For the past three years, I have taken a full stop break in the Fall from The Ember Cast - a sabbatical that lasts about 6 weeks. It is one of the healthiest things I do - it gives me some breathing room to rest and relax, it slows the pace so our kids get a good start to the school year and helps me recover and re-energize. The only Ember related thing I will do in the next 6 weeks is have dinner with the Ember Prague team as part a follow up after our 30 days post trip. Other than that, I'll try to be a regular person that works a single full time job and has evenings and weekends off. Weird.
Over the past few years, as a family, we have come to embrace the bivocational model of ministry more and more. But keep it in perspective, Ember is not a faith community or a church plant and I'm not a pastor - those would be much, much more challenging. There are lots of you though that have set up your lives in the same way. You may not call yourself bivocational, but you spend a lot of your free time, money and energy serving and leading others, whether through a local nonprofit or a church ministry or a community development organization. If you spend more than an average of 10 hours a week doing this all year long, I cannot implore you enough to think about a consistent, intentional season of rest every year.
My sabbatical starts this weekend. See you in late SeptEmber.
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