By Chris Moon
Everyone needs rest. Ministers are no exception.
Mosaic Christian Church in Elkridge, Md., took that to heart in early 2020 by announcing a plan to offer its staffers at least a monthlong sabbatical after every seven years of full-time ministry. The plan was slowed a bit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it wasn’t derailed.
Multiple staff members have gone on sabbatical since January 2020, and founding pastor Carl Kuhl is on sabbatical right now.
“COVID did not put it on hold necessarily, but it did make us be a little bit more relaxed in when people executed it,” said Jonathan Moynihan, teaching minister and executive director of ministries for Mosaic.
The idea of offering a sabbatical program for its staff came after a busy season of ministry in the 12-year-old congregation. The church had a pre-COVID-19 attendance of 1,800. In 2019, it was opening a new building and experienced “a lot of accelerated ministry momentum,” Moynihan said.
“Carl will tell you he started to experience some real fatigue,” Moynihan said.
He said Kuhl has a “white-hot passion” for ministry, and “for him even to be in that state was a ‘check-engine’ light.” It coincided with Kuhl watching one of his mentors, a pastor of 35 years, being forced to go on a six-month sabbatical by his own church.
“That was kind of a wake-up call,” Moynihan said.
THE PLAN
Mosaic’s sabbatical program applies to every full-time staff member, from the on-stage teaching ministers to the facilities director. The time frame—once every seven years—emerges from the biblical mandate of a sabbath rest for the land in Leviticus 25.
At Mosaic, staffers are given one month paid leave and an additional month’s pay for their sabbaticals. The extra pay enables them to go on a long vacation—a requirement for each sabbatical.
Staffers also are to participate in three counseling sessions with a therapist and to do one thing to enhance their vocational gifting, such as going to a ministry conference.
Moynihan took his own sabbatical in October 2020.
He and his wife spent 12 days in Sedona, Ariz.—away from their three young children. He also spent four days in silence, with nothing but a Bible and a journal, at a monastery.
The rest of the time, he relaxed with his family.
“A sabbatical is also an investment into the family,” Moynihan said.
Kuhl, the lead pastor, is currently on a three-month sabbatical. The longer sabbatical recognizes the unique burden of the church’s lead pastor.
“A disproportionate burden requires a disproportionate rest,” Moynihan said.
‘THE IDOLATRY OF PERFORMANCE’
Moynihan said the practices of self-care for ministry staff, such as slowing and silence, sometimes are regarded with skepticism in the driven, hard-working American culture.
But, he said, “the idolatry of performance and productivity can crush ministry over the long haul.”
Moynihan remembers when Kuhl announced the plan to the staff, which has 14 full-time members.
“It’s a huge blessing,” he said. “It’s unbelievable. We were all pinching ourselves.”
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Moynihan said most of the staff aren’t good at even taking a couple of weekends off in a row.
Part of the sabbatical requires a complete break from work at the church. Right now, for instance, staffers aren’t to interact with Kuhl while he engages in his sabbatical unless he instigates the communication.
“We want to make sure he has the space,” Moynihan said.
The required counseling sessions during each sabbatical, Moynihan said, are designed to “explore the well of the soul.” They are to examine the root causes of some of the emotions that come up in life and perhaps some of the unwanted behaviors that emerge.
Mosaic wants staffers to “explore those things with margin,” giving them the appropriate time to process their thoughts.
A RARE PRACTICE
More churches appear to be offering sabbaticals to their ministry staff, but the practice remains relatively rare. A recent survey of more than 2,400 churches by Vanderbloemen showed 72 percent of them do not offer sabbatical programs for their staff members.
But the COVID-19 pandemic may have exposed in rather glaring fashion the need for ministry staff to take appropriate rest.
“Ministry got extremely hard for the wrong reasons” during the pandemic, Moynihan said.
Pastors, he said, were not able to weep over lost human souls and instead found themselves caught up in ideological and cultural tensions.
“It’s suffocating,” he said.
But he noted even Jesus withdrew often to pray, away from the burdens of his own ministry. This type of rest and solitude is important.
“They are necessities of the soul for the long haul of ministry,” Moynihan said.
Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colo.
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