Well, hi, everyone. Good morning to you. Well, at least it's good morning to me. My name is Pete

Gazzara. I want to welcome you today to the emotionally healthy leader podcast. And our topic today is

sabbaticals, part two, how to plan for a transformational sabbatical. Now, last week, we talked on

part one, what a sabbatical is and why every leader needs one.

And what's made this podcast in particular is such a fantastic experience for me is the amount of questions and case studies that I received, the challenges someone of you sent in to my social media account at Pete Scazaro.

So thank you very much. It's made it just

fabulous and so stimulating for me to go down roads I hadn't really thought of. So let me just

start with a question, one of the questions that came in, which was this, how do I ask for a

sabbatical without sounding selfish? How do I ask for a sabbatical without sounding selfish? Well, the answer is

do it theologically, thoughtfully, and prayerfully. A church or a community is an ecosystem, a fragile ecosystem,

and there are things that need to be dealt with to keep

it healthy as a community, needs healthy leaders, healthy people. And so you've got to be viewing

the church or the ministry from the long-term perspective that we lead and serve into the world out of the overflow of the life

of Jesus in us. We don't just go on autopilot doing activities. Every ministry is fragile. Doesn't

matter what size it is, whether it's 20 people or 5,000 people. And the reason it's fragile is because it's so dependent on Jesus. In other words,

that we're actually flowing with him and loving union with his life flowing through us on all

levels of the ministry. And the reason you're asking for a sabbatical is because not that you're selfish,

it's actually the most unselfish thing you could do, is because you love the people. And you love

the ministry and it's charism and its mission in the world. And you're teaching, you're modeling, you're bringing deep rhythms

into this church, into the lives of people in a way that a sermon could never teach or a message.

It's coming out of your life.

So there's so many profound things that are happening through a sabbatical and sabbatical.

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