It had been years since the Rev. Debbie Freeman had taken a sabbatical.
So this summer she decided to take some time away from serving the congregation of First Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville. Instead of a traditional sabbatical, which often incorporates travel, study and a period of renewal, Freeman decided on a pilgrimage -- a long one.
Freeman's holy trek took her to Spain, where she walked the Way of St. James, also known as the Camino de Santiago. The pilgrimage to the shrine of the Apostle James is a popular one with various starting points, all ending at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. Freeman started in the town of St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France and walked the Camino for almost 600 miles, at times alone, other times with fellow pilgrims.
"It had been a few years since I had done a sabbatical and taken some time away, and I enjoy walking," she said. "The opportunity to go on that kind of a journey, where you get to have your spiritual, physical, emotional and intellectual challenges all at once, is rare."
The Rev. Robert C. Saler, who help administer the Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Program, said sabbaticals are one of the best ways to keep pastors engaged and passionate about ministry.
"Everyone goes into ministry feeling a certain kind of call and passion, and as you continue in your career, it's natural that at a certain point you might lose touch with those," he said. "A sabbatical is time to step back and reconnect with whatever it was that got you passionate about ministry in the first place."
The clergy renewal program is administered by the Center for Pastoral Excellence at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. The program awards grants of up to $50,000 to congregations to use for clergy renewal. Saler said about 150 grants are awarded each year, totalling $7.5 million.
Saler said congregations must be involved in the grant process
because the sabbatical is beneficial to the pastor and the congregation. "The best sabbaticals are taken by healthy pastors in healthy congregational settings who sense it's time for them to return to the well to get a fresh connection," Saler said.
A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
With the blessing of her congregation, Freeman set out in late May and returned in mid-July.
"It felt like I was being nurtured and pushed at the same time to go and do it," she said.
Freeman started clocking the miles she walked from the time she left Little Rock until she returned. In all, she walked 803 miles. She left her first pair of boots behind after falling on her second day of the Camino walk. She ended up with a swollen toe and couldn't comfortably walk in the boots anymore. The second pair was also put aside because of blisters. She ended up walking much of the way in sandals with socks.
Home for almost two months now, she's still transitioning to everyday life and examining the lessons she learned along the way. She said the journey deepened her faith in many ways.
"I think it deepened it in ways that I'm not sure I was really necessarily prepared for," Freeman said. "I certainly learned to listen better and more intently. I'm a much more patient person than I was before I went."
Some lessons were difficult, like learning to heed God's schedule and not her own.
"There were days I didn't think I was going to be able to finish," Freeman said. "I didn't think my feet were going to take me. It was humbling because my personality -- I overcome. I do."
Freeman found inspiration in a handicapped dog. Its back legs were in a cart so it could still get around, and it was barking like mad as she walked by.
"I got to thinking about this dog. Just because he's lost his back legs, he was no less a dog," she said. "That dog was still very much who it was. To me there was that great sense that the beauty of life is who you are. You need to embrace your life and the joys of it and even the difficulties of it. Too often we're willing to say, 'I don't want the pain,' but the pain is part of it, and it does help us be who we are."
The Rev. Scott Walters, rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock, recently returned from a three-month sabbatical. He said the Episcopal Church encourages pastors to take care of not only their spiritual and physical health, but also their emotional, vocational and financial health.
"To be whole, we need to not separate these," he said.
Walters submitted a grant proposal to the Lilly Endowment's Clergy Renewal Program, but was turned down. The day he received his rejection letter, he discovered his congregation had spontaneously raised the money necessary to send him anyway.
"It opened up a space for something remarkable to happen," Walters said.
A proponent of the urban church (Christ Church is located downtown), Walters had several goals for his sabbatical, including visiting a thriving city. He decided on Vancouver, British Columbia. He also wanted to spend time reading, writing and visiting other churches. The biggest portion of the sabbatical was a month spent in England, experiencing village life, visiting cathedrals and small parishes, and talking with theologian Timothy Gorringe.
Walters said his "blue-sky" goal for the sabbatical was to return with a book proposal (that didn't happen), and his minimum goal was to find a way to write in a way that would be imaginative and spiritually effective. He was also seeking a sense of renewal, for himself and the congregation.
Walters said he particularly enjoyed visiting other churches.
"That was really rich, to get outside, not only of my church, but to see the universal church," he said. "I could experience worship in a different way and be with my family. It was just nice to be with Ardelle [his wife] in the pew."
Walters said the sabbatical was a success and he returned refreshed. Starting out with three months ahead of him was "slightly terrifying," but by one week away from coming back, he said he felt drawn to return to the life of the parish.
Walters said taking the extended time away can feel selfish, but he said it's essential.
"Coming back, I realized how essential it is that we are healthy. In trying to do it all, we can do damage," he said.
FINDING RENEWAL
The Rev. Danny Schieffler, rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Little Rock, also recently returned from a three-month sabbatical, which also included a pilgrimage to holy sites in the United Kingdom.
"It's definitely a chance to really step away from the day-to-day responsibility of ministry, to really gain a new perspective," Schieffler said.
Like Walters, Schieffler spent time worshipping at various churches, including some in different denominations.
"I came away with the sense that God is alive and well and doing things in an amazing variety of ways," he said. "There are a lot of different flavors and God seems perfectly content and enjoys working through all of them. The fruit of Holy Spirit was all over the place."
While in the United Kingdom, Schieffler connected with his Anglican roots. He made heritage the focus on his sabbatical time, not only to deepen his own appreciation of his Anglican heritage, but also to give his parishioners a greater appreciation and awareness of their connection to the past.
"To me, roots are a good thing," he said. "They are a way to deepen people's faith and spirituality with a sense of history, which can sustain you in the present and the future."
Schieffler said his sabbatical also gave him time to explore his own family heritage and gather stories from aunts, uncles and cousins during a family reunion.
"It was definitely a valuable and wonderful experience and I really believe it will bear fruit for St. Mark's," he said. "I think the sabbatical experience is a way for a minister to really experience that deep slowness of Sabbath time and deepen one's trust in God and come back to the parish and learn to walk more slowly with all the people of the congregation."
Schieffler said that Sabbath principle can be used each day, or weekly or monthly by taking time for rest and recreation.
"Start out with a few minutes early in the morning for quiet with God," he said. "We all need that."
As for Freeman, she hopes to find a way to use her experience to help others find renewal. She said those in ministry sometimes forget that their physical health is also important. She suggests walking daily.
"You don't have to go far away. You can walk your neighborhood and be on a pilgrimage," she said. "Sabbatical is healthy for ministry." Otherwise, the pastor ends up working 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is "no good to anybody."
As for her pilgrimage, Freeman said it was an absolute joy.
"It was hard," she said. "It was challenging, but it was renewing and it reminded me I don't have to do everything but I do have to be authentic and faithful and true, not only to what God is calling me to do, but to help others do that as well. That's the peace and the patience and just the real joy that I found, and I think that's what the simplicity of walking can do."
Information on clergy renewal grants is available online at cpx.cts.edu/renewal.
Religion on 09/05/2015