A Sabbatical to Renew Creative Voice
This summer, as I near my eighth year as pastor of Spirit Garage, I am taking a sabbatical for rest and renewal.*
I am deeply grateful to Bethlehem and Spirit Garage for this gift of some time away for rest and renewal, and I have plans! This Sabbatical has been in the planning phase for almost a year and a half, so I’m excited it is coming soon!
If you’ve been around Spirit Garage you know I love poetry and I have a lot of poems almost memorized. I’ve been known to “prescribe” poems to people in pastoral care. All these poems are written by someone else, but once upon a time I also wrote poetry. These days I mostly write sermons, so I hope this is a time to rediscover a creative voice outside of the Sunday sermon. In a sneaky way, that may make me a better preacher too. But writing has been a spiritual practice for me, so my primary goal is to engage in that practice.
My last Sunday before sabbatical begins is May 25th, and I fly out two days later to Ireland, where I’ll be attending the Listowel Writers’ Week, with writing workshops, book readings, author panels, and more. I’ll be taking a morning workshop on memory and memoir, and I’m particularly excited about an author event with a favorite poet Padraig O’Tuama. (Here’s a video of Padraig reading his poem, “Facts of Life” for a sample.)
Following that week, I’ll have some time to explore Ireland (Galway, Dingle, Doolin, Sligo) before heading to Donegal, where I’ll attend a week-long writers’ retreat with 8 other individuals. When that is complete, I am meeting some friends in Belfast for a few days, and then there are a couple more days in Dublin at the end. Then I head home!
Later in the summer I’ll be heading out to Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp in Montana, where I’ll serve as a chaplain to the staff for a couple of weeks.
Overarching all of this is a process known as “The Artist’s Way;” a book with a 12-week course in discovering and rediscovering your creative self. I’ve contracted with spiritual director and author Danielle Shroyer to work with a small group of my friends on zoom throughout the summer as we go through that course together.
Meanwhile, Spirit Garage will also be engaging in the process of the Artist’s Way. A small group from Spirit Garage will also meet on zoom with Danielle Shroyer and learn from The Artist’s Way. Pastor Michelle has developed a sermon series to match the lessons in the Artist’s Way.
In this way, by the time I return in September, we have all been on journeys of rediscovering creativity with some common language about what we’ve been up to.
As I leave on Sabbatical, Andy (Director of Music + Creativity) increases his hours from 25/week to full-time, and Pastor Michelle increases her hours from 17 to 28.
This sabbatical period is a balance of rest and renewal, and I’m looking forward to all of it–and I’m also looking forward to returning to Spirit Garage in September. Watch for a date after I return when we have an open mic/open house event to share some of the creative energy of the summer.
A special thanks to the Bethlehem Foundation for funding a portion of this sabbatical. (The writers’ retreat tuition, additional staffing at Spirit Garage and a portion of the Artist’s way are covered by the Bethlehem Foundation).
*Pastoral Sabbaticals are recommended after serving in a call for 5 years. The purpose is to renew your physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. While it could be that a pastor worked themselves to a point of needing to take a break, or had some unfortunate thing happen that would necessitate time off, the point of a renewal sabbatical is to take the break BEFORE it is needed, and that is what this is. I’m happy to be taking sabbatical as Spirit Garage is in a strong place, and I have the energy and excitement to go.