Pastor, Sharpen Your Axe: Why & How to Take a Sabbatical

Early in my ministry, I stumbled upon this little parable of two woodcutters. It goes something like this:

Two wood cutters decided to hold a competition to see who could chop more wood in a day. The rules were simple. The next day they would chop wood from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and whoever chopped the most wood in that time was the winner.

The next day arrived and the men took their positions in the forest some distance from each other. At the stroke of 9, they started chopping away with all their might and speed. After about forty five minutes of chopping, the first woodcutter heard the second suddenly stop, and he thought to himself, “He’s tired out already, I’ve got this in the bag!” He doubled down on his efforts to keep slogging away with the chopping.

For the rest of the day, the second woodcutter would stop chopping every hour, and the first would renew his efforts and try to pull ahead, even though he was exhausted.

Needless to say, when the competition ended, the first woodcutter was certain that he had chopped more wood. But to his dismay, when they counted up all the wood blocks, it was obvious the second woodcutter had chopped more, by a significant margin.

“How could you chop more wood than me?” the first woodcutter asked, “I heard you stop every fifteen minutes, and I didn’t stop all day!” The second replied, “The answer is fairly simple. While you were relentlessly slogging away, I was stopping to sharpen my axe.”

Why are pastoral sabbaticals needed?

The work of pastoral ministry can feel a lot like woodchopping. Our forest is a made up of sermons that need to be prepared, meetings that need to be led, church members who need to be discipled and cared for, and other endless tasks. Day after day, we chop away:

Another sermon written, chop!

Another meeting led, chop!

Another married couple prepared for marriage, chop!

After a while, it is not long before we lose our edge. Our ministry zeal becomes dull and blunt. We can just keep swinging the axe and slogging away, but our work will become less life-giving, less efficient, and less effective.

If our edge has gone dull after an unbroken stint of pastoral labor, what can we do? We must stop to sharpen our axe! One of the ways we can do this is by a strategic pastoral sabbatical.

What are pastoral sabbaticals?

Pastoral sabbaticals are breaks from pastoral work to focus instead on “resharpening” for ministry. We cease from our normal pastoral activities and lay down the taxing burdens of ministry life to rest and to sharpen any areas of our lives and ministries that have become a bit dull.

We must remember that in ministry that our “axe” is our very lives and the ministry gifts God has given to us. In this illustration of the woodcutters, we ourselves are the axe!

In 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul said to Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

A sabbatical is a time away from the pressure of ministry-chopping to sharpen your life and your teaching, that is, to make sure your walk with God is bright, your life with your family is bright, your physical health is bright, and your teaching and ministry flow from these deep places are bright. Paul says if we can give attention to these areas, we will save both ourselves and our hearers, that is, we will preserve ourselves from burnout or ministry shipwreck and we will minister effectively and with God’s power to our hearers.

What should a pastor do on sabbatical?

If our actual lives and our ministry gifts are the axe that needs sharpening, it makes sense that we will give attention to these areas on a sabbatical. But what might that look like?

1. Attend to yourself

This starts with a period of taking stock of our relationship with God. It would be a good exercise to get some extended time alone with God in prayer to just ponder the question: Where are things in my walk with God? See it as a personal health checkup. We can ask:

• How am I doing with nourishing my soul on the Word of God?
• How is my prayer life?
• Are there any besetting sins that I have been accepting or am I still fighting to put those sins to death?
• Am I preaching the gospel to myself and living in the good of it every day?
• Am I spiritually alive or would I say I have become dry?
• Is my character reflecting the character of Christ and is the fruit of the Spirit evident in my life?

Depending on how that exercise goes, we can then seek to address any areas that may need some renewal or encouragement.

During my own recent sabbatical, I identified a need for some real heart nourishment from the Lord, and so I decided to select some books that would help me with this. I read:

• The Heart of Christ, by Thomas Goodwin
• A Bruised Reed, by Richard Sibbes
• Spiritual Mindedness, by John Owen

These books nourished my heart and soul and stoked the fire of my affection for God.

Attending to ourselves could also include taking stock of our physical health. During my sabbatical, I decided to have a general medical checkup with my doctor. I made some new exercise goals and re-assessed my work/life balance.

2. Attend to your relationships with others

After taking stock of our relationship with God, we should also take stock of the other relationships in our lives. Take stock of any family or friendship relationships you have. If married with kids, take stock of these relationships.

Again during my sabbatical, I spent some extended time having intentional conversations with my wife and kids about ministry life. This was a check-in to see that we were all doing okay and to ask if they felt I was overworking and not attending to family life appropriately. My wife was really honest during this time, and we made some shifts in light of some of these conversations about the frequency of hospitality expectations, how many nights I was out, and things like that.

3. Attend to your ministry gifts

If we are to “keep a close watch on ourselves and the teaching,” then it makes sense that we would consider how we are doing with our preaching, teaching, or whatever other ministry gifts we exercise regularly.

Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:15 that the people we minister to should see progress in our preaching over time. If we are preaching regularly, we want our ability in preaching to progress through our ministries. It can be good to take stock of our preaching during our sabbatical, prayerfully bringing it before the Lord. We can ask ourselves,

• Have I got a bit predictable?
• What diet have I been giving the congregation by way of Scripture genres?
• Have I been working hard on illustration and application?
• Where are areas I could grow in?
• Have I adopted any bad habits?

Again, depending on how this exercise goes, we can make a plan of what might help us grow in this area. I decided to read:

• Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller
• Get Preaching: Growing as a Preacher, by Jonathan Gemmell
• Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity, by Eugene H. Peterson

I also decided to attend the EMA conference in London on endurance in the ministry. Both the books and the conference sharpened and encouraged me.

For every pastor, their approach to this portion of their sabbatical will probably look slightly different. But the main goal is to identify where we have grown a bit blunt and give ourselves the space and time we need to do some strategic sharpening of our axe!

Practical tips for a successful sabbatical

So how do we do this practically? Allow me to close with five specific tips.

1. Work with your church leaders

If you are in a team of elders, work with them in shaping your sabbatical and have them speak to the church about it positively and clearly. In our church, it was our elders who brought the proposal to the church and clearly laid down the plan for my sabbatical.

If your church doesn’t have a sabbatical policy, consider speaking to your elders and requesting a sabbatical. Ask them to champion the vision for it as a strategic time of sharpening.

2. Plan out responsibilities in advance

Before leaving for your sabbatical, ensure your teaching and pastoral care responsibilities are entrusted to others. This can be a strategic opportunity to ask an assistant pastor to step up to take more responsibility or to invite other pastors from your network or association to help.

It can also be wise to plan out a few weeks after your sabbatical ends so that you know what’s happening as you re-enter your role.

3. Allow your family to be blessed

Have an attitude that views this sabbatical as a time of blessing not just for you, the busy pastor, but for your whole family. The pressure of ministry doesn’t just rest on you, it is often felt by your family. There should be a sense in which you all enjoy the blessing of more evenings in, without hosting or hospitality pressures.

4. Visit other churches

Take the opportunity to visit other churches in your locality during this time. It can be a great blessing or benefit to get a better sense of what is going on in and around your own ministry sphere. This can also give you some new ideas when you see how others do things.

5. Guard communication

Exit group texts. Shut down work emails, and restrict your social media use during this time. During your sabbatical, you’ll want to keep yourself away from exposure to the stress and distraction that can rise from these things. You need to be totally free from the pressures and burdens of ministry life during this time.

A final word: Rest in Christ

Yet, all the above being true, ultimate rest and renewal on a sabbatical does not come from inactivity; it doesn’t come from a change of scenery or place; it doesn’t even come ultimately from a holiday in the sunshine with your family. True rest and renewal comes from Jesus. We experience true sabbatical rest by pressing in closer to Jesus and receiving by faith the rest he holds out to us. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

On sabbatical, inactivity is great, a change of scenery is great, a holiday with your family in the sunshine is great, but what we need more than anything is to experience again the deep rest that Jesus alone can give. This will sharpen us and restore our true spiritual brightness. As Simon Peter said in John 6:68, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Therefore, the ultimate goal of our sabbatical must be to draw closer to Jesus and experience the rest and renewal that he alone can give.

Resources for as you approach your sabbatical

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• What Is Sabbath, and Does It Even Matter Anymore?
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• Faithful Ministry Begins with Attending to One’s Soul