20 Apr Regular Rest & Refreshing for Pastors

After preaching tomorrow, I’m packing and heading out of town for a couple days. I’m thankful for my District Supervisor, who values the need for Pastors to get away. He set up a two day break for our District Pastors to head up to Pismo Beach to hang out and chill for a couple of days. One of the BEST parts …. he’s paying! Well, the District is, but you get my drift!

As I was doing a little pre-planning for the Tuesday away from the office, I was updating our Staff Meeting Calendar. I was joyously reminded of an idea we put in place for our Staff a couple years ago. I want to pass it along in the hopes you’ll be able to use it.

Our Church Office is closed on Mondays. Most Church Offices close at least one weekday, though not all do. Understandably, for those in vocational ministry, life and work blend way too much and the responsibilities tend to be 24/7. In reality, even though the office isn’t open on Saturdays, many of us are using Saturday to gear up for Sunday.

Ministry Staff need regular time off, and I think it needs to be more than just one day a week. So, a couple years ago, we instituted “Double Day Off”. As I am planning out the annual calendar, I look for the Mondays that are holidays, and then I schedule the Church Office to be closed on that Tuesday. On months that DON’T have a Monday holiday, I pick a Tuesday that we close down. So, at least once a month, Ministry Staff gets two days off in a row.

The Staff loves it! It pumps them up that they regularly get to power down for two days in a row on top of regular vacation. Try it, you’ll like it! I can tell you that they’re eagerly anticipating April 29!