Proclaimer Blog
Sabbaticals – seven good reasons (6)
6. Sabbaticals allow a church to exercise a wider mission
It does depend, of course, how a minister shapes his sabbatical. But unless he's just inward looking – focusing on his own walk (a dangerous path if that's all he's doing), there is a great opportunity to widen the church's influence. I personally think that world mission can benefit greatly from sabbaticals. Of my 10 weeks, I spend 3 abroad – two in India, writing a systematic textbook for translation into Hindi, and one week in Cameroon training pastors. The church really got behind it – financing, praying, supporting. Our outlook was broadened as a result and our commitment, I trust, to world mission deepened. That kind of ministry was not my main ministry (I was a local church pastor) but it was healthy for the church, healthy for me and, we hope, good for the church across the world.