The Volunteer Sabbath
I’ve noticed a trend recently by leaders and pastors who seem to think that it is acceptable for volunteers to leave a position of service, but only if they move to something else. While I doubt that most would directly say that taking time off is bad, I rarely hear someone encourage a volunteer to take a season off. It is as if they are afraid that a volunteer won’t come back at a later time. While this is true of volunteers that are dealing with burnout, most church members will return to service after a season of rest.
God modeled this need for rest for us in several ways, starting with His day of rest after Creation (Genesis 1). He also encouraged rest through the weekly Sabbath (Exodus 23: 12), Sabbaticals every 7 years (Exodus 23: 10-11), and the Jubilee year (Leviticus 25: 8-10) after every 7 Sabbaticals. Why wouldn’t He want us to take a volunteer sabbath, to rest and re-energize from our volunteer time?
We as leaders need to start taking the initiative to step up and encourage volunteers to take a season off and rest. This means that we need to be people-centered, not task-centered, . This also means that we must spend more time building a healthy ministry that prevents burnout and encourages healthy growth. Finally, it means that we as leaders need to begin to replace ourselves, so that we can take time off.
How would you be different if you took a Volunteer Sabbath?
[tags]church leadership, recruiting volunteers, volunteering, volunteer sabbath[/tags]
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