Does your church or organization have a policy governing when/how employees can take sabbaticals? For example, do they need to have served 6 years? … 7? 10? Do they get 3 months? … 6 months? 1 year? Do they have to write a book? Research a topic? Study at a university? Please summarize the main points of your policy by leaving a comment below. Of particular interest would be any books, online papers, or other resources that could be used to formulate policy. Thanks, in advance, for any help you can give
5) Searching For Protocols Governing Sabbaticals
September 27th, 2009 · 3 Comments
Tags: · retention, Retreat, sabbaticals
3 responses so far ↓
1 Brad Hillman // Oct 4, 2009 at 7:52 am
In 2001 I was serving with The Navigators member care team (PRT: People Resources Team) and helped develeop the sabbatical program for our staff. A 6 month sabbatical are encouraged for any staff who have served for 7 years.
We had 4 phases:
Pre-sabbatical Phase Release & Relinquish. How to exit from leadership roles and ministry responsibilities
Phase I Rest and Recovery
Establish margins & manage pace of life
Phase II Reflection and Refocus
Experience God and self in new or deeper ways
Phase III Realignment and/or Reassignment Enabled for maximum contribution
I’d be glad to send you the full 20 page guidelines or connect you with the guy that is now heading up sabbaticals for the Navs.
2 Loren // Oct 5, 2009 at 1:51 am
More and more pastors are finding that instead of one long sabbatical they are opting for more periodic 3 month long sabbaticals.
3 Marti // Oct 5, 2009 at 11:47 am
Here’s our agency’s policy –
Sabbatical Policy:
At the suggestion of a team member’s supervisor and after many years of service with [agency], a sabbatical may be granted. The purpose of a sabbatical is to renew and
refresh the employee so that they stay motivated and excited about their role in
[agency]. Only Exempt employees are eligible for sabbatical.
All requests for sabbatical leave must be submitted to the V.P. of Personnel, executive
vice president and team leader (U.S. Director must have approval from the board).
This request must come at least four months before the requested leave date. The
request may be denied if it is not possible to cover the employee’s workload. The
request for sabbatical time must also include a purpose for the time. Sabbatical time is
for reflection and renewal and should not be considered vacation time. After the
completion of the sabbatical time a written evaluation must be provided by the team
member.
* * *
I’ve been pursuing taking a sabbatical myself and have done a bit of research. Hard to find much about that seemed relevant to my situation, but I plan to talk to Navs too as it sounds like they have given this more thought than many other agencies. Most of what I found online was about sabbaticals for pastors:
http://www.pcusa.org/ministers/ministrydevelopment/sabbatical.htm
http://www.rca.org/page.aspx?pid=1903
http://www.pinmin.org/downloads/Sabbatical%20Policy%20Booklet.pdf
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