What I Did On My Sabbatical, Part III: A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem

I wish we had planned more time for the beach in Tel Aviv

Last November, we were in Israel with a group from FBC. At the time, our tour guide, Aviv (who has become a good friend), urged me to spend part of my sabbatical in the Holy Land. I’ve been fortunate enough to take two FBC groups there, but the thought of going simply as a pilgrim, with no responsibilities or schedule, sounded too good to pass up. So we flew from Louton, England to Tel Aviv, then the next day, took a train to Jerusalem, where we stayed in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter. Here are some of the things I will take with me:

—The power of unhurried time with God (even in an impatient city): Aviv picked us up one day and showed us some sites outside Jerusalem we had never seen (Abu Ghosh, Lachish, Kiryat Jearim). And we enjoyed some new experiences in Jerusalem, such as Hezekiah’s tunnel, the Western Wall tunnels, retracing Christ’s steps on Good Friday, and watching the nightly closing of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Aviv showing us the church built by Crusaders in Abu Ghosh

But early in the trip, a shopkeeper advised us to just “get lost in the Old City.” So we did. The heat was oppressive, so we had to rest in the afternoons, but we often wandered the streets at night, sometimes with a plan in mind, and sometimes without. I had shared with Aviv that I had learned the Hebrew word for “excuse me” (Slicha) and he laughed, “It won’t do you much good in Jerusalem.” He was right; everyone in that ancient city seems always in a hurry. But we found that walking slowly was how we could experience what God had for us.

My daughter making friends at the train station

—Modern Israel’s challenges. From our first day in Tel Aviv, we saw people walking with Israeli flags. We soon found out this wasn’t mere patriotism. They were headed to demonstrations against the current government’s proposed reforms to the Supreme Court. We saw these people throughout our week; one day, they were in the Old City, forming a human chain from the Western Wall to the Knesset. There was never any violence, and we never felt unsafe (Remarkably, even though by one estimate 1/3 of Israel’s population has participated in these protests, there has been no violence, property damage, or loss of life). But the day we flew home, there was talk of a nationwide strike, and we wondered if our flight would get cancelled (it wasn’t). Thankfully, the political unrest never really affected us.

But it did make us wonder what all the fuss was about. Thanks to conversations with Aviv and others, we learned the challenges in Israel run far beyond simply the Arab-Jewish divide. The Zionists who established the modern state of Israel in 1948 were mostly secular, European, and socially progressive. They have dominated Israeli politics and the military ever since, while the highly religious (especially Ultra-Orthodox) and immigrants to Israel from non-European areas have taken a backseat. But Israel is undergoing a demographic shift, and the political “have-nots” now outnumber the founding elites. Depending on who is telling the story, the current government is either the first to truly give the religious and non-European Jews a voice, or is exploiting long-simmering resentment to take over the nation.

Hezekiah’s tunnel was a highlight…and not just because it got us out of the heat.

Israel has no written constitution. The system of checks and balances that helps keep American democracy on its rails does not exist there. Instead, the Supreme Court is the only check on the power of the ruling party. This is why the attempt of the current government to limit the Supreme Court is causing so much unrest. If Netanyahu is successful, his opponents fear that he (or someone who comes after him) will be able to do whatever he wants; to be, in essence, a dictator for life.  Since some members of his coalition advocate extreme policies toward the Arab population in Israel, that could have serious ramifications for the world stage. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s supporters see these demonstrations as simply the fear and anger of a group of elites who feel political power should be their birthright. Either way, we should pray for the peace and stability of Israel. And remember: What you hear on US news sources about this nation is almost always over-simplified. The truth is much more complicated.

The Western Wall is spectacular by night.

—The People: Just like in England, I noticed that it was people, not experiences or food, that made the biggest impression on us (although the food in Israel is spectacular—hummus and pita, shawarma, falafel, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables…and ice cream).  Waiting for the train at Tel Aviv, my daughter Kayleigh befriended a young mom and her two small daughters, who noticed her cross stitch. On our walk to Gethsemane, we met Sue, a Taiwanese Christian who had spent the summer studying in Jerusalem. We made her part of our family as we read the account of Christ’s agony in the Garden and prayed together. On our trip with Aviv to the church at Abu Ghosh, we met Olivier, a French monk (who speaks fluent English, and Hebrew). For decades, Olivier has invested his life building bridges to Israelis, particularly soldiers. Busloads come to hear him talk about Christianity and monastic life. Whatever our theological differences, I am impressed by such an effective witness.

On our day with Aviv, we had a long conversation about what Baptists believe, the meaning of the word “evangelical,” and what worship is like in our church. In addition, we had a chance to see Aviv’s wife and kids, who Carrie and I had briefly met on our last trip, and meet his in-laws. That brings me to the last thing.

This synagogue was built under the Western Wall, as close as possible to the original Holy of Holies. The glove-like structure is an “ark” where they store their Torah scrolls.

—The meaning of Sabbath. Many businesses in Jerusalem, including restaurants, are closed from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday for Shabbat (the Sabbath). I asked Aviv what we should do for food that night, and he invited us to Shabbat dinner with his family. So it was that on Friday night, Aviv sent a cab to take us from the Old City to Beit Zayit, a suburb of Jerusalem, where Aviv’s in-laws, Eyal and Renee, live. Since it’s summer, sundown in Jerusalem is around 8:00. We typically eat like old people (5 or 5:30), so waiting was a bit of a challenge, but it was worth it. Renee served us a five course feast: Bread, salad, fish, meat, and dessert. Eyal assured me, “We don’t eat like this every night,” but it was an epic meal, nonetheless. They began with hymns in Hebrew (one of which was based on Proverbs 31). Eyal blessed his children (two of his daughters, including Aviv’s wife, were there). Along the way, we were treated like honored guests. The conversation with family and friends was rich and enjoyable. Kayleigh even had a chance to share her testimony of wandering away from faith and coming back to Christ. We made it back to our house near midnight with full stomachs and hearts. It was the highlight of our trip.

The Old City of Jerusalem is surrounded by its iconic walls. This is the Lion’s Gate, named for the four lions on either side (you may need to zoom in to see them).

Not long before my sabbatical, I read John Mark Comer’s book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. In the book, he shares his family’s practice of Sabbath: At sundown every Friday night, they turn off their cell phones, eat a big family meal, and for 24 hours do nothing but rest and worship. While on my trip, I read Ezekiel 20:12, Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy. The Sabbath is a gift from God, not a burden. It’s intended to remind us that we belong to Him. Then we spent that joyous time with a family who practices the Sabbath. Is God trying to tell me something? I’m still praying about that.

A birds-eye view of the Old City from atop the Hurva Synagouge. The gold dome is the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine that sits where the Temple once was.

In the week-and-a half after we returned, I was able to read a few more books (The Care of Souls, by Harold Seinkbell, Leadership Courage, by Kirk Kirlin, and Our Jerusalem, by Bertha Spafford Vester). We also attended two more local churches. It’s good to be reminded of what the experience is like for the people in the pews. I spent some time reading through the journal I’ve kept since 2008. And I got some more rest and time with my family. In the days before returning to work at FBC, I took another look at that Life Mission Statement I had written the first week. I wanted to nail down: “What will be different about me moving forward?” Here are a few hopes:

I will be more intentional about my own prayer life and leading our church to pray.

I will be less tethered to my phone and spend less time on social media.

I will remember that my job is not to preach sermons and write devotionals; my job is to make disciples. That means listening to people, finding out where they are struggling, and helping them to grow.

I hate to speculate about what my next sabbatical will look like. Only God knows what will happen in the next seven years, after all…we make plans, and He laughs. But if I’m still alive, healthy and able to be FBC’s pastor in 2030, I imagine the next sabbatical will be very different. I anticipate focusing on how to finish well. But until then, I hope that these six weeks have left me better equipped for the task ahead. I’m forever grateful for them.

What I Did On My Sabbatical, Part II

Origins of My Faith—Trip to England

First, the bad news. The night before we were to fly to London, I discovered that Will’s passport was expired. The cruel irony is that I had spent countless hours planning this trip in intricate detail; the fact that we had missed such an obvious and important matter was embarrassing and heartbreaking. Frankly, Will took it better than the rest of us. I think he was excited about the possibility of two-and-half weeks at home with no one to tell him what to do. But for the rest of us, it was a tough start. We shed some tears when he dropped us off at the airport.

Why England? Two reasons. First, Carrie and I were part of an FBC mission trip in 2019, working alongside two churches in County Durham, in the northern part of the UK. We fell in love with the people there, and wanted to revisit them. Second, I believe God used English Christianity in a unique way to spread the Gospel around the world. While on the trip, I read a biography of William Carey, the English cobbler’s apprentice-turned missionary to India who sparked the modern missions movement. When you consider also the names of influential Christian leaders and authors over the past four hundred years, so many of them are English: From Spurgeon to CS Lewis to NT Wright. So God only knows how many millions of souls have come to know the Gospel thanks to English Christians. And being an American of primarily English heritage, my own ancestors first heard about Jesus in England. I saw this trip as an opportunity to go back to the roots of my own faith, while encouraging some of today’s English Christians in a time when they are very much in the minority.

County Durham, where we stayed, is in the red.

Here are some of the things we experienced:

–At Vindolanda, we toured the ruins of a fort—and the village that grew up around it—inhabited by the Roman legions during the pre-Christian days. They also have a rebuilt section of Hadrian’s wall there that shows what it must have looked like when it was first constructed.

Nave of Hexham Abbey

—Hexham Abbey dates to the 600s. The only part of the church that is original is the crypt, built out of materials left over by Romans. In fact, there’s a tombstone there for a Roman soldier; it depicts him on horseback trampling a barbarian. The choir area of the church is decorated with a series of Medieval panels known as the “Dance of Death.” They depict “death” dancing with a King, an Emperor, a Priest and a Pope. It was a reminder to those medieval Christians that, no matter what our status in this life, death comes for us all. Hard to imagine that kind of decoration in a modern church!

Tombstone of a Roman soldier (shown trampling a barbarian) Hexham Abbey

—Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is known as the Cradle of English Christianity. England’s first Christian King, Oswald, asked an Irish monk, Aidan, to establish a priory on this island in the 600s. When Aidan died, he was succeeded by Cuthbert, a colossal figure who was influential even after his death, as Lindisfarne became a site for pilgrimages to visit the saint’s tomb. Later, it was invaded and sacked by Vikings, and Cuthbert’s tomb had to eventually be moved to Durham. Today, you can only access Holy Island via a narrow causeway that is accessible at low tide.

Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island

View of Durham Cathedral as seen from the viaduct across the river Weir

—Durham Cathedral: This beautiful, ancient place is not only the site of Cuthbert’s tomb, but also that of the Venerable Bede, Cuthbert’s protégé, who became not only a biblical scholar, but one of the greatest historians of all time.

Bede’s tomb, Durham Cathedral

—Warkworth Castle: For many centuries, this was the home of the Percy family, the rulers of Northumbria. It’s now nestled in a beautiful small town on the coast of the North Sea. Our tour showed us what life was like in the Middle Ages. Just across the river from the castle is a small Hermitage. There, a hermit lived, whose sole job was to pray for the Percys. What a shame that this powerful family outsourced their prayer life to another person!

Warkworth Castle, home of the Percy family, Lords of the North

—Beamish museum: This is a “living museum,” essentially a ghost town that was rebuilt to reflect life in the 1820s, 1900s, 40s and 50s, complete with actors in period dress showing you the slice of life. And yes, there were churches in those different eras, as well.

—Current English Christianity: I preached the first Sunday at Blackhill Baptist Church in Consett. While there, I was able to baptize Leanne. Carrie and I, along with Kim Hutchins, became friends with Leanne on our mission trip nearly four years ago, and have kept in touch. At the time, Leanne was attending Blackhill, but had not yet committed her life to Christ. In the years since, she has given her life to Jesus, and the Sunday we were at Blackhill, she made it official. (I should point out that the people of the church deserve credit for winning her to Christ, not us). She shared her testimony before the church, and I was honored (alongside Pastor Paul of Rowley Baptist) to baptize her. Before the service, her daughter was handing out bookmarks Leanne had made that read, “Lay down your old chains, take up your new name.” These words, from her favorite song, “One Step Away” (which was played before her baptism) sum up what has happened in Leanne’s life. Hallelujah!

Leanne’s baptism at Blackhill Baptist, Consett

The following Sunday, I preached at Rowley Baptist. This church dates back to the 1600s, started by a lecturer at Hexham Abbey. The church building and its small congregation are beautiful.

One more experience with local worship: We took in an Evensong service at Durham Cathedral. It wasn’t a typical service, but a memorial for the recently deceased head of Durham University’s Archaeology department, Dame Rosemary Cramp. Though we had never heard of Dame Cramp before that service, it was obvious she lived a remarkable life, and I was glad to hear (if only briefly) of her faith in Christ. Besides, just singing a few hymns and hearing the sounds of a choir (even a guest choir from Berkely, as it turns out) in that beautiful, historic place was moving.

–Of course, it wasn’t all work and learning. The countryside in the north of England is spectacular, with rolling hills full of sheep. The temperature never rose above 65, a welcome respite from our scorching summer. Our rental house was in a rural area near several public footpaths, so we took long walks every day. There was a newborn lamb near us that we watched as it frolicked. We enjoyed English food (in spite of its reputation); fish and chips, steak pies, roast pork sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, and most of all, sticky toffee pudding were big favorites.

Most of all, we enjoyed the people. Everyone we met was gracious and friendly. The accent in that section of England is a little hard for us Texans to decipher, but it’s still lovely to hear, and we enjoyed learning the English terms for familiar things.  We weren’t able to visit our friends in their homes due to them dealing with illness, but we did see them at church and were able to catch up a bit at post-worship lunches. And on our train trip to Louton at the end of our journey, we enjoyed getting to know a sweet English lady named Ann. We were two hours into the trip before she realized she was sitting with a Baptist preacher from Texas and his family! I hope we were an effective witness to her, and others.

It was nice to be able to take long walks in the midafternoon in July!

What I did on my Sabbatical: Part I

First, I thank God for a church that allows its ministers to have a sabbatical. I know this isn’t a benefit most people have in their own jobs (although, in my opinion, we would all be better off if they did). These six weeks have been so life-giving and helpful to me.  As I have said several times, it’s my desire to be at FBC Conroe until I retire, pass away, or the Lord returns. And while I love my church and what I do here, I can’t ignore the statistics on pastoral burnout. More importantly, I want my time here to result in a stronger church that makes a bigger impact on our community; in other words, to see us bring peace to the chaos in Montgomery County for years to come. I truly feel this time away has helped reorient me toward a long-lasting, more effective ministry.

There may be far more detail in this report than anyone actually wants or needs. But here’s how I spent my sabbatical and what I learned. I broke it up into three different parts: The prayer retreat, the trip England, and the trip to Israel

I. Prayer Retreat

On Tuesday of my first week, I traveled to a house in the Hill Country owned by some gracious members of our church, who allowed me to use their house rent-free. The goal for the week was to improve my prayer life and renew my relationship with the Lord. My loose itinerary was to spend time praising God (I brought a hymnal), praying, reading Scripture and books about prayer, and leave the rest up to Him. I chose to fast the first twenty-four hours I was there. Since I was asleep for around 8 of those hours, the fast wasn’t physically difficult, and it helped set my mind on the things of God.

The times of praise were sweet. I sang hymns I haven’t sung in years, and read some I have never sung before. I also enjoyed singing some newer songs that I experienced at Student Camp a few weeks before my sabbatical. I ended up making a Spotify playlist of the songs that were meaningful during this week, and it became my soundtrack for the rest of my sabbatical. Click below if you’d like to hear it.

I read several books during this time, but the ones that I found most helpful were:

Praying with Paul, by DA Carson

The Resilient Pastor, by Glenn Packiam

How to Win the West Again, by Tim Keller

I also spent some time writing a Life Mission Statement. This was a suggestion from one of the books on Sabbatical I read earlier in the year. A Life Mission Statement is a way to answer the question, “What is my life about?”  At nearly 53, I may have ten to fifteen more years of effective ministry. I may have less than that (God only knows). I want to make the most of the time I have. I DON’T want to chase after the wrong things.

I followed the instructions to create this Statement:

1. First, I listed out my life verses, or passages of Scripture that I find particularly challenging/inspiring: Ephesians 2:10, John 15:5, Colossians 1:28-29, Hebrews 12:1-2, 1 Peter 1:3, Revelation 21:3-4
2. Next, I wrote down everything those passages tell me about who I am in Christ, and what He desires to do in my life. For example: “I am a sinner saved by grace.” “I am His servant in accomplishing the good works He prepared for me ahead of time.” “I am in danger of wasting the treasure that is my life apart from His presence and guidance.” “I am a proclaimer of His name.” “I am a builder who labors so that I can someday present men and women complete in Christ.” “I am a messenger sharing a living hope because of the resurrection of Jesus.”
3. I took all those truths and gelled them into a single statement of mission: Pursue Jesus with all my heart; Preach Him effectively; Present people complete in Him, until the day I see Him face to face.
4. Finally, I listed my roles (husband, father, disciple, pastor, etc). I ordered the roles in importance, writing a goal for each one to help me accomplish my mission, and a list of action steps to move me further toward each goal.

Here are a few takeaways from that first week:  

            Our bodies crave sleep. I found this out the first afternoon. This sabbatical followed an exceptionally busy few weeks for me, including Vacation Bible School, Student Camp, and helping my father and brother with some cattle work the Saturday before. When I got home from worship on my last Sunday, I collapsed on the couch. I almost never nap unless I’m sick, but I slept much of the afternoon. It’s as though my body said, “Aaaaah…now for some rest.” This continued for the next few weeks. Ordinarily, I struggle to sleep more than seven hours in a night, even on weekends. But on “sabbatical time,” when there was no hard-and-fast schedule, I often slept eight hours or more.

            We all need to unplug. One of my goals for the sabbatical was to break my phone addiction. I put my phone on “Do not disturb,” so that it would not alert me to any texts or calls (aside from my family). Getting away from home was also important. There are so many visual reminders of my normal responsibilities, as well as distractions, that it would have been hard to focus on what God wanted to teach me. Of course, I can’t live that way in “real life.” As a pastor, people need to be able to contact me, and I need to stay in touch with others. But I can and must find ways to unplug every day, at least for a while. In addition, I believe every Christian should find a quiet place away from the everyday demands and distractions to just be still before God (even if it’s just a room in their house). Maybe the idea of a “Life Mission Statement” isn’t for everyone, but we all need to find ways to quiet our minds, so we can hear our Father speaking.

Prayer is the answer. I can’t get over the unthinking arrogance we contemporary Christians so often have. We make spectacular plans to accomplish big things for God, leaving nothing to chance…except we fail to ask Him to be part of it. Oh, we pray. But our prayers are often just an add-on to the “real” work of planning and executing ministry work. Is it any wonder we’re not reaching our society the way we once did? By the end of the week, I had come up with a new plan for my own prayer life, as well as ways to increase prayerfulness at FBC.

I came home on a Friday. On the next Sunday, my first Sunday out of the pulpit, our family visited a local church. I was amazed at how moved I was by the corporate worship. After several days of being alone with God, being in the presence of a large crowd praising Him together was almost overwhelming to me. It was a great reminder: If you want Sunday worship to become more meaningful to you, spend more time with God during the week prior.

The next week, we boarded a plane for a trip that I had been planning for months. That’s the next post.