Summary:

In this episode of the Ministry Forum Podcast, Rev. John Borthwick explains the concept of "inter-mission" in the Presbyterian Church in Canada, a 10-week paid leave for ministers designed to provide rest, renewal, and spiritual reflection. Surprisingly, many ministers are unaware of this opportunity, which has existed since 1992 and was revised in 2022 to be more flexible.

John shares insights from his own experience, having taken three inter-missions throughout his ministry. He highlights the importance of stepping away from the demands of ministry to recharge and avoid burnout. The conversation covers practical aspects, like planning with your congregation, securing pulpit supply, and setting boundaries during the break. John also discusses the benefits for both ministers and congregations, as intermission allows for personal rejuvenation and introduces new voices to the church community.

Quotables:

• Inter-mission is an extended period of Sabbath… It's about stopping the practice of ministry and just being for an extended period of time. - Rev. John Borthwick

• There’s a lot of reasons why this is a really good idea for ministers… Ministers carry a lot of what you might call secondary stress or trauma, vicarious trauma. It’s a lot to be a minister in a congregational setting. - Rev. John Borthwick

• When I would come back, they would say, ‘Man, you come back so energized, so refreshed. We can tell. - Rev. John Borthwick

• If this can be part of the practices that sustain someone in ministry, then I think this could be a really valuable piece. - Rev. John Borthwick

Additional Resources:

Intermission Policy of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (2022)

Sample Inter-mission Proposal to Presbytery (Rev. John Borthwick, 2022)

Sample Inter-mission Letter One to Congregation (Rev. John Borthwick, 2022)

Sample Inter-mission Letter Two (detailed) to Congregation (Rev. John Borthwick, 2022)

Knox College, Toronto - Centre of Lifelong Learning

About Rev. John Borthwick

John Borthwick leads Ministry Forum as the Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Knox College. John knows intimately the ups and downs of congregational ministry. Having served in congregational ministry for 25 years, John has lived it and, as he would say at times, just survived and often thrived in this unique and challenging role. He is passionate about supporting ministry leaders as they answer the call to serve. During COVID-19, John responded to the needs he witnessed among his colleagues and friends by creating The Abbey, a virtual space for community and learning. He intends to translate his recent experience on a much larger scale as he stewards Ministry Forum. John looks forward to being available to ministry leaders - reach out to him today!

Follow us on Social:

Transcript

[Introduction]

Welcome to the ministry Forum Podcast coming to you from the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Knox College, where we connect, encourage and resource ministry leaders all across Canada as they seek to thrive in their passion to share the gospel.

I am your host, the Reverend John Borthwick, Director of the Centre and curator of all that is ministryforum.ca. I absolutely love that I get to do what I get to do, and most of all that, I get to share it all with all of you. So thanks for taking the time out of your day to give us a listen.

Whether you're a seasoned ministry leader or just beginning your journey, this podcast is made with you in mind.

[John Borthwick]

Most people, when they hear the word Inter-mission within the Presbyterian Church in Canada, they have no idea what I'm talking about, and that, to me, is a really disappointing and sad reality.

Inter-mission has existed since 1992 in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. That's when it was first approved. I've met so many ministers who've served long service who had never heard of it and never had an opportunity to take one in their entire ministry career, from maybe they were 25 years old when they started, all the way up into their 60s, never heard of it, never knew it existed.

And so one of my missions that I'm on personally is to make sure that people know what Inter-mission is and how that they can take advantage of it. Because I do believe it can be an amazing opportunity to support one's resilience in ministry, to have an opportunity for an intentional break, to have an opportunity to find time for reflection, for growth, for renewal, for revitalization. And what you'll discover, as I talk a little bit over the next 20 minutes or so about Inter-mission, what you'll discover is the Presbyterian Church in Canada's Inter-mission policy, which is traditionally like a sabbatical policy, is quite unique, and what it offers is quite fascinating.

So let me dive into some of the details. Inter-mission in the Presbyterian Church in Canada is an extended period of Sabbath. It's self-funded. It's 10 weeks of full time leave pay, so you'll be paid by your church. Nothing would change while you're away for those 10 weeks, the minister is responsible for pulpit supply during the time away, sometimes and in some situations, there can be conversations around the minister also providing some other financial resources. Those would be fairly unique situations. Most of the time, a congregation will bear those costs if necessary. Traditionally, what happens is a minister is away for 10 weeks from their current congregational setting, and within that time, essentially just pulpit supply as needed - And the hope is that the congregation will step up in those other areas for some context, maybe they'll need more support, more pastoral care, support, things like that. But again, as I describe what Inter-mission is and how one can go about it, you'll find that there's ways in which you can find those supports in a variety of different ways that may not end up costing either the church or yourself much, much more so.

Why would you do an Inter-mission? And why was it created in 1992 and then revised in 2022? The way the Inter-mission Policy of the Presbyterian Church in Canada is outlined is actually quite beautiful. It speaks of rest. It now speaks of a time of study. The original document from 1992 suggested, do no study don't take study leave. Don't write the great Canadian novel. Try to do as little as possible.

In this new policy from 2022 - so just a couple of years ago, it was revised to add in that for those who'd like to do a tiny bit of study or do some things that would be helpful, maybe in that area of expanding their minds or doing things like that, then the invitation is yours. I think what I would like to say about the policy itself is it leaves a lot of room for your own interpretation, a lot of room for you to decide what would be best and most meaningful for you in whatever season of ministry you're in. I had the opportunity to take three Inter-missions, and each one was different, in some cases due to family circumstances, in some cases due to my own needs in ministry, and in other cases, just at the time of life and everything else that I was in. It also speaks about reflection and renewal. It literally says that it's time for you to take off the mantle of ministry for an extended period of time, to give yourself a time for rest and renewal. And if you have family or friends or social relationships you want to be a part of, it encourages you to take time to really rejuvenate and renew those kinds of things, and also spend some time maybe in some kind of spiritual renewal, whatever that might look like for yourself. It's really about stopping doing the practice of ministry and just being for an extended period of time.

Now, lots of people ask, “well, how would I go about doing this? What's the process? What involved?”

What I love about the new policy, which was approved in 2022 is that it isn't as prescriptive. In the sense that we as Presbyterians, once we see something in writing, we assume that that somehow is a rule. And so I have actually seen conflict in churches erupt related to the Inter-mission from the previous policy, where it spoke about how one would go about allocating money - the minister to allocate money. There was a specific kind of like saving formula that you'd work out with your congregation. I always saw that as a suggestion, and I did check with national office, and they said it was a suggestion, too. And so in my case, I used continuing education funds, accumulated continuing education funds to pay for the pulpit supply. And after my first one, I began a regular sort of moving, allocating continuing education funds annually so there'd be a buffer or a bank of Inter-mission monies after the next or for the next one five years later.

So, this policy doesn't specifically say how you go about doing it, but reminds you that it's your responsibility as clergy within the Presbyterian Church in Canada and as ministers or professional church workers in the Presbyterian in Canada, especially for ministers… that's the other nuance of this. This policy from 2022 it speaks very specifically to ministers and congregations, which is a change from the 1992 policy, which was professional church workers. And so, one would want to clarify some of that if you're not clergy and not under the oversight of a presbytery, but as with everything in the church, ministers come under the oversight of presbytery. And so if you're interested in an Inter-mission, you would have to apply for an Inter-mission to the presbytery that you're a part of.

One thing to consider in that journey, and what I did as a part of it is this isn't something you'd want to do: just apply to the presbytery and then all of a sudden, tell your session or your congregation. I applied. It was approved, and I'm going to be gone for 10 weeks - might be a good idea a year out!

So if you knew you wanted to take one next year to maybe start a conversation with your session about what that might look like. Maybe you have a personnel committee or an HR committee at your congregation, speaking to them about this idea first, and maybe seeing if they would come on board or get a better understanding, and then be some solid advocates for you within your own session sometimes, and I've seen this. For some others, it's been helpful to have a colleague who's taken in an Inter-mission come and speak to the session about the benefits and the goals of an Inter-mission and what this is all about as a way of, sort of softening that spirit within a congregation.

In many congregations, hearing about this, people would see it as a bit of a sabbatical and would probably have no trouble with it at all. In some congregations, people might find it a little excessive. We have to remember the privilege that clergy sometimes have to even have this as a policy, embedded in our work and life, where we get 10 weeks paid leave to do nothing. There are a lot of roles and jobs where you might get that now.

I'm one who would say there's a lot of reasons why this is a really good idea for ministers in order to stay sustain their ministry. And so it's important to think of it and see it that way, and speak about that in that way as well, that this could be a real benefit to the longevity of someone in ministry to support the work that they do. Because ministers carry a lot of what you might call secondary stress or trauma, vicarious trauma. It's a lot to be a minister in a congregational setting. It's taking in a lot of other people's stuff, and to have a moment a time when you can step away from that completely for a period of 10 weeks can be sustaining if you want to stay in ministry for a long time and that's my goal. I would love to see ministers stay in ministry for as long as they can. And if this can be a part of their all the different practices that they do to sustain themselves in ministry, then I think this could be a really valuable piece.

And it was certainly a part of my long term and long range, sort of sustainable practices and for resilience for myself, that I knew that when things were feeling a little overwhelming, a little challenging, if I knew I had an Inter-mission coming up in a couple of years, two, three years, there was a sense of, okay, I know I'm going to have this extended break, maybe if I was working a little harder, adding some more stuff to my plate before an Inter-mission, I knew that an Inter-mission was coming and I was going to be having a bit of a extended break, and that's where I'd sort of refresh and get renewal.

Not to say I didn't have practices daily and weekly and even monthly and throughout the year to sustain myself in ministry. But this was one of the big ones, related to how I sustain myself to do a long term pastorate, but also if you've served in several different congregations, if you can fit the every five years in a common sense kind of way, it could help you sustain yourself in ministry for many different pastorates as you go. So first, you need to maybe have that conversation with your session and see if you can find some advocates as a part of it. Then, as gently as you can put it, or however you navigate that, with your own session in conversation. You don't really need the sessions approval. I always made it that they voted, voted for it, to vote and make a decision that I would take this specific time and do this as a part of it, I'd give them as much information as I possibly could. And then, as I did, after I did the first one in my own setting, I embedded it. I also suggested another motion that they approve, that this be the case for any minister who serves at the church. So if this is the first time anyone's ever taken an Inter-mission in your own congregational setting, I'd really encourage you, if you can, for the sake of others, to just sort of start to the process of embedding this as a part of it. We went a further step in the presbytery, where I served at Waterloo-Wellington Presbytery, where we actually at a presbytery level, we embedded it into every call. So if you're called to the Presbytery of Waterloo-Wellington, in your call, it says you are encouraged to take an Inter-mission every five years of service, and so thinking about those ways of sustaining an Inter-mission practice, not just for yourself, but for the sake of future ministries, is a really important thing to consider.

Another piece that's important to consider in this journey is making sure that your congregation, when it comes to that, starts to get more of the information. And so the first step session, and it's typically a year out, if you can, I know of certain circumstances where, especially having been through the pandemic, where it was important for a minister to take some time away and intentional time away. And so maybe they only plan six months in advance, and there were reasons for that. And so again, it needs to go to the presbytery.

In a Dropbox folder related to Ministry Forum I'll put a copy of my proposal that I put forward to the press retreat as it just a draft template that you might want to work from. It's actually just a page long. It's doesn't tell everything. It follows the template that the policy suggests, but it doesn't tell everything of every single thing, of single thing I'm going to do. It hits the basics, and that's what's important. And in my presbytery they were willing to approve such a proposal. Once it's approved, then, my timing was about six months before I was going to go on Inter-mission, would be the first letter that would go to the entire congregation. It would include the policy. There'd be a letter that had the policy with it that would speak about, you know what this is in the first iteration, what this is, why it's important what value it brings to me, what value it brings to the congregation. And I always exuded gratitude in a genuine way, but the gratitude that the congregation as a part of this journey, and the presbytery was offering me this space to take some time away, gave them a couple of highlights of what to expect, and then let them know that closer to the time, probably, like a month away, they would receive as much information as possible, because in these specific areas, because, in my experience, these are what concerns people who's going to be available for pastoral care or emergencies and who's going to be in the pulpit.

So there is some work you have to do in order to get that space in those 10 weeks away, but what it means is you would maybe set up all your pulpit supply in advance, if you can. It's also an invitation and encouragement, and certainly from Ministry Forums perspective, we're encouraging this a lot. Maybe there's an opportunity for even one or two of the services to be led by some lay people in the church. There's tons of resources at the national church for special Sundays. When I took Inter-mission, it would always sort of hit around the time when we would have a mission awareness Sunday and there was already a guest preacher being brought in by the Missions Committee, and the congregation participated in the rest of worship, so it worked out fine. The other benefit to you as the clergy person means it's one less pulpit supply date to have to pay, and so that's something to consider. But also, as an encouragement to your congregation, is there a that that they could build some capacity around learning how they could share a service together. In on one Inter-mission I did, the music director took some leadership and offered a kind of a musical based service that had some congregational participation. So again, if there's ways you can have this be a time, a special time for the congregation to do some try some new things and to experiment when the cat's away, it can be a fun kind of experience for them as well.

The other thing I really leaned into was that this offers an opportunity sometimes for different voices to be heard, especially if you've been the only minister there for quite some time. So when you're thinking about pulpit supply, thinking about getting people who might be a different perspective, a different voice, looking at people with diversity and different kinds of experiences, can be really helpful to have a congregation experience that for a season of when you're away. The other thing to think about in this process is who is going to provide pastoral care support. Now, in some cases, there are retired ministers in congregational settings who might be willing to provide that for an extended period of time, over 10 weeks. In other cases, there might be colleagues within the presbytery who might provide coverage. In some cases, you might look to the congregation, if they're very concerned, might if they had some resources contract with somebody to do sort of that pastoral care piece to make sure that's going to happen. I've also seen it done where someone has had one person take all 10 weeks and also provide a little bit of pastoral care as a part of that. So they just add a little bit to their pulpit supply payment as a way of saying, if there was a an emergency, a pastoral emergency, a funeral or something like that, would you be willing to take that and if they would, that would work out. I've also seen this as an opportunity for students as well. If there's a student minister, this can be a good time to include them as well.

One other thing into the mix, the 10 weeks of Inter-mission in your year is not supposed to impact your vacation, and so you can actually tack your vacation onto your Inter-mission. So every Inter-mission I did was 14 weeks long. I added the four weeks just because I didn't know where else to put it. Now, as a part of that, it does mention, and there's a sense, again, of common-sense pieces to this if you're going to take an Inter-mission in one year. So the 14 weeks, it's best not to be away much at all around the bracketed parts of that of that year. So the policy has said and said, don't take study leave like before your Inter-mission or after your Inter-mission. And so give some thought to that as well.

And so the letter that comes out about a month before, or a few weeks before your Inter-mission. Again, sort of talks about it in a spirit of gratitude that this is going to happen, what to expect from you. And so I leaned in heavily to say I'm not available. I won't be checking email, I won't be answering my phone. I'm just not there. It's like I've disappeared off the face of the earth. I won't come back for anything. And we're going to talk about boundaries in a sec. But that's, that's a been a big part of it, because here's who's going to be covering the pastoral care. Here's your presbytery representative. That's another piece of it. Just in case there was something a session needed to deal with. You know that there's a person in presbytery who will sort of cover for you in those areas. And then here's the pulpit supply list, and it's all sort of covered.

One of the pieces that I used as well was with some colleagues. And one year I did, I had three different colleagues who took sort of periods of time where they would cover the session meeting, if it happened that there was a couple of session meetings in there, and then they'd also cover maybe pastoral care or pastoral emergencies, or they cover for each other, and again, another way of sort of supporting each other so that we can have this opportunity. And I did the same for them when they had Inter-mission. So in a sense, that's a bit of the how the policy talks about all these things. But again, in the folder, I'll provide what my proposal to presbytery looked like, what that first letter looked like to the congregation I served, and then what the second letter looked like.

One of the biggest challenges around Inter-mission is the barriers and the “why nots”, some of those are personal ones for us. So as ministering persons, I can imagine us thinking, and I've heard it said, from ministering persons, “I could never take an Inter-mission”, “I don't want to be away”, “I've got too much to do”, “I'd feel bad”, “I can't I just can't do it”. Congregation members may say the same, colleagues might even say the same. I bore witness to the first person in the presbytery I served who came forward to take an Inter-mission, and it was the first Inter-mission within our presbytery that was taken in this sort of official capacity. And I heard colleagues telling this minister, that they felt that the minister was not accepting their responsibilities, was letting their congregation down, was, in a sense, kind of showing weakness, that this was going to have a huge impact on their church, and they were going to be the cause of that. It was not a good night, and the presbytery, did not do a good job that night, but from the courage of that individual, who basically said, If I don't take an Inter-mission, I'm not sure for my own personal health, if I'll still be in ministry, and I'm not sure, I'm definitely not sure I'll be staying at this congregation. I'm not sure I can serve any longer. That minister did get approval to take an Inter-mission, and that minister is still in ministry today and has taken a second Inter-mission since. And so I appreciate and value someone who had that courage. If that’s not happened in your presbytery, sometimes these are some little hurdles that have to happen. I was the second, and then continued to advocated for it on a regular basis.

And within the presbytery where I am, several ministers have taken at least one, if not two, along the way. And so there's lots of reasons why we shouldn't do this, or couldn't do this, or it's not possible.

There's so many different barriers. Other practical barriers are sometimes the finances. The minister is responsible for pulpit supply. That's not a little bit of money, it's a significant bit of money. 10 times, if you go with the national church rate, I think it's about 180 or 190 per Sunday plus travel. Yeah, it's a significant amount of money. So planning might be helpful as a way of mitigating that challenge or barrier another way.

Another barrier around this process is some clergy say, “I don't know what I would do for that amount of time”, “I don't know what I would do with myself again”. Mitigations of that might be talking to some people, brainstorming with family and friends. Is this the time to take some time away? Could you go away if you want to? Would that be helpful

The majority of my Inter-mission time was spent in the town where I serve and that worked out just fine for me. But I know for some other people, they really need to get away. And again, the extra cost of where am I going to go and how am I going to get away, can be a real challenge as well.

Another barrier that the number of people talk about is, “how do I get pulpit supply?” And we are certainly living in a challenging time to do that. And that's where I talk about, you know, is there some creative ways in which your congregation can take some responsibility? I know for myself, self-promotion here at I guess, at Ministry Forum I can take at least one Sunday, possibly depending on where you're located, I'd be happy to cover at least one Sunday for you, and I know if some other colleagues are offering that as well. And just thinking about creative ways of covering pulpit supply these days and working more together, in some cases, we might even because we've lived through these pandemic times, maybe are there opportunities where your congregation could go on a walk-about for at least one of those Sundays? Hey, why don't you join the church next door, down the road in the next village for that Sunday? I've often scheduled it in times around late spring to early summer. And so for some even the summertime is kind of a different kind of season in the church. And so maybe there's opportunities for different kinds of exploration, again, that could possibly save the minister some money, and could possibly create some interesting times where you go on a season of sabbatical themselves, of checking out some other spaces, how to other places worship, meeting, some new people, those kinds of things. Hopefully, there's ways of overcoming these barriers, and I'm happy to talk to people and congregations and sessions if they want to talk about how we could walk through some of these “why nots” or the barriers.

The other hardest part of this whole journey is trying to maintain healthy boundaries. It is hard, and it got harder. I did three and strangely enough or not, strangely enough, I was in a congregational setting for 20 years. And the third one, which was a couple of years ago, was probably the hardest one ever.

Why was it hard in the first one, when I asked my partner after I announced on this Sunday, my last Sunday, that I'd be leaving and everything, I said, “do you think that announcement was okay?” Just the final sort of words as I departed, and they said to me, “oh, well, you couldn't have been clearer”. And clearly my, I think my sense of burnout - I think I was feeling a little overwhelmed in ministry at that time - was showing because she basically said “I got the impression that if I ran into you at the grocery store, I should just walk the other way”. And I certainly didn't want to give off that impression. But clearly how I was speaking, or how I was feeling, or how anxious I was as I was about to go on my first Inter-mission, it came off that way.

My the third one I had, which was the last one in congregational ministry. Um, 11 people died in the congregation I served while I was away. I didn't know about any of those deaths. The congregation and the leadership had been used to me being on Inter-mission of being totally out of touch. I resurfaced normally a day or two before I'm going to start, just to get a sense of what's in my email. What am I coming back to? I asked some key leaders what's happened. Is there anything I should know about? Interestingly enough, they actually didn't tell me about the deaths, which was so strange. They told me about some other things, but not that specifically. And so, there was a great sense that I think has been for some, the barrier to not. But a great sense of within my own person, I wasn't there for my people that I serve. And the greatest gift that the people 11 familie - so my first week back, I contacted and connected with all those 11 families. And what a gift to hear from people who maybe, you know, maybe they had the gift of having been used to me not being there on different occasions, but certainly half those families had only seen me take one Inter-mission, and a smaller percentage of them had never seen me take an Inter-mission. Every single family said, “Yes, we missed you”, “Yes, we would have loved for you to do the service or the celebration of life for the funeral” “Yes, we would have loved for you to have some more time with our family member, our loved one, but we were cared for by the church”, “You put the people in place”, “You made sure that there was people there who would care for us”, “They did a great job”, “They did a wonderful service”, “We're so grateful for this church community, how it cared for us”. If that can happen in the spaces that you occupy and serve, It's a good reminder that it doesn't all rely on us. And I think that's what Inter-mission could also teach a congregation, and also can teach us that we are indispensable - I think that's the phrase. We can be replaced, and we will be replaced. We serve for a season, and then we move on. And so reminding ourselves of that can help us to maintain some of those healthy boundaries. It doesn't all depend upon us. We believe that God takes care of the whole thing, and it's not all on our shoulders. And that's the reason to take that mantle off. That's that reason to give some time for you to have rest, renewal and to come back.

The other great gift that people have shared with me for the three times I did take Inter-mission, people would say to me two different things. One, when I would come back, they would say, “man, you come back so energized, so refreshed”. “We can tell,” and I could tell as well, I was able to take on presbytery commitments when I came back from Inter-mission, because I had capacity. I felt I had some space. I had some capacity. So I did agree to be moderator. I did agree to serve as an interim moderator. I did agree to do some extra things within my presbytery work and to take some things on within my congregation. But my congregation noticed that refreshment that was happening for me. And the other thing that people said when I'd taken my first and then my second, they and they knew this was sort of a rhythm, and I stuck around a while. I can remember them saying, “hey, is it time for Inter-mission yet?” And I tried to make sure I was taking that in the best spirit as possible. Not like, “hey, we need a break from you”, but more of like, yea, like, “this is something you do, and we want to encourage you to keep doing that”.

So I think the practice of maintaining healthy boundaries is something that we all as clergy need to work on regularly. But Inter-mission can be a real discipline for how one might do that. Some of the practical tips that I used for that I create a separate email address that I only give to a few people. That way I can shut down everything else and never have to look at it, never have to access it, and I have one email address that some people that I want to connect with me can connect with me. I screen my calls, I try to stay away from the things that might impact me. The interesting thing of the third one, I did, I found myself taking into it was part of the pandemic. I think I had collected so much stuff that I wanted to watch and read and learn in the pandemic season, and then the post pandemic season was still really busy, and I wasn't having time to catch up. So I thought, “hh well, I'm on Inter-mission, every few days, I'll watch a video about this, or I'll look at some material related to this”. I would never do that again because in one way that didn't allow me to disconnect fully from the church sort of world, because that got me spooling into what could I do at the congregational setting I serve? What ideas can I be generating? Things like that you need to put that aside, and maybe not do those things. Create some boundaries around that as well. So just thinking about boundaries is a really important piece of this Inter-mission journey.

The last thing I would say is around the benefits people, as I've said, sort of this presentation, many people saw the benefits within me that I didn't even notice fully. There were certainly times I took Inter-missions that I know I really, really needed it, and it was so beneficial. There were times I took an Inter-mission and it didn't feel like I really was desperate for it, because I was already doing some really good practices regularly. And this was just the more full renewal, the fuller cup kind of thing, it definitely can renew you for the practice of ministry, reinvigorate you around ideas, give you a sense of break and refresher.

The other fun benefits that I found was what I tried to do was encourage myself to do things that I wouldn't normally do. So one Inter-mission, I had a young daughter at the time. I had a young son too, but it was my daughter. My son was in high school, so going on class trips wasn't a thing, but my daughter was still in public school, and so I signed up for every single volunteer, parent volunteer for all the things. And that I wouldn't typically be available, and I wouldn't typically be the guy who signs up for that, and that was a fun and amazing experience. When I was on another Inter-mission, I intentionally tried to do certain projects and things that I'd never really learned before, I never really knew about before, and so I tried that as an opportunity, so finding other things to sort of occupy your time, but also spending time doing nothing. I had one Inter-mission where I committed to do one thing a day, and I sort of became a tourist in my own community. I did some social media about it, which actually the city where I serve, actually picked it up, and the city of Guelph asked me to do a blog post and share my story of the 100 things I did in Guelph where I would just do, you know, go to a park I'd never been to, go to see a museum, go at all these things, and because the time I was 14 weeks, it ended up being 100 days, and so the 100 Days was a meaningful time away. So, I hope you can hear that there's tons of different benefits that can be a part of it, not just for you, but also for your congregation.

So, I would really, really encourage you as an individual to talk about this with your congregation, and really encourage other colleagues to do the same.

[Outro]

Thanks for joining us today on the ministry Forum Podcast. We hope today's episode resonated with you and sparked your curiosity. Remember, you're not alone in your ministry journey. We're at the other end of some form of technology, and our team is committed to working hard to support your ministry every step of the way, if you enjoyed today's episode, tell your friends, your family, your colleagues. Tell Someone, please don't keep us a secret. And of course, please subscribe, rate and leave a review in the places you listen to podcasts, Your feedback helps us reach more ministry leaders just like you. And honestly, it reminds us that we're not alone either, and don't forget to follow us on social media at ministry forum, on all of our channels. You can visit our website at ministry forum.ca, for more resources keeping up with upcoming events and ways to connect with our growing community until next time. May God's strength and courage be yours in all that you do. May you be fearless, not reckless, and may you be well in body, mind and spirit, and may you be that peace.