• Walks Blog
  • About Me
SABBATH WALKS
  • Walks Blog
  • About Me

Burbania Posts Weblog

My Sabbatical Column

1/12/2016

0 Comments

 
This past week I made the first attempt at explaining my sabbatical plan in the church newsletter. There will of course be more of them as things develop and solidify. I am finding that there is a great deal of explaining that needs to be done for a variety of reasons. One reason is simply that most people don't have jobs that take sabbaticals (which is too bad, more should). Another is that usually among professions where there are sabbaticals, people travel. While the "staybbatical" is becoming more common (this will be my second) it is still less the norm. The concept of "away but not away"naturally requires some processing. Anyway, here's the first go.

The new year has begun! We started off well at church with the baptism and communion for our first service of 2016. Soon we will be having our Annual Meeting and then it will be Lent and Easter. Of course, there is that little problem of winter to get through as well. This will be a busy and fun year at church, and I hope that you are all looking forward to it as much as I am.

One thing that will be different this year is that I will be going on sabbatical from mid-summer to late fall. I will return on the first Sunday in Advent. During that time I will be undertaking a variety of projects. When someone serves a church for a long time it is important to adapt to the constantly changing dynamic in the culture of that religious community. This is why ministers and congregations in our tradition take a break for a few months every 5 to 7 years. It enables us to step back and look at the church without having to worry about the day-to-day challenges of serving.

Of course, Eliot will continue to do what it does during my brief absence. By the time sabbatical begins, Shane will be all trained up and will have graduated with his Master of Divinity degree. He will take my place in the first few months of the fall. Since we all know him and he knows us we can expect things to move as smoothly as ever. I will be around from time to time in any case. After all, Eliot is also my family's congregation, and we don't expect to be traveling anywhere.

For me, sabbatical means thinking about what comes next at Eliot. I have already begun thinking about areas of ministry such as technology, music, and worship. And there are other topics I hope to learn more about. One question I will focus on is, how do we continue to move forward in our community life without tiring everyone out? My goal is to return refreshed and ready for the next chapter.

Of course, we have a lot of time before sabbatical begins. However, one thing that I have already begun working on is a new personal webpage and home for my weblog. If you have any interest in seeing how things are developing, feel free to check it out! It can be found at
http://www.adamtierneyeliot.net/.

So, Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing you in the next few weeks and months in church and elsewhere.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Adam Tierney-Eliot

    This is my old weblog of many years.  I will probably post here from time to time is there is a subject that does not fit WWG.  However WWG is the more active page at this point.

    Archives

    April 2022
    June 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    December 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Advent 2017
    Burbania Folk
    Burbania Posts
    Church
    Diversity
    Flashbacks (From Older BP)
    Ministry
    Reflections
    Sabbatical
    Sermon Text
    The "New Church" Series

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Walks Blog
  • About Me