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Seven years ago this summer Diane and I moved to Gig Harbor. When we arrived we had no children, no experience as a church pastor, no equity, and no idea of the wonderful gift of God’s call for us at Chapel Hill. It’s amazing to think how much has changed over the last seven years … how much I’ve grown, how God is using our children to make us more like Him, how my partnership in life with Diane means more to me now than ever before, and how we’ve fallen in love with you – our church.
In the midst of such rapid change, especially when it involves young children, it can be difficult to take time to reflect on all that God has done and is doing in us, or to find time for rest and renewal, or to dive into the discipline of study without feeling the pressure of tasks undone. And that is why I’m simply giddy about this summer. For three months, June through August, the Vaccaros are going to enjoy one of the most gracious gifts a church can offer to a pastor, a sabbatical!
We started dreaming about this nearly two years ago. I’m not sure how healthy it was to dream about it that far out, but it was fun to imagine what we could do. Then about a year ago I began applying for grants to help fund our dream summer. Unfortunately I did not receive either of the two grants I was really hoping for, so we began imagining a much less extravagant summer (like staying home). However, by God’s grace, a very stringent family plan for savings, and some accumulated study leave allowance, we’ve put together a sabbatical plan that we are extremely excited about.
I’ll kick it off with a week of solitude at a friend’s cabin in the Cascades. Then we’ll pull the kids out of school a few weeks early (don’t worry, they’ll be fine) and head to California for the third annual Vaccaro family reunion at Hume Lake (18 of us total). Then we’ll leave the kids with my parents while Diane and I embark on what may be the crown jewel of our summer (pun intended … you’ll see): a 13 day trip to England and Scotland. Most of our time will be spent in a little fishing village just around the corner from one of Pastor Mark’s favorite places, St. Andrews. Did I already say that I’m feeling giddy? When we return from Great Britain we’ll all head to Southern California for a month’s stay in San Clemente. Then in August, we’ll spend two weeks with Diane’s parents and a couple of weeks at my brother’s cabin near Lake Tahoe. We’ll drive home just a few days before Katelyn and Andrew start school.
Doesn’t that sound great? We think so too. But this isn’t simply a three month vacation; a sabbatical is a time for reflection, renewal, rest, and study. So I plan to do a lot of reading and journaling. Most of the books I’ve already chosen … they’re about theology, leadership, church, marriage, parenting and a growing relationship with Jesus. Before I leave, I’ll post all the books I plan to read on the church website so you can see what I’m doing. I’ll be taking my guitar with the hope of some new songs bubbling up over the summer. And we’ll be very intentional about hanging out with good friends whom we rarely get to see (like Stuart and Cindy Bond).
The sabbatical will also be a time for us to do some discernment work. I’ve been considering pursuing my Doctor of Ministry degree. This is a professional degree that I could pursue while still working at Chapel Hill Church. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be starting my work on this degree in the coming year. The questions are: where to go, what to focus on, and how to pay for it? Also, how will we deal with the impact on our family time that pursuing the degree will naturally incur? So we plan on spending plenty of time working on this together.
Finally, I’ll spend a lot of time praying for you and our church. Will you please also be praying for me? I want to be open to what God would have for me this summer; I want God to make me more like Jesus; I want to be a better husband, dad, and friend; I want to return energized and excited. Will you please pray for these things? I’m so excited about the stuff God is doing among us at Chapel Hill these days; I’m hopeful that my sabbatical will only benefit us as we seek to be the church God is calling us to be.
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