The Pastor During Sabbatical
May 9-July 31, 2022
"When asked about my plans, I always offer some variation on one simple word, Biblical and convicting: rest. We all need it; you have generously seen to it that I will have not only the chance, but the mandate, to receive and embrace it.
"The point of this sabbatical--the mission I have gratefully accepted--is to return after July refreshed and restored. Rest is the theme, the content, the goal, the model, the theology. ("Thank you for putting the 'sabbath' back in 'sabbatical,'" said one of our resident theologians!) I will do my utmost to honor the investment this church is making in it, and I covet your prayers for doing so. I very much look forward to happy reunions in August, when we can compare notes on how we have grown and what we believe God is ready to do with us!"
Q. How can I get in touch with the pastor during the sabbatical?
A1. For those who need a pastor in an emergency situation, please contact Clerk of Session Ellen Dean (910-277-6834/ellengdean@gmail.com). Ellen can help to connect you with appropriate pastoral care.
Our primary Emergency Pastoral Caregiver will be Dr. Heath Rada 828-669-0070 or Heathrada3@gmail.com. Other experienced caregivers will be on call on days when Heath is unavailable.
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A2. For those wishing to communicate with Keith specifically, Ruling Elder and Personnel Committee member Lynn Gilliland (540-255-1266/gillilandl@ashevilleschool.org) is the designated contact person who will pass on any communications about which it is imperative that Keith be informed in a timely way. All messages between the pastor and congregation will go through Lynn. Keith says: "If it looks like I am ignoring emails, calls, texts, social media, etc., I apologize: it is not that I am making individual decisions, but will already have carefully cordoned off all of those outlets. If it doesn't come from Lynn, I won't even have the ability to see it."
The pastor has been instructed to spend this quality time disengaged from day-to-day involvement with MPC in order to come back not only a rested and refreshed pastor--one who has not sabotaged this time by constantly checking and responding to phone messages, emails, texts, or social media--but a pastor who will return to a congregation which has also had the opportunity to grow in its own refreshing ways.
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Q. What will you be doing for your sabbatical?
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KG: Outside of academia, the goal of sabbatical time is a reenergized and spiritually refreshed pastor; i.e., there will be no anticipated project or product to show for this time. Ministry Renewal Leave is a unique and profound opportunity to rest, renew spiritual centeredness, and learn and develop at a more deliberate pace than that which is allowed by the cycle of weekly preaching, church ministry and administration, and regularly compromised vacation time and weekly day off.
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This ministry renewal leave will include periods of travel, relative isolation, family time, trail hiking, the liturgy of the hours, and pure rest. In addition to week-long monastic stays at Mepkin Abbey and New Melleray Abbey, I will be traveling domestically and (limitedly) internationally and soaking up a mix of cultural exposure, long silences, and all-too-rare reunions with sacred and special people.
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While those descriptions are about as specific as I plan to be in regard to whereabouts and undertakings, I am honored that people are interested, and I am very much looking forward to returning to home, office and place of worship, when we can mutually share with each other the happy stories and news of where we have been, who we have seen and what God is doing in our lives and in the world.
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A Blessing
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Upon the conclusion of a 2009 sabbatical, I offered this blessing, which I share with you now, wherever you may be: May your experiences give you strength, may your travels bring you glad meetings with wise and friendly people, may your senses bring you beauty and inspiration, and may God use your humble gifts, whatever they may be, for something wonderful, useful and good today.
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Keith Grogg
Montreat, 2022
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