Blog | Lead Pastors: Preparing to Take a Sunday Off
Lead Pastors: Preparing to Take a Sunday Off
Everyone in the church takes days off – whether for vacation or just to rest for a Sunday. That’s simply part of living a healthy lifestyle. You need time to yourself to recuperate and come back refreshed for your job. And while weekdays are often a good time to take work off, it’s important to have a couple Sunday’s away.
However, while everyone else has no problem taking a few Sundays to themselves each year, it’s rare that lead pastors of churches take of enough Sundays for themselves. Why is that, and how do you properly prepare to take a Sunday off?
Preparing to Take a Day Off as the Lead Pastor
Many lead pastors are afraid to take a Sunday off as they feel it’s their responsibility to always be there. But that’s not the case. You need the time to yourself to reenergize here and there, and that often warrants taking the occasional Sunday off.
If you are struggling to know how to adequately prepare for a Sunday off, here are a few things to be aware of:
Find Someone to Speak
“Wow. Thanks for the tip, Captain Obvious.”
I know, I know. No duh, you need to find someone to speak on a Sunday you’re gone.
But a lot of pastors don’t always strategically plan who subs in when they’re out. The truth is, you most likely have many people who would love to give a sermon on a Sunday morning when you’re out, but being intentional about who you pick is just as important as getting the spot filled in the first place.
1) Rotations
Is the person you’re thinking of asking to give a sermon someone who frequently gives sermons? Have they spoken several times in recent months?
If you’re going to ask someone to speak on a Sunday morning in your absence, make sure you’re putting them in a rotation with others who’d like to speak. Not only is it “fair” to do this, but it also builds up a leadership culture. When those who haven’t spoken in a while see that you’re actively rotating through their peers, they are more likely to remain aware and prepared of the opportunity to come their way.
2) Leadership and Pastoral Staff
This is perhaps the best place to find people who can fill in for you when you’re gone on a Sunday morning. Not only are those in your pastoral staff capable of handling the job – passing on the role of giving a sermon in main service to your pastoral staff keeps them actively engaged in supporting the mission of the church.
When you’re the worship pastor, children’s pastor, youth pastor, young adults pastor, etc., it can be easy to let the intentions, culture, and mission of the church drift out of focus when it doesn’t relate directly to your role. However, when these pastoral members are expected to actively engage with the congregation through main service sermons, it builds a collective relationship and trust between you and your pastoral staff.
Decide on the Sermon Topic
Your pastoral and leadership staff obviously need a bit of autonomy in this area. You don’t want to micromanage their message. However, at the same time, your congregation is expecting congruency in message, theme, and topic from Sunday-to-Sunday.
If you are currently in a sermon series, make sure that whoever is subbing in on a Sunday plans a message that can fit with the overall trajectory of the series. Not only will it keep the message series consistent – it will also make it easier for congregation members to digest, as they won’t be required to adjust to a new speaker and subject entirely.
Plan Ahead for More Than Just Sunday
If you’re only going to be out for a Sunday morning, there’s not much to be concerned about beyond finding a speaker. But when a lead pastor takes off a Sunday, it’s often assumed they’ll be gone for a few days leading up to or coming out of the weekend. If that’s the case, make sure you have everything organized and sorted out before you leave.
As a lead pastor, your week is filled with a ton of activities beyond sermon planning. You have one-on-one and team meetings with staff, volunteer management, emails, planning, and a slew of other activities that you tend to on a week-by-week basis. If you take a few days off but “Sunday morning” is the only thing you’ve actively prepared to step away from, you can expect to come back to a bit of mayhem (or worse, to never stop receiving panicked phone calls while you’re out.)
Figure out everything ahead of time – what meetings you need to cancel or reschedule, as well as if there are any significant events happening in the church while you are out. While you may not have anything going on, be informed on what is happening in all other ministries. Is the youth group having a retreat? Are their any big events in the children’s ministry happening while you’re out? Preparing ahead of time for everything happening under you and the ministries you lead is incredibly important to have a relaxing day off.
To Sum It Up
Taking a day off is important, especially as a pastor. While you may be out here and there during weekdays, there’s nothing wrong with taking off the occasional Sunday morning, as long as you’ve adequately prepared to do so.
Make sure you look into your own pastoral and leadership staff and rotate speakers for Sundays that you’re out to keep everyone actively involved in the main congregation as well as their own respective ministries. Have them plan there sermons around a topic that fits with the sermon series you’re currently in. If you’re going to be out for more than the Sunday alone, make sure you plan ahead for all weekly meetings, volunteer management, and major ministry events that you might otherwise need to be present for.
About the Author
Chris Fleming is a professional musician from Minneapolis, MN who has played with artists such as TAYA, Big Daddy Weave, and Jason Gray. He is actively involved with the worship music scene and has contributed as a drummer, music director, song writer, and producer for various worship artists and churches locally and nationally. Chris is the Motion Designer at Motion Worship, helping to create motion background collections and countdowns for our subscribers.
Love this. The way we do things is I am the Pastor. I will preach a 4 part series then do a Praise & Worship service where we don’t have preaching, just singing. Then I will rotate through the Ministers of the Church then another Praise & Worship before I start another series. At the moment, there are only 2 Ministers so I take 4 weeks off before another series starts. I may lead a service and always sing, but I’ve been rotating through who leads as well.
It lets the other Ministers preach and gives me time to rest and study up for a new series of multiple sermons.
Hey Steve!
I love that! Having the time to reflect and recuperate is super important. It’s also very helpful when you have reliable leadership and pastoral staff that can fill in.