Thursday, February 7, 2008

The beginning steps in the journey.

This journey began at Evergreen Presbyterian Church’s annual congregational meeting in January 2007. Pastor Lance had left the meeting while the congregation reviewed his terms of call (Presbyterian lingo for compensation package). A member of the congregation suggested that the church should begin the process of talking to Pastor Lance about having a sabbatical. The Session (Presbyterian lingo for church board) was giving the task of looking into the possibility of a sabbatical.

In November 2007 the Session met as a working group of Session (not an official Session meeting as Pastor Lance was out of town due to a family emergency). The idea of a sabbatical was discussed at length. The Session was very supportive of the idea of a sabbatical for Pastor Lance.

In December 2007 the Session voted to endorse a three month sabbatical for Pastor Lance in 2009. The Session looked at the 2008 National Clergy Renewal Program by Lilly Endowment Inc. A team was to be assembled to help write the proposal.

During the January 2008 congregational meeting the proposed sabbatical was discussed, as was the possibility of a Lilly National Clergy Renewal Program grant.

The proposal writing team has been hard at work. The deadline for the completed proposal is may 14, 2008.

2 comments:

Brenda W said...

Actually, I think the idea of a Sabbatical came up at a congregational meeting about three years ago, when a member brought it up unsolicited. It was right when we were starting Saturday night service, so the timing didn't seem very good.

Brenda W said...

We once had a boat named Sabbatical - just so we could say, "Lance is out on Sabbatical". This is probably why I always want to capitalize the word.