Grounded. That's how I feel this Sunday morning. My eighteen year old daughter is taking her boyfriend to church today as I sit here at home, descaling my Keurig coffeemaker and redoing my monthly whiteboard kitchen calendar. Three weeks until I am back at the Monroe Congregational Church, this time as Senior Pastor.
I'll use this time efficiently, which means going back to the gym (Jerusalem was rough on the knees), cleaning my house (a little ritual I've done with every new beginning), and reading those books still on my pile (and yes, the pile HAS grown during these three months). On Monday, I'll pull together a couple of Steeple articles, including what we have in store for Holy Week, a deeply felt thank you, and maybe something on our role as a teaching church (new Member in Discernment, Yale Supervised Ministry training).
Soon I will have to figure out how to juggle the needs of two youth programs since we're in the beginning stages of pulling together a search committee to find my replacement, and I don't expect us to have much movement on that until the summertime. Also, I will be pulling together the worship themes and scripture for the next few months so that we're all on the same page. Soon there will be phone calls and visits and lots of "catch me up" conversations with those who have been in leadership positions. And re-establishment of relationships with a lot of people that I am not ashamed of saying I love dearly. And meetings, which I actually like (I know, such a church geek!)
Sabattical time for me has been a little like a re-calibration, a chance to set things straight and establish new patterns. I'm not unaware that I was on a road to burnout and bad health before I left. Clark and I needed some time to reconnect, too. Now we've had some precious time to do just that. Before I head back in to the office I'll be laying the groundwork for our 2012 vegetable garden and getting my bike ready to ride so that I have a hobby. As my good friend said upon leaving a CT Conference meeting early "I have a life!"
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