Chip's Sabbatical Blog

First, to those who have faithfully visited my blog, hoping for news about how I was doing on sabbatical, I want to say that I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you more informed and up to date. Actually, it wasn’t due to neglect, but rather because of a purposeful decision not to blog more often, based on two discoveries I made:

1) I found I needed some privacy for the process I was going through. I felt the blog was a much too public place to air my thoughts and feelings in raw, unedited form.

2) I found that the filtering and editing process necessary to post a public blog was simply too much like the responsibilities of my work as a pastor and leader. That kind of decision making and opening myself up to unkind and unfair criticism was the very thing I was trying to escape in order to do some honest self-assessment between just me and God.

So instead of blogging, I wrote pages and pages in a journal. But I’m not feeling shy at all about sharing with you how it went and what I’ve learned. In fact, on January 10, we’ll be starting a new Sunday morning series called "Chip 2.0" where you can learn all about my sabbatical, what God’s been doing in my life during these months, and the changes I think he’s trying to make in my life through this process. I hope that through this series you will not only be able to see how valuable and necessary this sabbatical has been, but it is also my hope that you, too, will be inspired to ask God what changes he might want to make in your life in the coming year.

I’ve had several discoveries on sabbatical. One of the first was realizing just how much I needed to do this. It really wasn’t until I took a break that I realized how depleted I had become. Apparently it’s not all that unusual, but I actually felt worse when I stepped out of the rat race before I started getting better. Mark Heinemann gave me a book before I started my sabbatical and it has become my constant companion. “Leading on Empty” is by Wayne Cordiero, a senior pastor in Hawaii, who shares about his own journey through burnout and depression. He has also collected stories from many other pastors who have had experiences similar to mine. Every time I pick up that book it’s like Wayne is describing just what I’ve been thinking and feeling. And almost every time I read it, the thoughts racing around in my mind prompt me to sit down and for about an hour to try to capture them and confine them to paper. Most of the first month, I’ve been enjoying the extra time with family and taking care of some of that personal business that gets pushed aside to accumulate in the busyness of a pastor’s life. Mostly, I’ve been trying to take it easy, eat well, exercise and rest everyday. For this next month, I’m going to focus in on learning about Sabbath. I’ll share more later on that. In the meantime, I’m headed off this week to New Mexico to visit my father who lives with my brother and two of my sisters. I’ll be up in the piny mountains—a great place to go for a walk and get alone with God and a good book. There are definitely many things I miss about being at Fellowship. But I’m more convinced than ever that taking a sabbatical was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I shouldn’t have waited so long.

We love you, Chip Bell! Thanks for taking care of us for the past 12 years! We’re glad you’re taking some time to replenish.