It’s the final day before I go back to Faith Church after my sabbatical. I’m ready to return, refreshed, stimulated, and eager to strike out in new directions.

My friend Steve Hayner was advised, when he was planning his sabbatical, “Describe your perfect day. Then string together enough of those perfect days to fill the time you’re away.” As a gift from God’s hand, I received three months’ worth of perfect days.

In spite of a year’s advance notice, there was a lot that could not have been planned. Each day when I was out of town, I was dependent on God to help me make contacts with people that would be beneficial. One contact would lead to another, and in God’s providence every day was meaningful and valuable, but God’s leading was “just-in-time.” My days were filled with thanksgiving that my heavenly Father was providing such a rich array of experiences, and I could never have known how to set them up in advance.

One thing I learned is that for me, a perfect day includes a certain amount of work. I think we were created with the capacity to take enjoyment from productive endeavor. With the right balance, work can be energizing and satisfying. And I did a lot of work on my sabbatical. I read, I studied, I wrote, and I often fell into bed weary from a day crammed full of new ideas and experiences, stimulating interactions and travel. But it was a “good tired,” and I drifted to sleep with deep gratitude in my soul.

On three occasions, well into my sabbatical, someone remarked, “Rick, you sound different. There’s a lightness in your voice.” What a revealing comment!  I may have pushed hard in order to maximize the time available, but in ways not fully understandable, God was replenishing me.

I will always be grateful to my church for making this transformative experience possible. This undoubtedly will be one of the high points of my life.

I’m in the Manchester, England, airport, returning to New Jersey after five weeks in UK. Becky asked today if I will be able to remember what side of the road to drive on when we return. I think the switch will come naturally, but after driving for several weeks over here, the left side seems “right.”

I came over here on sabbatical on the hunch that the church in UK is in trouble to a greater degree than in the States, and that the secularizing trend that has diminished its effectiveness is also in motion in the USA. I figured that whatever the church is learning in order to counter the cultural challenges will be of use to American churches as we face changing times.

But there was something more I wanted to experience while here. Rather than talk only with pastors of conventional churches about how they are dealing with decline, I wanted to encounter the truly radical, experimental forms of ministry that are born out of desperation. These are unconventional churches, to say the least, yet they are formed out of a fresh examination of the scriptures. So much of what Western Christians have come to think of as essential for a church may in fact be nothing more than cultural baggage that hinders our mission.

So, I decided to “drive on the wrong side of the road,” living in opposite scenarios in order to figure this all out. It has been a fascinating journey, very much worth while, stretching me in wonderful ways. I have loved being here and I leave with reluctance. When I return home and continue my reading I will have an updated data bank of experiences and conversations that will provide meaningful context for what I read.

Will I be content to go back to the right side of the road? Probably not. Sabbaticals can be life-changing spiritual journeys, and I think this is no exception. I still have several weeks left, with one more chapter of travel, course work, and visiting churches, and so it is too early to draw any conclusions, but already I can say how grateful to God I am for this extraordinary chapter in my life’s journey.

I got way behind in posting reflections in this web log while in UK, partly because finding internet access was a challenge and also because my days were so full I had little time for writing up my thoughts. In the coming days I will be adding further postings about conversations and experiences relating to my weeks here, even though they will be a bit out of sync.

One of the real treats of my first week in UK was sharing the experience with classmates from around the world. All are enrolled in Fuller Seminary’s D.Min. course, “Encountering New Ways of Being Church,” either for credit or, like me, as a graduate auditing the course. Here is a brief profile of some of the participants:

Silas – Chinese pastor living in Vancouver, BC. The church he planted eleven years ago is now planting three other churches.

David – Presbyterian missionary to Tibet

Richard – pastor of the state Reformed church near Bern, Switzerland

Dan – pastor of a multiracial, Pentecostal church in Los Angeles in a community where 80 languages are spoken

Lyn – a Salvation Army officer in Australia, teaching missiology in the SA training school, and pastor of an inner city church which has a ministry to those with mental illness

James – associate pastor in a Baptist church in Manhattan. In addition he and his wife lead a vibrant ministry for young artists, called The Haven.

Daniel – an American serving as associate pastor in Glasgow with the Church of Scotland. Before coming to Scotland served in ministry for seven years in Israel.

Bjorn – national leader for the Seventh Day Adventist churches in Denmark

And of course, the course leaders, John and Olive Drane. John is a minister in the Church of Scotland and former professor at the seminary in Aberdeen. A prolific author, he has written 72 books to date. John left his seminary teaching in frustration over the inadequate way students were being prepared for ministry – with the educational assumption that graduates were being sent to churches that could continue to thrive without adjusting to the new challenges of a post-Christian culture. As he explored what God was doing through “emerging” churches, he began to write about his findings. Soon Fuller Seminary picked him up as a guide for pastors wanting to discover new directions. His wife Olive has spent her adult years searching for creative, artistic and participative ways to worship.

Sarapian, a noted Christian in the fourth century, who traveled from his home in Egypt on a pilgrimage to Rome, “was told of a celebrated recluse, a woman who lived always in one small room, never going out. Skeptical about her way of life – for he was himself a great wanderer – Sarapian called on her and asked: ‘Why are you sitting here?’ To this she replied: ‘I am not sitting. I am on a journey.’”

My sabbatical plans include a fair amount of travel, including to places of spiritual significance in United Kingdom. Today, however, Day Two of my time of respite from ministry duties, I am beginning a different journey. From the quiet of my home I am embarking on a journey inward, taking time each day for prayer and spiritual reading.

I think the recluse referred to above, whose story is told in The Orthodox Way, provides an important corrective to the idea that we have to do spectacular things or go to unusual places in order to expand our souls. Great experiences are lost on us if we do not connect them with the inward journey.

I am using the wonderful book, Space for God, to guide me in my inward journey. The author presents a spirituality that is contemplative, engages the arts, and is congruent with Reformed theology. Even when I am sitting in my chair at home, it should be quite a journey.

Well, the experts were right. You can’t dive straight into a sabbatical. You have to ease into it. And since I had worked 22 straight days, there was no way I could relax immediately into a different pace. I sat down into my chair to read at 3:00 p.m. and fell asleep right away.

So, Day One is about recovery. Soon I will be able to set aside the details swirling in my head, and a couple of good nights rest should do wonders.

Really, my body is reminding me why this sabbatical was such a good idea. If I want to hear from God, and I do, then I have to slow down, remove the distractions, and be rested so that I can be attentive. That may turn out to be the theme not only of Day One, but Week One.