Meaty Monday: Pastors on Vacation
by Jim ~ April 28th, 2008. Tags: meaty-monday, ministry, personal, vacation.My wife and I are very much looking forward to a much needed week of vacation coming up in a few weeks. In some respects it’s hard to believe that this will be our first week of vacation since the last week of August. As we anticipate our time away, we are always somewhat conflicted about how to spend it.
One difficulty is that we have a number of fairly sizeable outdoor and indoor projects that are requiring our attention. It seems that it is hard for us to get those sorts of projects done during our normal routine because we just don’t get a significant enough chunk of time off together on our weekends.
Fridays are our usual day off, but those often turn out to be our cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping sort of days and aren’t really conducive to starting a big project were not sure how long it will take to finish. So when vacation time approaches we think here’s our list of projects, which ones should we try to do? But who really wants to spend their vacation working around the house??
Another difficulty also has to do with the fact that we don’t get weekends. Meaning we don’t get to travel to visit our families or friends when other folks might be able to do that sort of thing over the weekend (especially over an extended weekend like memorial day & labor day which are non-existent for a pastor…) So, we think about the last time we saw so and so and we wonder if its time to hop in the car or get on the plane to go see them. While these are good and important trips for us to take, spending ourselves with people as we do on our jobs can make these types of vacations seem like more work than relaxation.
As pastors we’re also church nerds. So, when we get a Sunday off, we often ask where would we like to go worship? We think about the various churches we know or have heard about or that one of our favorite colleagues serves and we ask should we plan a trip to worship there? (In fact we do have reason to be in the Minneapolis area on this particular vacation and while we are there we are thinking about another trip to Solomon’s Porch.)
There of course have been the occasional Sundays on our vacations where we are so tired of church we decide not to go at all (but please don’t tell that to any of the members of our congregations…if you’re one of them you didn’t just read that…)
I think all of this is to say that while we definitely look forward to our vacations, we just don’t look forward to making all the decisions we need to make in order to plan them. Am I alone in this sort of dilemma?
April 29th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
You’re definitely not alone, but first, you haven’t had vacation since August?!? My goodness, last year Dave & I went about six months and were wiped-out.
Reading your post is like reading my own mind! Dave & I have the same dilemmas. With four weeks of vacation, we’re hoping a logical schedule will be spending one week with my family, one week with his, and two weeks just for us. Although, sometimes we enjoy study leave so much and come back so refreshed that it’s like vacation! We also enjoy visiting other churches on these Sundays off - although last year at Festival of Homiletics we didn’t go to church.
For our terms of call this year, both churches included fifth Sundays off so that we could go someplace and worship together. So that it wouldn’t be a further financial obligation for the church for pulpit supply, we decided that those Sundays - there are four - would be hymn sings, a children’s program, layperson led, etc. People have been really supportive and some have mentioned that they think it’s also good role modeling. Of course, everyone always wants to know where we went to worship, so not going to church on those Sundays is not an option! Don’t know if that’s an option for you, but it’s worth considering - even if you only get two of them off.
Blessings upon you both as you figure this out!