Sabbatical

Pastor Jake Beattie

The Bible says a lot on the topic of rest.  We see from the opening pages of the Bible that God himself takes rest on the 7th day of creation.  Genesis 2:1-3 says, 

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

So from the very beginning of the Bible we see this pattern of rest being established.  God works on the first 6 days of creation and then rests from his work on the seventh day.  Later in the book of Exodus, God gives his people the 10 commandments.  The fourth of the 10 commandments, found in Exodus 20:8-11 says, 

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

In Genesis we see God set the precedent to take rest, but now in the book of Exodus, he is commanding that his people take rest.  This commandment became one that religious Jews went to extreme measures in order to keep the sabbath.  They went to far as to believe it was breaking the sabbath to spit in the dirt on the sabbath day, because that would be making mud, and making mud is work (John 9:14-16).  

We see in the gospels Jesus give clarification on the purpose of the Sabbath command in Exodus.  In Mark 2 the Pharisees are mad at Jesus because they are claiming his disciples are breaking this Sabbath command.  Jesus responds with an example of David in 1 Samuel 21 and then says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  So Jesus makes it clear that the Sabbath command was intended to benefit man by giving him rest, not be a burden on man by giving him strict rules for how to observe the Sabbath.

Everyone has a need for rest.  We have all been at a place where we have been completely exhausted either physically, mentally, or emotionally, and we have felt that deep need to get some rest.  Rest is built into the fabric of our society.  We work five day work weeks (for the most part) and have two days each week set aside for the purpose of rest and being able to do the things we enjoy apart from our work responsibilities.  Most jobs offer vacation time as they know people need a break from their work at times.  For the vast majority of people, we are able to get rest from our work each night when we clock out and when Friday afternoon arrives.  With pastors serving in ministry, this is not necessarily the case.

The roll of a pastor is a unique one.  Pastors are called to care for God’s people.  The analogy used in scripture is that of a shepherd caring for a flock of sheep.  When you are caring for people’s souls, and you know that eternity hangs in the balance, you cannot easily ‘clock out’ each day and return to that work the next day.  A shepherd who cares for the sheep of his pasture is going to have them on his mind often.  This is not to say that Pastors are never given vacation time, they are entitled to and deserve vacation time just like the rest of us.  But often, even on vacation a pastor is hearing from his people.  He is thinking of those he knows are struggling.  He is praying for his people and wanting to know how they are.  

When a pastor has been living this way for years, he needs some extended time away to be able to rest.  Our church recognized this need four years ago, in 2019 when we celebrated Josh Greene’s 10th anniversary as pastor.  One of the gifts we gave to him was a sabbatical to give him some much needed rest.  We all know the pandemic happened in early 2020 and threw off the rhythm of everyone’s lives.  The added stress and pressure of the pandemic delayed Josh in taking his sabbatical.  Now that we are past that, the time has come.  Josh is officially on sabbatical.

With that in mind we ask that you please refrain from contacting Josh with ministry related topics.  We are encouraging everyone to reach out to our church office.  Call or email and we will be happy to get in touch with you for whatever you may need.  We also ask that during this time away for Josh you be praying for he and his family.  We want this time to be refreshing and encouraging to him and his family.  

We are looking forward to Josh returning to his normal duties and being with us regularly, but until that time comes, lets pray for him and allow him to get some much needed rest so he will be ready to continue faithfully serving our church and community for years to come.