabbaticals |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Tracy Schier |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2005 |
|
Lilly Endowment & the Louisville Institute |
|
|
|
|
|
This is the second of two articles about grants to religious leaders that allow them to take time away from their demanding lives in order to renew themselves spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually and in their personal relationships. This article highlights the experiences of several pastoral leaders who experienced sabbaticals. For more information and applications for the program on the web, see National Clergy Renewal Program. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clergy Renewal Programs (Part I): Taking Time to Renew Ministerial Vocations |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Tracy Schier |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2005 |
|
Lilly Endowment & the Louisville Institute |
|
|
|
|
|
This is the first of two articles examining programs that provide grants to religious leaders, allowing them to take time away from their demanding lives in order to renew themselves spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually and in their personal relationships. This article will focus on what the sabbaticals and clergy renewal grants programs are meant to accomplish, what promise they hold for persons who receive grants in the programs, what pitfalls should be avoided and what expectations should be. See National Clergy Renewal Program |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Integration of Preaching & Transformational Leadership |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Mariann Budde |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2005 |
|
St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, Minneapolis, MN |
|
|
|
|
|
Convinced that preaching is the primary spiritual discipline for parish leaders and yet must be connected to effective leadership in other dimensions of congregational life, Mariann Budde pursued two projects during her sabbatical. First she asked how preaching reflects the relationship between the congregation and preacher and can set a tone for spiritual exploration and adventure within the community. At the same time, she studied how large congregations are structured to encourage growth and transformation. Her discoveries, outlined in her reflections here, have led to an integration of her preaching with transformational leadership. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Clergy Sabbatical: God's 'Set Aside' for the Soul |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Lawrence Pray |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2005 |
|
First Congregational UCC, Big Timber, Montana |
|
|
|
|
|
Lawrence Pray compares his sabbatical experience as a “set-aside time” akin to the practice of farmers when they “set aside” certain parts of their acreage so that the earth can be renewed and provide in the future more plentiful harvests. He describes in detail the ways that he assisted his congregation in preparing for his departure and their assumption of full leadership in the congregation, and he offers an account of how the laity’s growth as spiritual leaders proved essential to the congregation and his own spiritual sustenance when upon his return from sabbatical he experienced a major stroke. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Waiting on Both Halves of the Soul: Ministry as Prose and as Poetry |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Vincent Rush |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2005 |
|
Saint Hugh of Lincoln Roman Catholic Church |
|
|
|
|
|
Vincent Rush observes that the life and work of the minister necessarily involves skills in two domains -- the fixed and constant world in which outcomes are definable and more or less subject to control and a contrasting world of allusion, symbol, story, parable, ritual and directionless play where outcomes always come as a gift. He discussses how a period of sabbatical proved essential to rebalancing these two sides of ministry which he calls "the prose and the poetry" of ministry. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Decalogue and Leadership |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Kevin Phillips |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2005 |
|
Saint Timothy's Episcopal Church |
|
|
|
|
|
Kevin Phillips draws on the insights of Martin Buber, John Macmurray and Daniel Elazar in order to show how the ten commandments apply outside of a religious setting. He then outlines a typology of leadership based on five root values expressed in the decalogue that he suggests has direct application in the forming of leaders who can foster creative, high functioning organizations. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reshaping Ministry in Light of My Sabbatical Experience |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Terrie Anderson |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2005 |
|
Family of Grace Lutheran Church |
|
|
|
|
|
Terrie Anderson notes that far too often we seek to give back to God a tithe of all we have while trying to make a difference in our world all by ourselves. But, she observes, it is only when we rest in God’s arms that we can fully experience the wonders of God moving in our lives. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Desert Experience |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Tracy Schier, Ann Helmke |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2005 |
|
The Peace Center, San Antonio, Texas |
|
|
|
|
|
Recounting the healing experience of her sabbatical, Ann Helmke asks, “When did much of the Church at-large abandon the sense and reality of Mystery? It is our heritage. Scripture is filled with countless accounts of ordinary people experiencing holy transformation and relationship in their lives. What are we afraid of? That others might call us fool? |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ministry's Journey Toward Mission |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Sherryl White |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2004 |
|
Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, Pennsylvania |
|
|
|
|
|
Sherryl White notes that “the challenge for ministerial health and holiness seems lightly tethered to a fragile equilibrium of intersecting orbits: (a) an attentive listening to what has been; (b) an active participation in the moment before me; and (c) a ready availability for what is yet to come.” But she asked: “How can I hold myself in a state of ready hope so as to be available to transformative invitations of future?” For her an answer came in “desert grace” during a sabbatical in the American southwest. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reshaping Ministry in the Light of a Pastors Working Group |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
William Buchanan |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2004 |
|
Fifteenth Avenue Missionary Baptist Church, Nashville, TN |
|
|
|
|
|
From his experience over thirteen months with an ecumenical group of pastors, William Buchanan finds hope for the church's future in the notion of "ambiguous vision" and direction for ministry in the inculcation of Christian practices generally and hospitality in particular. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Joyful Calling: Mentoring Young Adults for the Ministry |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Peter Luckey |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2004 |
|
Plymouth Congregational Church, Lawrence, Kansas |
|
|
|
|
|
Recognizing that no one is called to ministry without first being called by God, Peter Luckey proposes practical means by which congregations and religious leaders can plan their essential role of confirming and nurturing those called to serve and guide the church in the future. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Christian Unity: Local Movements & Congregational Implications |
|
|
|
|
|
By:
Paul Grabill |
|
|
|
Date on Website:
2004 |
|
State College Assembly of God, State College, PA |
|
|
|
|
|
Paul Grabill proposes that an emerging “City Church” movement may well bring about a “New Reformation” of American Protestantism by generating a transdenominational, relationally driven unity among Christian congregations at the local level. |
|
|
|
|
|
View this document |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|