Part of the job of elders is to encourage and support the pastor as well as the various ministries of the church. It is suggested that we give our pastors a sabbatical for a time of refreshment and study. What about the ministry leaders such as Cadet and Gems counselors, youth group leaders, Bible study leaders, Sunday School teachers, etc? In our church (approximately 150 members) many of our leaders have been leading their ministries for many years. Some of them are involved in more than one ministry. So I started thinking about offering some sort of sabbatical for them. I'm not sure yet how this might happen. My initial thoughts were to have two months of no ministry meetings, probably in April and May. Instead of their regularly scheduled meetings, we would offer a weekly seminar. At these get togethers we would bring in some guest speakers who would talk about leadership, burnout, encouragement. We could spend some time studying leaders in the Bible as well as contemporary leaders. There would also be time for discussions on how their ministry programs could improve. We could use this format or we could meet twice a month and still have the ministries meet on the other weeks. My question is, has anyone else done this? If so, can you share what you did and how it was received by the participants? Looking forward to your feedback. Steve
Comments
Steve, great thoughts for expressing appreiciation for ministry leaders. I have been a proponent of this practise in our local church for many years. My words have fallen on deaf ears. A simple thank you from the pulpit at an appropriate time for SS teachers, gem & cadet leaders, etc... seems to be all we can muster. Many workers committ many long hours in their area of ministry and the consensus among leadership is that there are more important matters to address. John
Do we pray for our teachers, preachers, elders and deacons enough? It occurs to me, that we ought to do that more often, and that I have not been doing enough of that lately, including in congregational prayer.
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