Sabbatical and New Church Year

The church’s Personnel Policies and Procedures offer the ministry staff the opportunity to take a sabbatical leave for a period of up to two months at the intervals of seven years of service. This time is designed “to provide a period of physical, mental, and spiritual renewal and a strengthening.” The Personnel Committee has granted my request for a sabbatical leave during the month of August and Hammond Coates’ request for a sabbatical leave during the month of October. With the addition of several days of annual leave, the schedule for my time away from regular pastoral responsibilities will be July 30-September 3, 2010.

My plans for this time include some personal study and reading in recent publications in the areas of mis-sional churches, community outreach, multisite ministry, and ministry with young adults. I also intend to visit a few churches which have been effective in reaching young adults and families and in doing multisite ministry. Sev-eral family activities are planned, including a Weaver family reunion in Mississippi and a week of vacation with the family.

Pastoral responsibilities will be ably handled by the ministry staff while I am on this sabbatical leave. Preaching in the traditional and contemporary services will be done by Hammond Coates, Jay Rawls, and a few guest preachers. I will be in contact with the ministry staff and available for consultation and input. I will also re-main informed about some ongoing pastoral care needs. Thank you for your gracious provision of this sabbatical leave!

The new church year will begin in September. There will be some additional Bible study opportunities on Sunday morning which will be intergenerational in nature. We are also exploring the formation of some small groups for prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and ministry. As we continue to focus on the development of some “go” structures to reach into the community with God’s love, discussion is taking place about the creation of a food pantry in partnership with our Hispanic Fellowship and in association with the Capital Area Food Bank. Under the leadership of Norina Treanor, our new Director of Children’s Ministries, we are evaluating our children’s ministries, including our schedule of Wednesday evening activities. As the season of summer activities and travel comes to its end, you are encouraged to be planning for renewed involvement and participation in the life of the church as the fall schedule begins!