I would love to see every church establish a sabbatical program for their pastor/s. Not every church can find suitable substitute preaching and leading, I understand, so these will look different in different contexts, and creativity will be needed at times. But there is nothing like pastoring. I’m not saying other lines of work are not intensely pressurized. I trust these other vocations can find ways to create sustainability for their workers. Nor am I saying pastoring is inherently more pleasing to God than other lines of work. We Protestants reject the Roman Catholic sacred/secular vocational dichotomy. Every kind of work that is either creation-extending (e.g. farmers, artists) or fall-mitigating (e.g. doctors, counselors), and not fall-exacerbating (e.g. porn producers, drug dealers), has innate dignity. But having worked in teaching, coaching, editing, hospitality, executive management, grad school, seminary instruction, biblical research, global travel and ministry, manual labor, and now having pastored, there’s nothing that comes even close to touching the multi-layered pressures of pastoral work. I love it. I embrace it all. I want to keep doing it. I’m not complaining. And my church understands all this and supports me accordingly. But I wish every church was as thoughtful as mine. So I wave a flag on behalf of my fellow pastors whose church leadership teams, for all their wisdom, have never been in his skin and tasted the intensity of it all. There is a spiritual/emotional/psychological burden to shepherding that is unique. The heroic Apostle Paul himself could speak in categories of “pressure” and “anxiety” as culminating his list of ministry difficulties (2 Cor 11:28). Every church will be different and need to handle this according to their own situation, of course. But perhaps a good place to start would be to open a conversation as elders about what it might look like to build into the church’s bylaws a sabbatical system. Not because he's a good pastor. Because he's a pastor. Four months every five years for lead pastors and three months every seven years for associate pastors could be a starting point for consideration. And these are not only for introverted or more intellectual pastors who wish they had more time to read or write. Every faithful pastor, no matter his many weaknesses (and we all have many), and no matter his personality, needs to get out of the harness periodically for a long enough period of time that the soul-RPMs really do have a chance to slow to a standstill as he refreshes and renews his living communion with God, even as we agree that he should foster that communion while in the harness. Have the pastor set personal goals for renewal that he reports back to the session on. Accountability is fine. This isn’t a vacation. But also give him freedom. The overall win is soul-restoration for long-term ministry. Shepherding is a joy. Let’s make it a sustainable joy.

Everything's going to be okay. Your wildest dreams, and more, will come true. In a body. Among the animals. Eating and playing. On this planet. Without ever ending. And Sonlight is the new sunlight. Releasing 10/6/26. Available for pre-order now. crossway.org/books/finally-h…