10 Books for Rest, Renewal and Taking Time Off in Ministry
For pastors and church leaders, the rhythm of constant giving can slowly erode the well of spiritual and emotional strength if not attended to with care. Rest, renewal, and intentional time away are not luxuries, but essential parts of sustaining a healthy and faithful ministry. Whether you're considering a sabbatical, planning a retreat, or simply hoping to find a slower rhythm in your everyday life, these books offer wisdom, encouragement, and practical tools. Below, we've curated a selection of thoughtful reads to inspire rest and support your journey toward spiritual health and vocational sustainability.
Pastoral Pause: A Practical Guide to Renewal Leave
2024 | Greg Pimlott
In the demanding realm of pastoral ministry, where energy fades and the threat of burnout is ever-present, pastor Greg Pimlott offers a lifeline. With disarming humor and refreshing honesty, Pimlott invites us into his own transformative journey from burnout to spiritual revitalization, providing encouragement, inspiration, and practical tools for other pastors on the brink of exhaustion and considering a renewal leave.
From his candid account of the moment he realized he needed a break, to a life-changing encounter deep in the New Mexico desert, Pimlott shares poignant glimpses of life before, during, and after his leave to inspire his fellow clergy. Along the way, he provides spiritual and practical resources such as renewal leave checklists, budget-planning tools, book lists, reflection prompts, liturgies, and devotions to equip others on their journeys.
Pastors, facing the challenges of strained relationships, waning creativity, and diminishing spiritual reserves, will find solace and guidance in this invaluable and relatable resource. Take a break before you shatter - Pastoral Pause is your indispensable companion on the journey to self-renewal.
The Unhurried Pastor: Redefining Productivity for a More Sustainable Ministry
2024 | Brian Croft & Ronnie Martin
Being a pastor is not a regular 9-to-5 job. There is an unending list of important things to do as you seek to serve others sacrificially. The demands of ministry make it difficult to find a healthy rhythm of life and work, and can leave you running on empty. How can we develop a sustainable pattern of ministry that both honors the Lord and the people we care for and that will also protect us from burnout?
Ronnie Martin and Brian Croft have each spent decades pastoring churches and supporting ministry leaders. Here they encourage fellow shepherds to embrace a more present-focused, unhurried approach to ministry. They show how this starts with accepting their humanity, pursuing humility and remembering the hope they have in Christ. They also exhort pastors to fuel their ministry with self-awareness, prayer and contemplation of Jesus.
After giving a framework for this approach to ministry, the authors offer lots of practical advice regarding prioritisation, managing schedules and cultivating supportive friendships.
Read this book to deepen your joy, help yourself to serve others more effectively and continue serving God in ministry for many years to come.
Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again
2022 | Ruth Haley Barton
Will You Accept God's Gift of Sabbath Rest?In our frenzied culture, the possibility of living in balanced rhythms of work and rest often feels elusive. This rings especially true for pastors and leaders who carry the weight of nonstop responsibility. Most know they need rest but might be surprised to find within themselves a deep resistance to letting go and resting in God one day a week, let alone for longer seasons of sabbatical.The journey to a meaningful sabbath practice is slow and gradual, and it is a journey we need to take in community. Sharing her own story of practicing sabbath for the past twenty years, Ruth Haley Barton offers hard-won wisdom regarding the rhythms of sabbath, exploring both weekly sabbath keeping as well as extended periods of sabbatical time.In Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest, you'll find:Practical steps for embedding sabbath rhythms in churches and organizations, grounding us in God's intentions in giving us the gift of sabbath,An opportunity at the end of each chapter to reflect and engage God around your own journey with the material, andA conversation guide for small groups and communities to foster transformation on a community-level. Sabbath is more than a practice―it is a way of life ordered around God's invitation to regular rhythms of work, rest, and replenishment that will sustain us for the long haul of life in leadership.
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the ModernWorld
2019 | John Mark Comer
“Who am I becoming?”
That was the question nagging pastor and author John Mark Comer. Outwardly, he appeared successful. But inwardly, things weren’t pretty. So he turned to a trusted mentor for guidance and heard these words:
“Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life.”
It wasn’t the response he expected, but it was—and continues to be—the answer he needs. Too often we treat the symptoms of toxicity in our modern world instead of trying to pinpoint the cause. A growing number of voices are pointing at hurry, or busyness, as a root of much evil.
Within the pages of this book, you’ll find a fascinating roadmap to staying emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world.
Reset: Living a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture
2017 | David Murrary
"How did I get here?"
These are the words of many Christian men on the brink of burnout or in the midst of breakdown. They are exhausted, depressed, anxious, stressed, and joyless. Their time is spent doing many good things, but their pace is unsustainable― lacking the regular rest, readjustment, and recalibration they need.
But there is good news: God has graciously provided a way for men to reset their lives to a more sustainable pace. Drawing on personal experiences―and time spent counseling other men in the midst of burnout―David Murray offers weary men hope for the future, helping them identify the warning signs of burnout and offering practical strategies for developing patterns that are necessary for living a grace-paced life and reaching the finish line with their joy intact.
A Sabbatical Primer for Pastors: How to Initiate and Navigate a Spiritual Renewal Leave
2014 | David C Alves
Have you noticed the toll modern ministry is taking on our pastors? Pastors are in big trouble but have few resources to help. Pastoral fatigue and burnout cost the church more than just money; it costs lives, drying up the pastoral pool. More pastors and church leaders leave ministry today than in the history of the Christian Church. And I almost became a statistic. I learned the hard way how can we equip young pastors to plan for ministry longevity; and, help more experienced pastors foster the spiritual health and renewal that they need after years of ministry?More and more has been written about sabbaticals, yet few comprehensive, but simple, guidebooks are available to assist a pastor to initiate and maximize the gift of his or her pastoral sabbatical. This primer is designed to take a pastor through the sabbatical from conception to conclusion. It contains more than was available to me when I took both my first and second sabbaticals. Though not meant to be scholarly or exhaustive, the content accomplishes the purpose of a primer on spiritual sabbaticals.
Planning Sabbaticals: A Guide for Congregations and Their Pastors
2019 | Robert Saler
Sabbaticals are becoming increasingly common practice in congregations, and while there are many books on helping pastors prepare for their time away, there are no texts that approach the experience with the congregation in mind, from start to finish. This guide for congregations and their pastors draws on nearly two decades of wisdom from the Lily Endowment Clergy Renewal Program and helps draw the conversation away from a pastor-centric model and towards a holistic congregational framework for thinking about how the entire community can benefit from a pastor's sabbatical.
Time Away: A Guide for Personal Retreat
2010 | Paul H. Lang
Our fast-paced, noise-infused world provides little time for silence―for deep, dedicated, extended communication with God. Time Away offers welcome guidance for getting “off the beaten path” to pursue rich communication with the Creator. It presents a clear plan for deciding to make a retreat and then planning it, doing it, and bringing the gifts from it back into everyday life.
Author and Professor Emeritus of Christian Spirituality Ben Johnson, calls a retreat “a regular time to be away from the routine of life in order to focus your attention upon God and God’s intention for you.” He discusses how to prepare for this time away and suggests retreat outlines ranging from a half day to five days. Dr. Johnson offers questions and journaling topics to support individuals in dealing with the big questions and issues of their lives. He presents ways to enter into silence and reminds readers that this withdrawal from daily life can help people clarify or even change their perspective. Dr. Paul Lang’s chapter describes the particulars of a monastic retreat, and appendices offer lesson plans, tips for retreat leaders, and a Liturgy for Lauds and Vespers.
A retreat is “a time to sit quietly and wait for our souls to catch up with us―a time to invite our souls back into the center … to encounter the true Self, and to hear the voice of God.” With the encouragement and direction in Time Away, individuals can begin or enhance a lifelong habit of stepping outside the routine of life to enjoy the blessings of focused time with the Creator of the universe.
Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less
2016 | Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Overwork is the new normal. Rest is something to do when the important things are done—but they are never done. Looking at different forms of rest, from sleep to vacation, Silicon Valley futurist and business consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang dispels the myth that the harder we work the better the outcome. He combines rigorous scientific research with a rich array of examples of writers, painters, and thinkers—from Darwin to Stephen King—to challenge our tendency to see work and relaxation as antithetical. "Deliberate rest," as Pang calls it, is the true key to productivity, and will give us more energy, sharper ideas, and a better life. Rest offers a roadmap to rediscovering the importance of rest in our lives, and a convincing argument that we need to relax more if we actually want to get more done.
You're Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God's Design and Why That's Good News
2022 | Kelly Kapic
Work. Family. Church. Exercise. Sleep.
The list of demands on our time seems to be never ending. It can leave you feeling a little guilty--like you should always be doing one more thing.
Rather than sharing better time-management tips to squeeze more hours out of the day, Kelly Kapic offers a better way to make peace with the fact that God didn't create us to do it all by
● exploring the theology behind seeing our human limitations as a gift rather than a deficiency
● laying out a path to holistic living with life-giving relationships and meaningful contributions to the world
● freeing us from confusing our limitations with sin
● inviting us to rest in the joy and relief of knowing that God can use our limitations to foster freedom, joy, growth, and community
Readers will emerge better equipped to cultivate a life that fosters gratitude, rest, and faithful service to God.