Sabbatical: Frequently Asked Questions
Sabbatical FAQ’s
Hey North City Community- We wanted to answer some Frequently Asked Questions to help our community understand what a Pastoral sabbatical is, and hopefully answer some questions that arise from our pastors practicing it. If any questions aren’t answered here, feel free to ask them either to the leadership team or our Pastors Directly.
What is a pastoral sabbatical leave? In a phrase, it is “renewal by stepping away.” A sabbatical is much more intentional than a vacation. This is a time for the pastor(s) to be distanced from the demands of leadership, to gain fresh vision and energy, and to focus on comprehensive renewing, refreshing, and re-equipping for long-term ministry. A sabbatical typically includes time for travel, rest, prayer, and the broadening of one’s sense of God’s work in the world. It could be understood as an extension of the Sabbath practice (stopping, resting, delighting, and worshiping). It is time to pause, step back, and behold God and creation from a new perspective.
Why is this a good thing for pastors? Many pastors—and especially church planting pastors—can go and go and go. Though Pastors ChristianAnn and JD have healthy rhythms of sabbath and rest in their life, there is also a need for seasons of deep sabbath - stopping, resting, delighting, and worshiping (reorienting their life and leadership in God).
Why is this a good thing for our community? A sabbatical for the pastor does not have to be met with anxiety or church paralysis. The church is not its pastors. North City is a community of people on mission together (this is why we use the term “mission partner,” not member). A sabbatical can provide an opportunity for discovering new strengths for ministry within the congregation and watching authentic growth in individuals as they discover how their own particular gifts can benefit the church...even after the pastor’s return. North City has a strong conviction around the reality of the priesthood of all believers and the giftedness of the body of christ. A pastoral withdraw for renewal creates a space for growth in ownership and application of these values. Long term, the congregation should expect to benefit from renewed leadership through a pastor who is both physically and spiritually refreshed and who is aware of new developments and stimulated to more effective ministry.
Why now? The Larsons started to gather a core team and share and cultivate a vision for North City in the fall of 2018. This upcoming fall will be five years from NCC’s inception. For our community, this is a fragile but fertile moment. A Sabbatical is an opportunity to plant seeds of rest and renewal for our pastors and seeds of maturity for North City. Pastor JD & CA have communicated that the season is needed and right for them this summer, and we believe their temporary absence will create good steps of maturity for us as mission partners of North City. Logistically the summertime is a time that has some natural pause in it. Though our focus on engaging the neighborhood intensifies, a lot of our other ministry efforts subside. The summer is a time that works well with the Larson’s family calendar and how they rest, delight and renew. Pastor JD & ChristianAnn are Evangelical Covenant pastors and North City is an evangelical covenant church. One of the distinctive of the Covenant is its care for its pastors. Accordingly, they strongly recommend either a 6-week sabbatical every four years of ministry or a 12-week sabbatical every seven years. The Larsons have been in ministry for over a decade and in pastoral ministry since 2013 (CA) and 2015 (JD), respectively. This is their first sabbatical.
When will Pastor ChristianAnn and JD be practicing sabbatical? They will be away for 6 weeks: from June 26th- August 7th, 2023.
How is North City going to function? Pastors JD & CA are working with the Leadership team to put a plan in place to cover their responsibilities. This will include the preparation beforehand to ensure things are in place and plans are set. It also will require delegation. There are ways that the Leadership team and JD & CA are planning to invite Mission partners to cover some responsibilities. Our church is already set up in a way that does not demand as much as a typical church does from its pastors on a weekly basis. This is intentional; our church is ministering together, not just participating in what CA and JD are doing. Their ultimate aim is to equip our community to do the work of the ministry. This sabbatical will be one more way in which that happens.
Will JD & CA be at Community Dinner (men’s or women's group, micro church etc.)? No. Sabbatical is a time of intentionally stepping away from ministry responsibilities. Though they will miss the community, they will be taking time for renewal. Not only will this mean distance from weekly responsibilities it could provide an opportunity for them to visit other faith communities to gain perspective on their leadership of North City.
But it’s okay to talk to them, right? We will give JD & CA the distance they need as our pastors and simply treat them as JD & CA, part of our North City family. So if you see the Larsons in the community, please feel free to say hello as a friend and spiritual companion in Christ. Ask them about life or any other sort of topic that you would talk to a friend about. Remember, they are still part of our community! You can respect their sabbatical by not talking about church business or calling them because they are your pastors. If you need pastoral care, there will be a way to connect with the team in place to handle their responsibilities through texting, calling, or emailing the church.
What does it mean for the Larson family? Here is a note from Pastor JD & CA:
“We are so grateful for this opportunity to take a sabbatical. Sabbath, as many of you know, has been one of the most meaningful practices of connecting with God for our family. This is an extension of that. We plan to stop. Stop our striving, stop our leading, stop our planning (at least initially) and just celebrate and embrace who we are at this stage of our lives and who/what North City has become. We plan to rest. We are planning things that give us deep rest. This is an act of resistance to our egos - that we always need to lead to be loved or need to achieve to matter. Its an act of resistance against the career culture that seems to demand more and more and go go go. It's a protest and proclamation that God delights in us despite what we lead or produce. We plan to delight. We plan to savor the joy of our lives right now with each other as husband and wife, as parents to our kids, as friends and neighbors, and mostly as God’s kids. We plan to worship. We plan to forge new and deeper connections with God through a number of spiritual pathways that are meaningful to us (silence, solitude, contemplation, worship, study…). We have a hopeful expectation that new dreams, visions, and passion for our ministries will flow from this time. We are not alone on this journey. We are so grateful to the NCC community for supporting us in this, to the leadership and staff team for assisting in making it happen, and to our therapists, mentors, and spiritual directors who will be guides in the midst of the journey.”
Oh, no! Does this mean…? Whatever scary thing you might imagine, please believe it will not happen. Pastor JD & CA are not updating their resume for job searches or moving their family across the country. They are not ill. Their marriage is great, and their kids are as awesome as ever. Please consider their sabbatical to be a blessing for them, their family, and for North City. Let us anticipate with joy the work God will do, in their lives and our community.
Will anything be different after they come back? Yes, probably, but nothing to be fearful about. The Larsons will still be pastors of North City, but the hope is that they have changed, and the church has changed. How much and in what way we can’t say, that we submit to the Lordship of Jesus and the work of the Spirit. As you know, both CA and JD are bi-vocational and they share a 35hr/week pastor role, one that ebbs and flows in the proportion of responsibility. Starting fall of 2023 CA will be in a MFT fellowship along with her schooling. The number of pastoral hours that she will be dedicating to North City will shift because of this. She will have a narrower focus on leadership and teaching, and the leadership team will work with JD and CA to make a plan for how to re-allocate some of her responsibilities.