Purpose & Practices
Rev. Eric J. Bolash
Church Family,
My family and I have been given the opportunity to take an eight-week sabbatical this summer after seventeen years of serving at Church of the Apostles, nine years as an ordained priest. We’re fairly excited!
As we enter this time, I want to share with you the purpose of it, and the practices that I will take up while I’m away.
Dates
Start Date: May 28
Return Date: August 5
These dates include two additional weeks of vacation time.
Travel & Fun
Robin, Mila, Risa and I will travel to Iceland, London and Scotland during the first month to have fun, develop our relationships, and for me to begin to keep some of the practices I will describe below.
Sabbatical Purpose
My overarching purpose is to rest. To practice the Sabbath part of Sabbatical. I will keep some spiritual practices that will enable physical, spiritual and emotional restoration. I will rest from work, pray, read, write, exercise and enjoy family.
I plan to engage in practices that help me live out what Jesus cites as the Greatest Commandment, from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Mark 12:30. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
“...with all your heart…”
The heart in the Bible is the seat of the will. What we want. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4.23
My expectation is that as I follow the practices listed below, what I want or desire will become more aligned with what God wants. My prayer is that I will grow to more humbly pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
“...with all your soul...”
As a soul-care practice, I will stop working as a recognition that it is God who cares for his Church, not me.
Another soul-care practice will be to follow a weekly Rule of Life that will include Solitude, Silence and Prayer. Three times a week, I will spend full mornings in solitude, outside, listening to the Lord through Scripture and in prayer.
A third soul-care practice will be to take two overnight personal retreats. One in May, one in July. This will allow for more extended time in solitude, silence, Scripture and prayer.
And another soul-care practice will be to meet with a Spiritual Director. This is a practice I already follow, but I plan to meet with him as usual in order to process what the Lord seems to be speaking.
“...with all your mind…”
Words mean a lot to me. And they are the tool of a pastor. In his book, The Contemplative Pastor, Eugene Peterson writes, “The way a pastor uses the language is a critical element in the work. The Christian gospel is rooted in language: God spoke creation into being; our Savior was the Word made flesh. The poet is the person who uses words not primarily to convey information but to make a relationship, shape beauty, form truth. This is St John’s work. It is every pastor’s work.”
So, following Peterson’s lead, I plan to read poetry each day. I also plan to write at least one poem each day during this sabbatical. No one should ever trust my math, but that should mean 60 or 70 poems when all’s said and done.
I expect that as I read and write, the Lord will speak to me in new ways, and also help me to become a pastor who uses language more skillfully for God’s kingdom purposes. If they aren’t terrible, I might even share some of those poems with you all when I return. We’ll see!
“...with all your strength.”
Our bodies matter to God. He formed Adam and Eve from the ground and stood back, calling them “very good.” And rest includes physical restoration. So routine, rigorous exercise will be part of my sabbatical as well. I already enjoy physical exercise, so this will be a fixture in my time away.
I know that as we take time away, our church is in the hands of our sovereign Lord and King. He is always good and faithful. Always. I anticipate rich time with him over these next few weeks, and I trust that he will continue to care for and shepherd his church while I am away.
And when my family and I return, we will look forward to continuing with you in Christ, loving him with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength.
In the care of Christ,
Eric+ with Robin, Mila and Risa
