Transition

This is the time of year for transition, kids are going off to school (some already have), college students are returning to their dorms, teachers are prepping their classrooms and professors are putting the final touches on their syllabi. Some the weather will change and autumn will be upon us.

I am transitioning.  Not only am I preparing my girls to go back-to-school next Tuesday But I am beginning to think about the Fall at the church. I am wondering about the plans for our annual Neighborhood Cookout which the second Sunday after I return. I am beginning to think about my first Sunday, my first sermon, and my first board meeting. I will walk into the church for the first time in twelve weeks on the 11th. I still have a week and a half.  I am thinking about my church again. I am thinking about re-entry.

Next Tuesday the kids go back to school.  Next week is my last week of sabbatical, in fact I will write my first sermon in three months, my sabbatical officially ends on a Sunday. I am excited about that. As much as I have enjoyed the leisurely pace of a Sunday morning where all you have to do is get your and yours there, I miss preaching. I love studying scripture, I love finding what it is God is saying to us this week and bringing that to my congregation. It is my favorite thing about pastoring.

I am also thinking about how I will be different. I have taken three months, I have rested, I have contemplated, I have thought, I have read and I have dreamed, now I need to take the person I have become back. I can not allow myself to return unchanged, to slip back into who I was. I need to allow this sabbatical to shape who I am, who I am becoming and take that person back to the pulpit, to the study, to my people.

I want to be a new pastor, a better pastor, a pastor with a new vision. These last days are the transition. Before I left, there was a time of transition where I set everything up for me to leave, where I prepared myself and the congregation for my absence. I set goals for my sabbatical, some of them I have kept, some of them have fallen to the wayside, but I did not just wander into my sabbatical and hope that it would all go well. Likewise, I can not just wander back into my office and hope that things will go well. I need to prepare. I need to be intentional, set goals, think about the person who is returning.

One of the reasons I am backpacking at the end of the summer is because something happens on the trail. Somewhere between immersing myself in nature and pushing myself to near physical exhaustion, I am able to think better. I am hoping that putting this trip at the end of my sabbatical will allow me to process and think about what it means for me to return. To nail down how this sabbatical has changed me and what that means for my future ministry.

So today and tomorrow as I pack my pack and gather my gear, I am not only preparing for my annual backpacking trip, but I am preparing myself to return to my congregation and preparing myself to process all the things I need to process as I move back into "everyday" life.