As part of the rhythm of ministry at our church, we are given the opportunity to request up to 3 months sabbatical every 7 years for the purpose of resting and to be renewed for the next season of ministry.

Over the last year and a half I have had conversations with dozens of people about the potential and possibility of sabbatical. I have been fascinated to hear from those who have experienced long-term sabbatical as well as from those who wish they could but have never had the chance. Over and over I’ve heard this: “Wow – what a gift!”

So.. what does sabbatical look like for me? Great question. Usually the first question I get when people find out I’m taking sabbatical is “What are you going to do while you’re off?” Although I’ve worked with the elders to develop a plan for my sabbatical, the truth is that I’m going to do as little as possible. To replace a rhythm of work with a rhythm of different work is not the point. I don’t want to go back to work exhausted from 3 months of being a different kind of busy.

For a pretty thorough discussion of sabbatical, my church’s sabbatical policy for our ministry staff and some of the practicalities of how things will get covered while I’m away, be sure to listen to this episode of Todd Wright’s podcast which we recorded this week: http://toddwright.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/new-ep/

Until the middle of August, you won’t see me hanging around the blog or twitter or facebook much. I’ll be spending time with my family, time away with my wife and time away on my own. I’ll be enjoying the summer with friends and family, taking advantage of this new routine that we have and making the most of this gift.

A few questions that people have asked as I’ve been preparing for sabbatical:

Will you go to church?

Maybe. We won’t attend our church on Sunday morning. It’s just not restful and worship leaders know that even on a Sunday when you’re not involved, you’re still involved. I’ll be away for the next 13 Sundays and my church will be just fine. When we’re home, we’ll attend church with friends, getting to visit people we don’t see often and the opportunity to learn and be inspired by other churches.

Are you taking classes or writing a book?

No. Other churches give sabbatical for this purpose and there is great value in lifelong learning and sharing but our elders have specifically set this time aside for our staff so that we would be able to rest. We have lots of other opportunities for education and writing but the focus of sabbatical is rest and renewal.

What about social media?

This is a great question and has all kinds of assumptions behind it. How much of social media is “professional” vs. “personal”? Is social media a part of my job or an expression of who I am? I hope extended sabbatical becomes a regular part of ministry for many people so this question will become more and more significant in the future as social media becomes more normal in our everyday life.

For me? Here’s how I’m going to handle it:

One of the key factors to actually be able to rest is to remove distractions so I’m doing several things to make that happen. Removing social media apps off my phone, shutting down my work email inbox and just limiting the ways that people are able to get access are all part of it. (No apps send notifications to my phone as it is so this part is really just removing the opportunity to check feeds or updates from my phone.) I’ve already unsubscribed to almost every email newsletter and blog RSS feed to help limit the attention grabbers in my life.

This isn’t prescriptive. For some people, sabbatical will mean a clean break from all technology. For others, they can continue with normal patterns and change very little. For me, these are the changes I’m making to help facilitate this incredible opportunity I have to be rested, renewed and recharged over the next 3 months leading towards a healthy, vibrant season of ministry when I return to my church.

All in all, I’m genuinely excited about this opportunity I have. This is not what some people may think of when they think sabbatical – I’m not deathly ill, there is no drama behind the scenes, this is not an escape plan to keep me from getting fired. We have been putting our plans in place for almost 18 months and everyone from the elders, ministry staff, worship leaders, the musicians and singers, and our congregation have been incredibly supportive along the way.

Pray for me. Pray that I would hear God speak in a new way. Pray that my soul would find rest in God alone. Pray for my church as they continue the incredible ministry God has called them to while I’m away. Pray that I would be renewed and recharged when I return.

I will do the same for you. I’ll pray that this is a summer of rest and renewal for you, that you would hear God speak clearly in a way that allows you to be recharged for the next season of ministry, whatever that might be.

A couple of housekeeping notes:

Since the nature of blog comments is open and conversational, I’m going to close comments here for the summer. It’s not because I don’t like hearing from you – it’s because I love interacting with you and I won’t have the opportunity to do that. When I return, I’ll be sure to let you know and open comments back up so that we can all continue the great conversation that happens here on the blog.

If you’re interested, you can read our church’s staff sabbatical policy here: http://pdf.orangevillebaptist.com/sabbatical_policy.pdf

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Personal Update – What’s Next? was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

• 3/4 of Americans experience symptoms related to stress in a given month
• 1/3 of Americans feel they are living with extreme stress
• About 1/2 of Americans feel that their stress has increased over the past five years
• About 1/2 of Americans report lying awake at night due to stress.
  (American Psychological Association, Stress In America Findings, released November 9, 2010)

Yesterday I kicked off this little blog mini-series on rest by saying that every person should pursue life-giving rest for three reasons: you are not God, you are human and you are the recipient of God’s good gifts.

Today, I’m posting a quick follow-up to that to help you understand how you can experience life-giving rest by receiving these three provisions.

1. God provides community for us.

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

For followers of Christ, we are now able to rest from the pressure of being the centre of our own community. Not only has God called us IN to a new kind of community but He’s called us in to a new community which is centred AROUND Jesus, not around us. Our identity is that we are now in community with Jesus and we are free to rest from the drive and the desire to create a community which is centred around me.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

How do we rest in the community Jesus provides? Think about your identity and your calling. When I rest, I’m given the opportunity to affirm my identity in who God has created me to be. I’m a husband, a dad, a friend. I can’t rest from those things – God has given those to me. But I can rest from being a leader, a worship pastor, a blogger, etc. Those are things which I’ve taken on which are separate from my core identify of who God has made me to be.

Enjoying time with family and friends in the context of who I am and not what I do is an expression of this rest within community centred around Jesus.

2. God provides food for us.

“But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.” Leviticus 25:4-7

The food which God provides here (we see later in Leviticus 25 that the blessing of provision comes before the sabbath, not because of the sabbath) is a great reminder that what we need to sustain our life is not a result of our own provision. We are the provider only so much as we are willing to work for it. Do any of us have the ability to increase the harvest? Technology has helped, certainly, but no amount of technology can turn a seed into a plant without the intervention and sustaining work of God.

So find rest in knowing that you are not the provider. Enjoy the blessings that God has given you – creation, relationships, good food. Not only should you do this, but you can do this. Remember God’s provision, even in your resting, and allow Him to show you how He is continually meeting all of your needs. Rest in that.

3. God provides home for us.

“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” Revelation 21:3

One of the most significant things for me as I’ve been preparing for an extended time of rest (more on this tomorrow) is that our resting is actually a display of dependance on God for our eternal destiny. The way we rest now is an expression of our eternal rest to come. The ability to release and relinquish control from workaholic obsession is actually an opportunity to testify to our belief that one day God will bring us home to the place He is preparing for us.

If you can’t rest confidently in God now, do you have confidence that He is calling you to eternal rest when your time here is over? Read how this pattern shows itself in Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

Do you see it?

Where does our help come from? The Maker of heaven and earth.
Who watches over us? The one who will neither slumber nor sleep.
Who protects us? The Lord keeps us by day and by night.

The clincher for me is the last line: the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. This “coming and going” is setup as a pattern for our activity now during this life and leading towards the life to come. In our coming and going, God is our helper, God watches over us, God protects us – He does this now and He will do this forever.

My hope as you’ve been reading this is that you’ve been encouraged to think about not only why we should rest but how you can actually experience life-giving rest. My prayer is that you will find these three things which God provides: community, food and home, and consider them to be incredible blessings as you rest in Him.

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3 Ways to Experience Life-Giving Rest was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

How are you?

Busy!

I find myself hearing this and saying this far too often. Busy is a badge of honour in our culture and many of us wear it to display significance, importance and to appear needed. There’s nothing wrong in living a life of significance and making important contributions to society. There is no shame in working hard and we need to continue to be devoted to the work God has called us to.

In the same way, rest is good. Unfortunately rest just doesn’t get the same recognition as work even though we would all acknowledge how important it is.

So consider this a mini-series of three posts on rest. Today: 3 Reasons to Pursue Life-Giving Rest. Tomorrow: 3 Ways to Experience Life-Giving Rest. Next day: My Sabbatical Story.

Endless work is not what God has called us to. Work without rest isn’t the pattern established by God (“…so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” Genesis 2:2), it isn’t what God intended for His people (“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God.” Exodus 20:8-9), and it isn’t what we see modelled in the life of Jesus (Matthew 14:22-23, Mark 1:35, Luke 4:42).

As a worship leader (whether you’re on staff at a church or lead as volunteer), rest is important. We’ve all got two stereotypes we are working against – the first is the idea that pastors only work one day a week, the second is that pastors should be available 24/7 at the beck and call of their congregation. The people closest to you definitely recognize these two stereotypes are not a reality in your life and the majority of people in your church probably don’t have these expectations of you but those stereotypes can still come in to play when we try to figure out what our work/rest pattern should look like in our daily, weekly and yearly rhythms.

“Music is the space between the notes.” Claude Debussy

So that the music of your life can be heard more clearly, let me give you three reasons why you should pursue life-giving rest:

1. You are not God.

Hopefully this is not new information for you! He is God, you are not. This is a statement which should be reflected not only in your words and in your work but also in your resting. Have you considered this? Your resting gives an opportunity (not that He needs it) for God to continue to show that He is powerful enough, strong enough, wise enough to keep the world spinning and take care of the details.

So what does this look like in our rest?

One idea would be to read and meditate on passages of Scripture which affirm God’s power as you begin your rest. Psalm 11, 68 or 114 would be good places to start. Read the words, thank God for His strength, that you can have confidence in God even while you are not working.

A second idea is a story I heard while I was preparing my sabbatical proposal. I read of one man who considered even his sleep to be a form of rest which affirmed this reality of God’s might and control. Before he would go to sleep he would light a candle, say a prayer asking God to watch over him while he slept, and then blow out the candle as a tangible act of displaying his trust in God’s power.

2. You are human.

Whether you like it or not, you are human. God has created you for good works but He’s created you with physical limitations including the need for rest. Offering your rest as a form of worship to God is a way of expressing thanks for even the way that God has created you.

If God had intended for you to work endlessly, never taking days off, having a sense of pride in how long it’s been since you’ve taken vacation time, he would have created you as some kind of robot. But He was very intentional and purposeful in creating you as a person who needs sleep, food, rest and enjoyment.

Consider Jesus for a moment. The image of the invisible God, fully divine in every way, one with the Father. And fully human, tempted in every way just as we are, one who is able to empathize with our weaknesses.

So how do you acknowledge your humanity in your rest?

Like I mentioned before, sleep to the glory of God. You know those days when you’ve joked about going to bed at 8:00? Put it in your calendar. Seriously. Give yourself an appointment at 8:00 on your next day off to go to bed.

Other ideas?

Eat good food. Enjoy what God has provided. Don’t eat fast food or canned soup on your time off. These are days to pull out cookbooks, invite friends over with what’s needed for the recipes and cook together.

Get outside. Be amazed again at God’s creation. Whether you live in Canada, the US, Europe, Australia or any other place in this incredible world, God has given incredible displays of His divine power all around you. Get outside and be reminded.

3. You are the recipient of God’s good gifts.

At the heart of this, rest is something we should enjoy because rest is a gift of God. “The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” To live a life of busy-ness, focused on our work and the priority of working harder at the expense of enjoying times of rest is denying the goodness of this gift which God has given you.

Those of you who have kids, you know that feeling on Christmas morning when our kids rip off the paper, strain to get the box open, finally get the toy out of the plastic prison and then only want to play with the box. We all laugh and think it’s cute but really we’re disappointed that they missed the point of the gift, right? God has given you this gift of rest and there is something really beautiful and honouring to Him when we are enjoying the gifts He has given.

I would hate for anyone to read this article and think that I’m calling you to ignore work or that work isn’t important. Please, artists have enough issues with people thinking we don’t work hard enough!! I believe in the value of work. I believe in working hard. I affirm what Paul says in Colossians 3: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” Hard work is another way to affirm the three points I’ve made earlier but you were not created for endless work.

So. Make rest important. Use your times of rest wisely in a way that honours and worships God.

Allow your resting to affirm that God is more powerful and mightier than you are. Allow your body to rest in a way that acknowledges your humanity and gives praise to God your Creator. Allow your rest to be an enjoyment of the good gifts God has given you.

As you rest and as you work, my prayer is that your whole life would be lived for the glory of the mighty God who created you.

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3 Reasons to Pursue Life-Giving Rest was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

One of the key learnings this week is that we are all in sales. We may not have a product or a quota or a pitch but we all have something we believe in and we’d like others to know or feel or experience this great something. I’ve met pastors, professional speakers, park superintendents, microfinance executives and comedians this week who all have something they want to share with the world. Having a platform allows that to happen.

Michael’s talk flows out of his new book which I bought this week and I can’t wait to read it. I’ve watched as his blog and online presence has exploded over the last few years and he has proven time and time again that he lives out what he is teaching, giving his talk great credibility.

Closing words from Ken @kendavislive and an incredible wrap-up talk from Michelle @michelecushatt rounded out the morning. Without a doubt there is genuine care from the SCORRE staff for us as we leave and begin to implement some of the process we learned this week. Michelle reminded us that there are people who need to hear what we say and other people cheering us along as we say it.

Some final goodbyes, a few last glimpses of the incredible scenery and now we’re on our way. We’ll never again be in the same room together with all of these people but we’ll always have what we learned.

If you’d like to know more about the SCORRE Conference, visit their website at www.scorreconference.com. You can also find tweets at @SCORRE and follow the #SCORRE12 hashtag.

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SCORRE Conference – Day 4 was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

To be honest, I struggled more on Day 3 than I did on Day 2 and I think a big part of that was that I was more aware of my own shortcomings. Before coming, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Seeing how a subject, central theme and objective statement can all work together to help form a great talks opened my eyes to how much work I needed to do in my preparation.

Without a structured form for preparation, putting a talk together is pretty easy. With a preparation method which produces great talks, finding the right objective and rational is much harder – but the payoff is much more significant!

After more time in the afternoon with our coaches preparing for the talk we would give that evening, I was able to get some downtime and just walk the grounds of WinShape Retreat. This is an incredible location and the setting is perfect for a conference like this. It really does feel like we are disconnected from the rest of the world and able to focus on our reason for being here.

Again, meals have been a highlight of the conference – not only because the food is so good but also because of the conversation around the table. The variety of personalities, backgrounds and expectations was more than I expected and I have learned something new with every meal conversation I’ve had.

Our last small group session in the evening was powerful. 48 hours before, we were complete strangers. Committed to the process but unsure in our ability. Committed to connecting but hesitant to be too open. On this night, we spoke to each other as friends. We laughed, we cried, we prayed for one another. These were some significant moments.

We’ve turned the corner and instead of “What are you here for?” being the most-asked question it’s now “What are you taking home with you?” My answer is that I now have a crystal clear tool for preparing talks, blog posts or song lyrics. I’ve now got a grid I can use to help me in team leadership, planning Sunday services or even designing conferences and other events.

My day ended with a great conversation with my new friend Pete from Virginia @petehardesty – encouraging him to find a home base online and to begin blogging. He has dozens and dozens of leadership talks which he have given that the world needs to hear and I can’t wait to see him share his blog with the world very soon.

PS Conference attendees: No, I did not SCORRE this recap. Please forgive me :)

If you’d like to follow the SCORRE Conference conversation online, you can find tweets at @SCORRE and follow the #SCORRE12 hashtag.

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SCORRE Conference – Day 3 was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

(In case you need a quick catch up, SCORRE is a conference hosted by Ken Davis & Michael Hyatt to help people “be the speaker you’ve always wanted to be.” I’m coming at this conference from the perspective of a worship leader, as someone who plans worship services, as well as getting asked to speak occasionally but also leading others who are speaking and preparing services.)

The morning started bright and early for me and I was quite happy to wake up to the sound of birds rather than babies! Great breakfast to start the morning, awesome conversation around the table before hitting our first main session of the day which was all about the work of developing a SCORRE outline for any speech or presentation you would give.

All of the presenters at this conference are so familiar with the material and so confident in their ability that they’re not afraid to interject here and there when appropriate. Even though he wasn’t the main speaker this morning, Ken Davis added some brilliant commentary at just the right moment to help us track with the direction of the session.

We walked through the process of coming up with a subject, narrowing down to a central theme and then getting to the direct objective of our talk along with laying out a plan for expanding that objective and fleshing it out in to an actual speech or presentation.

We had lots of fun with the concepts of key words, enabling and persuasion and got to work through a few SCORRE outlines based on ideas from people in the crowd.

After another great meal with more conversation over lunch there was the opportunity to spend time working on our talks for the evening. Preparation time was only wrapped up once our coaches gave us the thumbs up on our objective sentence and outline.

I was glad to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery and much-needed sunshine before one more fantastic meal, then made our way to our second evening of small groups where we presented the talk we had prepared this afternoon.

Much encouragement, much laughter, much affirmation and amazing to see how much growth has happened even in the first day and a half. This conference and the process I’m learning will have deep impact in my life for a long, long time.

If you’d like to follow the SCORRE Conference conversation online, you can find tweets at @DCWspeaks and follow the #SCORRE12 hashtag.

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SCORRE Conference – Day 2 was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

Wondering about SCORRE? Have a look at this video:

I arrived at the ridiculously beautiful Winshape Retreat this afternoon just in time to get ready for dinner and some quick conversation before heading to our first session. Ken Davis laid out our four resolutions for the week (he does such a great job of getting large groups on the same page) and we were introduced to the 10(ish) coaches who would be working with us in smaller groups throughout the week.

We headed to our first small group session and were immediately thrown to the sharks. All 8 of us had been asked to prepare our first 5-minute talk and after some nervous conversation and feeling each other out, we got to it. In my head I knew that there would be nothing but support and encouragement from the others in the room as well as from our small group coach but at the end of the night I know it in my heart.

Nerve-wracking? Yep. Invigorating? Definitely. Helpful? I can’t wait for the rest of the week and seeing how some of these principles can be applied to what I do for our church on Sunday mornings.

If you’d like to follow the SCORRE Conference conversation online, you can find tweets at @DCWspeaks and follow the #SCORRE12 hashtag.

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SCORRE Conference – Day 1 was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

If you’re looking for a few different ideas of media you can include as part of your church’s worship service on Mother’s Day, have a look at these.

Openers & Countdowns

Touching

Funny

I’m a Worship House Media affiliate and if you buy these videos through the link on my site, thanks for doing that! The cost for you is the same whether or not you use the link.

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Mother’s Day Worship Media Roundup was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

I’m spending the weekend helping to run the Reconnect Tech Conference, a training opportunity for church tech volunteers. We’ve had a great event so far and there are over 400 people in attendance getting some helpful, hands-on training in audio, video, media, staging, lighting and leadership.

Want to follow some of the conversation? Follow @reconnecttech and the #RTC12 hashtag.

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Reconnect Tech Conference was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.

Taken together, these songs tell God’s story from creation to the Second Coming. They cover themes and Bible stories that aren’t conveyed in many songs for the Church (read the scriptures that inspired each of these songs here), yet each song centres on the cross.

Thanks to the beauty of technology and NoiseTrade, you can listen to and download these songs for free right here – check it out:

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Kristen Gilles – The Whole Big Story was posted on Chris from Canada.

My blog is built on Standard Theme and I'd love for you to come by for a visit.