Nashville Area UMC Bishop Dick Wills Expects His Pastors to Do the Following:

1. Spend time daily reading scripture and allowing it to be what they live "out of."

2. Take at least one day off every week, no matter what.

3. Take a two-day retreat from church once a month to focus on spiritual growth and renewal.

4. Take a one-month sabbatical with pay once every quadrennium.

(Personally, I could go for a one-moth paid sabbatical once every four years.)

I think Bishop Wills has put forth a great plan for the pastors in his care. Our culture is so obsessed with productivity that many employers (and even employees) are stingy and wary when it comes to retreat, sabbath, and vacation. Taking time off to refresh ourselves makes us feel guilty and lazy; for businesses, too much paid vacation is often considered a bad investment. When someone is struggling, living paycheck-to-paycheck, we expect that person to work more hours or get another job. In the United States, we don't recognize a "right to rest," but rest is essential to living a healthy and abundant life.

I hope that the church (including all of its boards and agencies) and society as a whole should adopt some version of Wills' plan. Keeping the sabbath is, after all, one of the Ten Commandments (though many in the church consider sabbath far less important than condemning homosexuality). And, according to the Decalogue, not only are we to keep the sabbath ourselves, but we also are to allow a day of rest for anyone who works for us (even including animals).

(Hat tip: St. Phransus)