INSIDE EVERGREEN

May 25, 2024

Dear Evergreeners,

For months now—actually, for several years—we’ve talked off-and-on about a pastoral sabbatical. Next Monday, May 27, the talk becomes reality. Since my “Inside Evergreen” letter from April reflected on some of the basic rationale for the sabbatical, I won’t address that now. But I will add to that reflection with a few more thoughts on the value of the sabbatical. I’ll also offer a few more personal insights about what I’ll be doing.

(1)   The value of the sabbatical

  • It is for both pastor and congregation, at least that’s what I’ve been hearing for years. But now, even before launching, I’m beginning to see it, and that makes me increasingly eager for what God will do over the coming months.

  • For my own part, I’ve already found that my perspectives about ministry have shifted a little for the better. For example, over the past several weeks, I’ve had opportunity to think about an expanded vision for Evergreen. Pastoral ministry, like so much of life, is often like driving in heavy traffic: you just keep your eyes on the vehicle in front of you—you do next the thing. But isn’t it wonderful when the traffic clears and you can see for miles down freeway? I’ve recently been grateful for a few longer-range vistas: for Fall 2024 when we re-unite and also for 2025 and beyond. This is personally rewarding, but more importantly it is beneficial for our mission. When we glimpse where we’re going, we find energy for pressing ahead through heavy traffic!

  • But renewed vision and mission are just the beginning of a congregational benefit from the sabbatical. There is also the call to ownership. In American church life, we are often tempted to leave the work of ministry to paid staff or formal leadership. But not only does this neglect the Scriptures’ call for the body to do the work of ministry, it also limits our collective joy. Our congregational flourishing depends on each part of the body playing its role. You have gifts that I don’t! And already, as I make plans to head out, I’m seeing new investments of energy and creativity and compassion. God is doing a fresh work in our congregation already!

  • Over the next three months, will you join me in praying for God to multiply these benefits? I look forward to hearing what he does through you and for you. Maybe it will be something like he did for our sister church in Walla Walla: upwards of 50% growth while their pastor was on sabbatical! But whatever it is, it will be good since God is good.

(2)   What I’ll be doing

  • Thanks to a generous grant from the Center for Pastoral Renewal, I will spend several weeks traveling with my family to key people and places in our story. In June, we’ll see family and friends in Chattanooga, TN, which is where Jackie and I attended college, so we’ll also have many old haunts to show our kids, including where we had our first date, not that we’ll play that up! In July, we’ll make a trip to Europe, including to Edinburgh, Scotland where two of our kids were born. (At dinner tonight, I briefly lapsed into a Scottish accent…accidentally. So if sound different in September, you’ll know why.) After returning from Europe, we’ll repack and head south to see old friends in Southern California. We’ll also, hopefully, get up to Washington to connect with other family and friends.

  • During the weeks that we’re not traveling, we’ll have camping excursions. We’ll finally get to some long-postponed hikes, probably a couple of wineries, concerts, plenty of old movies. I’m also looking forward to cooking more and even returning to the piano. There will be more time for house projects, too. But the purpose of sabbatical is not catching up on work; it really is revitalization for the sake of more fruitful ministry. That means extended, intentional connections as a family and a meaningful regimen of reading, writing, contemplation, and prayer.

  • God designed us to flourish with holistic rhythms of labor and rest, and I am grateful for this opportunity. But it will take a little adjustment. I’ve been thinking of it in terms of physical exercise: what builds muscle mass is activity that creates micro-tears in the muscle fibers. This season will be somewhat disruptive for us all. One of the terms of the sabbatical grant was an agreement to complete detachment from ministry connections, and I am already processing the strangeness of not leading you in worship for 13 weeks—until I return on September 1— or being part of your lives in the venues where God ordinarily connects us.

  • Yet I am also hopeful. Over the last 12 years and four months since I began at Evergreen, God has advanced the kingdom through us and in us. Perhaps like you, I could tell dozens of stories to illustrate his work. In September, there will be even more, and until then, as always, “the eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut 33).

And there is also worship as usual on Sunday the 26th. I look forward to being with you then…or whenever the Spirit re-unites us.

Christopher