August 15, 2008 will mark the end of my 14th year of ministry as your pastor here at Edgebrook Covenant Church.  Like most folk, I marvel at how quickly the time has passed and how faithful God has been to me, my family and to our church family during these years.  I now have enjoyed the longest tenure of any pastor at Edgebrook Covenant Church, having exceeded the years of ministry of beloved pastors Robert Liljegren and Clifford Bjorklund (both of these saints served 13 years here).  

You have graciously encouraged me to go on a sabbatical this year.  Before our Pastoral Relations Committee and Executive Board finalized the particulars of that with me, many of you personally urged me (and our church leadership) to make a sabbatical possible.  I am truly grateful for your encouragement and support and I am very excited and ready to take full advantage of this experience!

Just by way of reminder, my sabbatical will be in two parts:  the bulk of the time will be the fall of 2008 and will run from September 1, 2008 until January 4, 2009.  During those four months I will remain primarily in Chicago, except for some retreat experiences, which will probably average a total of a week to ten days each month.  My first day “back in the office” will be Monday, January 5, 2009 and my first Sunday back preaching and worshiping with you will be Sunday, January 11, 2009.  The second part of my sabbatical will involve traveling for 4 weeks during the summer of 2009.  The details of this travel component I will finalize during my fall sabbatical.  

As you have encouraged me, now I want to encourage you while I am away on my sabbatical.  First, work with Rev. Bunny Hughes with the same level of commitment and cooperation as you have always done with me.  Bunny will be serving as the part time interim pastor in my absence and you should view her as your pastor in my absence.  I am confident you will do just that!

Secondly, be willing to give “a little extra” time and effort to the life and health of our church.  Particularly this is true in terms of communicating with one another in a variety of ways, caring for one another and connecting with newer faces that have recently come or will come to our church.  I urge you to be consistently intentional in these areas in particular because I find that much of my time is devoted to these three things – communication, caring and connecting.  We don’t need a new program to insure these will happen.  It does require all of our church body to be thoughtful and put forth intentional effort to insure we don’t suffer a loss of ministry effectiveness because these ministries are underserved or overlooked.  

Thirdly and finally, I encourage you to be sacrificially faithful in your financial stewardship and worship stewardship during my absence.  An almost universal reality in almost every church is that when the church is without a pastor or the pastor is away for an extended period of time (a month or more) worship attendance and giving declines.  Please, as much as it is in your power, don’t let that happen during my sabbatical!  Currently (through May 4, 2008), our giving is lagging behind our budget by an average of only $123 per week.  However, the summer is traditionally a time when giving and worship attendance declines and we need to stay strong in both these areas for the remainder of the year.  Please, stay faithful in both your worship attendance and financial stewardship during my sabbatical!

You are an exceptional congregation…my sincere hope and fervent prayer is that when I return from my sabbatical in 2009, you will be an even healthier and more vital church body than when I left.  That would truly be the only thing that could increase my joy as I anticipate this wonderful gift of my sabbatical!