Tom Stocks, who has served as pastor for 17 years at Rosalind Hills Baptist Church in Roanoke, never thought he would need or take a sabbatical. But in January — after three church capital campaigns in the last five years, recent staff changes, building a new church facility and adding an early worship service to the Sunday line-up — Stocks reached a breaking point.
Add to that six funerals within two weeks — three of which were for teenagers — and he knew a rest was necessary.
“I woke up exhausted and out of gas emotionally, physically, mentally and most definitely spiritually,” he said. “I just simply wanted to go away and not be responsible for anyone for awhile. I knew I needed to heal, to recharge my batteries.”
Stocks applied for a sabbatical grant through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Initiative for Ministerial Excellence, a program that launched in 2003 with nearly $2 million in grant funding through the Lilly Endowment Inc.
Stocks used the grant to get away — in fact a whole continent away. Having spent 10 years as a missionary kid in Africa, Stocks returned to the continent he said is in his blood and soul. He spent three weeks of his three-month summer sabbatical in Kenya helping CBF Global Missions field personnel Sam and Melody Harrell, who Stocks' church had partnered with for the past five years.
Stocks accompanied Sam to help with projects, mostly manual labor that allowed Stocks to see the fruits of his labor. The climax of his experience came while digging a hole by hand to prepare footers for a child development center in northern Kenya.
“As I drew the dirt out with my hands, I began to cry and felt as if I filled the hole with my entire woundedness,” he said. “When I was able to stand, I felt renewed and ready to engage again.”
The sabbatical gave Stocks the chance to heal, and “the church received a healthy pastor once again,” he said. “My energy was back. I have realized and put into place some healthier boundaries to take better care of myself. The better I take care of myself, the better pastor I am for this wonderful church family.”
Stocks' meaningful experience is one of many had by pastors at Fellowship partner churches.
“The sabbatical grant project has produced some wonderful stories from ministers who have found new energies, new inspiration, renewed sense of calling and strength for their continued journeys,” said Mike Harton, an IME regional coordinator. “Through the Lilly-funded IME, the Fellowship has had a tremendous impact on churches and ministers.”
The sabbatical grant project, which was completed earlier this year, provided stipends for 100 congregational ministers — including pastors and ministers specializing in music, education, youth and children ministries — to have a sabbatical experience. About 70 of those pastors were taking their first sabbatical, some after as many as 25 years of ministry service, Harton said. The Fellowship helped more than half of the churches involved develop sabbatical policies for future ministers.
Initiative partners that provide resources to sabbatical participants are Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond; Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas; Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, N.C.; Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology in Macon, Ga.; Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas; and the Center for Congregational Health in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Fellowship is developing further resources to encourage and assist congregations in providing sabbatical experiences for their ministers.
For more information on the Fellowship's Initiative for Ministerial Excellence, visit www.thefellowship.info/Church Life/Leadership Development/IME/Sabbatical.icm or contact Harton at mike@harton.net or (804) 379-0915.
Special to the Herald