As you can tell, it has been quite a while since I focused any attention on this blog. However, as I enter the Summer of 2022, something new is happening in my life that I’m eager to share: I’m taking a sabbatical.

This time away from my duties as the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Mount Airy, North Carolina was originally scheduled for the summer of 2020. My congregation and I had applied for a sabbatical grant from the Clergy Renewal Program, which is funded by the Lilly Foundation; and much to our delight, our grant application was approved. We began our preparations, and in the early months of 2020 everything seemed just about ready to go. Then of course, the pandemic hit, and all of our planning was put on hold until conditions could improve enough for the sabbatical to proceed. Two years later, that time has finally arrived. And in just about a week, I’ll be setting off for three months of rest, reflection, and renewal that I intended to share in regular posts.

I’ll begin soon to offer some background on my sabbatical experience, along with a preview of what it will contain. But for now, I’m happy to invite you to take the journey with me. If you’d like to be notified when new posts are available, please subscribe in the sidebar.