I'm finally taking my first sabbatical from ministry

Here in Cambridge, England, I pray in the mornings, read St. Paul, walk in the afternoons—sometimes through soft English rains—and sip hot tea with cream. One Friday, while King’s College graduates were processing in their fur-lined academic hoods, I went so far as to eat a sausage roll and Chelsea bun. 

For the first time in my ministry, I am on sabbatical. I have ended up at Wesley House on Jesus Lane, far away from the church in North Carolina where I serve as senior pastor.

Back home there is a heat wave and the helter-skelter of summer ministry—VBS, music camp, fall planning—along with the ongoing surgeries, pastoral cares, and “summer slump” budget worries.