Evangelical Free Church of America
Midwest District

Soul Care for Pastors

A bibliography of ways for churches to care for pastors and their families, and for pastors to care for themselves

General Soul Care

Retreat spots and Counseling for pastors:

  1. The Abiding Place (Eureka, KS) - A Queen Ann Victorian home built in 1903. A gathering place for retreats or time away with God for fasting and prayer. A place to ABIDE in Christ. (Donations accepted, but not required.)
  2. Alongside - helping Christian leaders and their families in difficult circumstances get away, get help, and find forward
  3. Antidote Ministries - Helping churches, ministries, couples and individuals affected by conflict to find healing and wholeness through a proper understanding of the love of God in Christ Jesus.
  4. Brotherhood Mutual Coaching and Counseling
  5. Crossroads Counseling of the Rockies - a safe refuge where hearts can heal
  6. Deer Ridge Retreat (Freeport, IL) - providing the gift of sabbath rest retreats for pastors and spouses
  7. Double Honor - a retreat center with several locations, "Our Mission is to honor, serve, and encourage those who lead in the Church"
  8. En Gedi Retreat - free for pastors
  9. The Full Strength Network- safe, affordable coaching and counseling for ministry leaders
  10. Hope Restored Marriage Intensives - a Focus on the Family brand
  11. Hospitality Homes
  12. Kerith Springs Lodge (Sisters, Oregon) - "A place, a time, and an opportunity for a pastor and spouse to rebuild their hopes, restore their vision, recapture their enthusiasm, and refresh their spirits." (Some accommodations can be free to pastors.)
  13. Marble Retreat - Bringing healing, hope and restoration to those in vocational Christian Ministry through Christ-centered intensive counseling
  14. Marriage Getaways by Focus on the Family (free)
  15. The Ministry Center Residential Discipleship (Adirondack Bible Chapel and Ministry Center) - a residential discipleship home that specializes in helping Christians grow, heal, recover, and be encouraged through biblical-based, Christ-centered discipleship and mentoring
  16. Mt. Eagle (in Arkansas)
  17. Prairie School - In Western Nebraska, hosted by our own Don and Nancy Cruise. Email Don at donrcruise@yahoo.com.
  18. Quiet Waters - On Lake Wylie, outside of Charlotte, NC, hosted by former EFCA pastor Dan Johnston
  19. Recentered Groups
  20. Restoring the Soul - Wake up your Heart. Heal your relationships. Restore your life. Get unstuck in two weeks to THRIVE.
  21. Ken Sande: Biblical Emotional Intelligence | Peacemaking
  22. Smalley Institute - for pastors who marriages need attention
  23. Sonscape Retreats - providing spiritual retreat, counsel, and community for pastors, missionaries, and other vocational Christian leaders and their spouses to extend God’s kingdom in the world
  24. Tarryall River Ranch - Near Tarryall, CO, they offer retreats for pastors and families (some scholarships available)
  25. WinShape Marriage Intensives

Sabbaticals

Recommendations:

  • I highly recommend a minimum of 6 weeks, preferably 8-12. If God is going to do a work in the pastor, it will likely take 3 or 4 weeks to get to that point. You don't want the pastor coming back a week after being deconstructed by God.
  • A sabbatical should (in my opinion) be taken all at once, not as a bunch of small extra vacation days. A contiguous block - not a week here, 2 weeks there, then another week later.
  • It's NOT a vacation. You normally can't get to the deep work of God in short break or vacation. Vacations have their own good purpose.
  • Sabbaticals are as much for the spouses as the pastors. Emphasize this and you'll get better buy-in.
  • Sabbaticals of 8 weeks or more usually come at 7 years of service - some churches are as frequent as 5 years.
  • Some churches shorten the time in between or lengthen the duration of sabbaticals with more years of service.
  • Before booking any plans, the pastor should submit a sabbatical plan to the church leaders, who should review and perhaps modify the plans to fit the written policy and purposes.
  • The church leaders should be the primary ones to communicate the sabbatical idea and plan to the congregation. This is something the elders are doing, not something the pastor finagled. They should reiterate several times that they are doing this for the good of the pastor, the whole family, and the church. They should emphasize that this is not the same thing as a vacation. It's good to also mention that this is a common practice for churches and pastors.
  • Sabbatical Metaphor for your church: It's like letting a field go fallow for a season - 1) It lets the soil rest; 2) It builds nutrients back into the soil; and 3) It gets rid of toxins. It's better for the farmer to let the field go fallow for a season, and it's better for the church to give the pastor a sabbatical for a season.
  • Therefore, include in each sabbatical plan: mandatory rest, mandatory time for building up / learning / seminar / reading list, and mandatory extended solitude with God (individually and as a couple).
  • A book-writing or sermon series planning "sabbatical" is a different kind of sabbatical. You might even choose a different name for something like that to keep the two ideas separate.
  • You want a pastor to go on sabbatical before he needs to go on sabbatical.
  • Many worry that a pastor or a church may decide during the sabbatical that they are no longer a good match. Don't let that deter you - if it takes a sabbatical to figure out you're not a good match, that's a good sabbatical.
  • Sabbatical policies should be written and should apply to all pastoral staff.
  • Make a sabbatical policy independent of the personality of the current pastor (unless you want to renegotiate the policy each time you call a pastor).
  • When calling a new pastor, this is a good time to make sure you have a written policy that's up to date. Communicate it to a candidate as part of the benefits package.
  • Some churches want the pastor to give the leaders and/or the congregation some kind of report of how the time was used and how it benefited him and the whole family, plus how it benefits the church. Other churches don't want the pastor to have to feel like he's justifying what they did on sabbatical.
  • Consider using sabbaticals to incentivize credentialing - a more generous sabbatical policy to those who have an EFCA license and even more for ordination.
  • No pastor who has been on sabbatical needs to be convinced to go on another. (Not a scientific statement, but illustrates the point.)

Resources

There are plenty available just by searching the web, but here are a few:

Special consideration for Pastors' Spouses

A sabbatical time is valuable not only for the pastor, but also for the pastor's spouse and family. (Note: This generic language is not meant to promote a particular view on gender and ministry, but acknowledges that churches use some key terms differently.)

  • Often, the pastor's spouse is not free to be away from the home as much time as the pastor. In this case, we recommend that the family arrange as much time away together as possible, but also make room for the pastor to spend some of the sabbatical away alone and some of the time at home, but still disengaged from the church.
  • Consider having husband and wife reading some of the same books in order to process some of the sabbatical together.
  • The pastor should consider how to make the spouse's needs a priority, and even the focus at some parts of the sabbatical.


Pastors' Wives

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