Yesterday was my first day back in pulpit after a month’s long sabbatical. I started on Friday with a mild cold. So as I entered service I was being mindful of two things:
I was mindful to keep practicing the new rhythm of prayer I am working into. I started early and made sure to pull away for some quiet time before service and then again after service before going home.
I was mindful to manage my energy throughout the service. I found myself trying to be quieter through the worship portion of service to conserve energy for the sermon. By the time service was finished I was so ready for a nap so after a few minutes of private prayer I just went home and crashed for an hour. When I woke up I didn’t even know where I was.
HERE’S A QUESTION; WHAT ARE SOME STEPS YOU TAKE TO MANAGE YOUR ENERGY?
This is the last day of sabbatical 2026. I am actually preparing for my sermon tomorrow and beginning to prep for the meetings I have this week which include seven group prayer meetings, a staff meeting, an adult Bible study, a children’s ministry planning meeting, A ministry dinner, and two visitations. That sounds like a lot!
As I embrace the full work of ministry again I am focused personally on one word that came from God this last month:”FROM NOW ON TAKE THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WINTER SEASON.”
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We are heading into winter here in New England. Winter’s here are: FRESH, QUIET, TIMES OF TRANSITION FROM ONE THING TO ANOTHER, TIMES TO FINISH PROJECTS IN DOORS THAT THE SPRING, SUMMER AND AUTUMN KEPT YOU FROM, TIMES TO THINK, TIMES WHEN CERTAIN THINGS GET THE THINGS THEY NEED TO BLOOM IN THE SPRING, TIMES TO WRITE DOWN AND EVALUATE THE WORK OF THE OTHER SEASONS, TIMES OF TOGETHERNESS, TIMES OF ENJOYMENT EVEN WITH IINCREASED DARKNESS, COLD AND HARDSHIP.
I am looking forward to what God is calling the journey through the winter season. WHAT DOES A WINTER SEASON MEAN TO YOU? WHAT WORDS WOULD YOU ADD TO MY LIST?
My daughter, Melanie asked me, the other night at supper what this new life/ ministry rhythm I have been talking about will look like in real time.
I suppose, I am going to really begin learning what it looks like next week, when I return to full time work, but I have been giving some thought to the shape of the rhythm as I walk out these final days of this October sabbatical.
I have never been very successful at fitting ministry into a rigid structure or shape so when I think of the future of my personal ministry rhythm I do not think of it like a triangle, square, cube or pyramid.
I have always seen ministry as complex pattern of interconnected threads that move in and through the world I inhabit, some of which I connect directly to and others which I connect to only through a series of other threads that come across mine.
Ministry rhythm to me is a battle between math and music. It is structure for a thing that must be limited, for the sake of the one doing it, but that doesn’t want to be limited by time or space.
Ministry rhythm is about a schedule but it not JUST about scheduling; It’s about values and distractions, urgent things and important things; It’s about legacy, living in the moment and releasing what’s important into the right hands that will take up the stewardship of things left behind; It’s about the moment and the millennium; It’s about the beat I am currently playing and the acknowledgment that I am working through a whole symphony of movements that I need to be aware of because the whole effects the page of music I am now playing and vice versa.
OK, that is a fairly chaotic explanation. SO WHAT IS THE SHAPE OF WHAT’S NEXT? Right now this is the best I can come up with.
I suppose that doesn’t help you much… but it helps me a bit.
