A little over 2 years ago, I took a sabbatical.
A sabbatical is a special sort of time away that people in ministry or other all-enveloping 
roles and jobs will take periodically to get a chance to rest and recharge. “Sabbatical” is taken from the Hebrew word “Shabbot” – where we get the word “Sabbath”.
Interestingly, “Shabbot” does not mean “rest:,” it means “stop” or “cease.”
God knows us better than to just instruct us to “rest” – He commands us to “stop!” (almost like what a policeman would shout at a fleeing criminal).
Where I am a pastor right now, at www.southspring.org, we require our pastoral staff to take a significant time away every fifth year or so of employment.
I wanted to create a little bit of a safari journal of the before, during and after experience that I had. I wanted to do this for multiple reasons.
First, I feel like I sort of owe it to the congregation that sent me! What an amazing gift to get to do something like this. I want to communicate my appreciation to the church and to the leaders who sent me and who supports our staff in this way.
Second, it has been a year and I need a reminder of the lessons I learned. I sense that many of them have drifted from what I had determined at the end of the sabbatical. Therefore, I am also writing this for myself.
I rarely use this website as an actual Blog (web-log). I am usually writing theories, research, news evaluations, etc. This is a breach from that.
Finally(at least that I have considered so far), I want this to act as a guide for others thinking about it. This is a guide of good options – “yes, do this!” and also a guide for avoiding bad options – “Luke, don’t, it’s a trap!”
So, I wanted to start with the thinking, praying, talking and planning for the sabbatical that started well before the event and then I will be including segments of my journals from the time.
Preparation
I had to consider how things would operate while I was gone. It meant missing numerous staff meetings, half-a-dozen sermons (and the plan was to miss those Sundays, but some of that changed, as I will mention).
Blessedly, I have a deep bullpen at SSBC. Between staff and lay-leaders, my only real concern was whether people would be all that interested in my return after hearing other gifted teachers. Fortunately, many of them were former or current pastors and they toned it back so I wouldn’t look too bad.
I had to guide my executive pastor team on how to make decisions when there wasn’t 
agreement. One of my jobs has been to settle disputes among them in the rare instances that they hit a wall. We decided that in their own areas of responsibility, their decisions would stand, even if the rest of the team disagreed.
Of course, we are not talking moral issues, but methodology. We have a Leadership Board that was there to guide anything if they needed advising or their covering over a decision. So, the Executive Director of Ministries had the final say if there was an impasse that was fundamentally a ministry decision, for example.
This seemed to work well and it gave the members of the team the freedom to express thoughts, concerns and ideas without feeling like the responsibility was falling on them. It allowed them to ask tough questions of each other well while I was gone – which is sometimes another of my normal responsibilities.
The vision that developed for the Sabbatical time, began to revolve around this passage: 
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Mark 12:30
And over time, the notes started looking like this:
Heart– time with Family, no interruptions. Special time with Ginger. 1×1 memory making time with each kid? Check in on their Walks with Christ in intentional ways.
Soul – Pray, monastery, in the woods? Time with Johnnie Moore? Issue: I am bad at being bored. Time away where I cannot hide from God or me.
Mind – Study, Teach, write, sleep – alone somewhere where I can write and read and Sleep. Finish sex book. Write blog articles. Pre-marital handbook. (I didn’t finish any of these much, but that was in the name of resting, so it was ok)
Strength– working, fasting – hard work, cross fit, hiking challenge? Me go to Israel for a short time? What about sword training or fight training, etc?
At first, my thought was to spend one week focusing on each of these areas. In the end, it didn’t work out that neatly. I wanted to communicate my appreciation with time to God for each of these areas of life. I could love God with my heart by loving the family He has given me well and modeling Him to them in a focused way that life doesn’t always allow.
I get good time with my kids and I engage with them and love them most days. We have all kinds of special memories together, so I wasn’t worried that the 1×1 time would seem hypocritical or forced or even just scheduled – but they would know that I saw it as a gift with each of them for me!