In congregations lacking a recent history of minister sabbaticals, some members may be skeptical about the value of this practice. Is it financially prudent? (What if money is tight?) Is it fair? (Most hard-working professionals do not get sabbaticals.) Will it ultimately benefit the congregation? (Lay leaders may be wary of the church going into a holding pattern while the minister is away, with little to show for it after.)

Why Sabbaticals Are Not Only Humane – But Smart

Numerous resources from denominational / judicatory entities, consulting groups, and even funders interested in the long-term health and success of congregations encourage the practice of periodic minister sabbaticals. They argue that yes, it is all of the above things – prudent, fair, and in the best interests of the congregation.

For example, in his 2000 foreword to Clergy Renewal: The Alban Guide to Sabbatical Planning, Roy M. Oswald articulates seven reasons a congregation should regularly invest in clergy sabbaticals. Consider that sabbaticals:

1. Refill clergy’s spiritual wells. Successful spiritual leadership, in the pulpit and beyond, requires a life of spiritual depth for the pastor themselves. The day-to-day demands of parish ministry tend to undercut this need. Sabbaticals help to bridge the gap.
2. Position a minister to lead in the current moment. Parish ministry is changing rapidly in the 21st century. To thrive (or survive), congregations need spiritual leaders who are fresh in mind and heart, able to retool their own skill sets and guide the congregation toward new ways of living the mission. Time-outs help prepare clergy for innovative leadership in challenging times.
3. Reduce the (uncommonly high) risk of burnout. The risk of burnout rises in the absence of renewal leave. Oswald explains, “the constant intimate involvement with the emotional freight of other people’s lives can be draining. Burned-out clergy are much more likely to leave parish ministry, or seek another call,” or slide into diminished functioning, with greater likelihood of a conflicted ending. “Every pastoral turnover costs a congregation years of progress,” since each ending is following by several interim ministry years, and several years of relationship-building with a new pastor before momentum picks up again.
4. Protect and enhance a church’s greatest resource for growth and stability: the vibrancy of the spiritual leader. “Clergy vitality is the greatest asset in building up a congregation.” Whereas burnout leaves clergy empty, lacking spark, less able to connect with people or champion a church’s vision for the future.
5. Offset the overwork that is normalized in ministry. The norms for clergy work and work-life balance are “crazy” and unsustainable. “When you add up the time off clergy miss that most lay people take for granted …” it’s clear that sabbaticals are “a reasonable proposal to make up for that loss.”
6. Build broader leadership and institutional knowledge. Clergy sabbaticals help to nurture lay leaders – old and new – and bring ownership back to the membership. This is a correction to the job “creep” that tends to happen over time when you have a competent minister. The congregation’s improved familiarity with the work of the church, its increased skills engaging in this work, and its fresh exercise of judgment about “how we do things” – all of these are healthy for the church, putting the congregation in a better position for the long run.
7. Are a cost-effective way to nurture an effective, long-term ministry. Pastoral transitions are costly in terms of budget as well as lost time and lay leader labor. Transitions are expensive, involving search processes, compensation negotiations, and moving costs. Another source reports that “The typical pastor has his/her greatest ministry impact at a church in years 5 through 14 of his pastorate; unfortunately, the average pastor lasts only five years at a church.” (The average tenure for a UU minister in 2023 was slightly longer at six years. )

The Demands of Ministry

Few people who haven’t worked in ministry, or been close to someone who has, have a full picture of how this vocation plays out in the life of an individual. Members only see the part(s) of the minister’s work that they witness directly – Sunday worship (when they attend), and for anyone involved in a team or ministry, the minister’s work with their particular group.

The practice of granting renewal leave is catching on in some other professions, too, and rightly so. (Check out this UUA piece Sabbaticals for All.)

But consider some of the ways that ministry is different from other vocations.

Professional Preparation and Commitment

A Unitarian Universalist minister has undertaken significant professional preparation for the role of ministry:

• spending at least three years to obtain a Master’s of Divinity degree (which in the past often required a geographic move)
• completing Clinical Pastoral Education (aka CPE – an unpaid chaplaincy internship, typically in a hospital)
• undertaking a congregational internship (one year full-time or equivalent; unpaid or modestly paid)
• going through psychological tests and screening
• completing the credentialing process to be granted ministerial fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association, which includes additional reading, essay-writing, preaching and interviewing with the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (an intensive process sometimes likened to passing a bar exam)
• not to mention the extensive process of a search for a settled position – an 8-month process which is more grueling than even a university job search.

It is theoretically possible to do all this in three years, but most people these days take 4-6+ years to be “formed,” credentialed and settled.

Most new UU ministers in the past decade

• are second- or third-career professionals
• have taken on tens of thousands of dollars of debt to become ministers (in 2023, the average seminary debt for a UU was $75,000)
• if they have a spouse/family, may have moved their family across the country to accept a new position (perhaps more than once)

Here’s the difference: While a minister’s level of preparation may look more like that of an attorney, CPA, nurse practitioner, architect, or MBA, their pay scale is often more like that of a teacher or social worker – despite the debt and the geographic moves.

Read the Whole Manifesto: A Case for Clergy Sabbaticals

.This manifesto includes the following topics:

• Why Sabbaticals Are Not Only Humane – But Smart
• The Demands of Ministry
  • Professional Preparation and Commitment
  • Scope of Work
  • Divergent Types of Work
  • Work Schedule
  • Relational Intensity
  • The Mantle of Ministry
  • Religious Upheaval
• About Burnout
  • Dropping Out and Burning Out
  • Recent Trends
• Growing Shortages
  • Unitarian Universalism and Ministerial Changes
  • Assumptions and Ideas that Used to Be True
  • Learnings from Engaging from All Religious Professionals
• 2024 At A Glance
• Sabbaticals in Unitarian Universalism
• A Congregation’s Sabbatical History
• Sources