Clint’s Sabbatical June 20th – July 26th 

As many of you know I will be on Sabbatical from June 20th – July 26th.   A ministry sabbatical is a period of time when the local church sets aside the ministry leader’s normal responsibilities for the purpose of rest and renewal toward sustained ministry calling.  It is sacred time and space to rest, refresh, and recreate toward sustained physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being as Pastor and Leader. 

Eugene Peterson says, “Sabbatical years are the biblically based provision for restoration.  When the farmer’s field is depleted, it is given a sabbatical – after six years of planting and harvesting, it is left alone for a year so that the nutrients can build up in it.  When people in ministry are depleted, they also are given a sabbatical – time apart for the recovery of spiritual and creative energies.” (The Contemplative Pastor, Eugene Peterson, pg. 145)

I have been serving as Lead Pastor of Awakening Church since moving to Eugene with my family in January 2009.  It is a calling I don’t take lightly.  It is my desire to lead and serve and pastor Awakening Church out of an overflow of God’s presence and leading in my own life.  And if I’m honest, I have been feeling the symptoms of spiritual depletion for some time now.  I have been feeling the need to rest, refresh, and recreate.  And I believe that a time of Sabbatical is necessary for my soul. 

I am so very grateful to the Eldership of Awakening Church as well as to all of you who call Awakening Church your home church to allow me this sacred time and space away.  This is the first sabbatical that I’ve taken since beginning in full-time ministry in January 2002, so it will be somewhat of a new experience for me. 

I would covet your prayers during this time.  Please pray that this sacred time and space would refresh and renew my soul.  Please pray that God would reveal himself to me in a very real way.   Please pray that God would give me renewed vision for Awakening Church.  And please pray that God would continue to form Awakening Church into a visible community of faith that embodies the Gospel to our city. 

While I am gone during this time of sabbatical, I am very grateful that Eric Smith has accepted the invitation to serve as Interim Pastor, under the oversight of our local eldership.  All church related questions and needs should be addressed to him at Eric@awakeningeugene.org.    I am also grateful that David Robertson and Aaron Franklin will be teaching on the Sundays that I am gone.

It is an honor to serve as your pastor and I look forward to seeing you all when I return for the Awakening Church camping trip on July 27-29. 

Clint