Before becoming a director of missions, and even more so while serving in that role, Rick Standard saw a need that kept surfacing among pastors, especially those in small and mid-sized churches.
They needed encouragement. They needed rest. They needed time away with their families and a chance to step back from the steady weight of ministry.
In retirement, Standard found a way to help meet that need.
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For the past five years, Standard has offered to fill the pulpit in churches across north Georgia for up to six weeks at no cost, giving pastors and their families an opportunity to take an extended sabbatical.
Few smaller churches are in a position to provide that kind of break on their own, but eight congregations have now taken Standard up on the offer, allowing their pastors to step away, recharge and return refreshed for the work God has called them to do.
Standard’s 50 years of ministry have included both the pastorate and 10 years as director of missions for the Sarepta Baptist Association. During the last 15 years of his active ministry, he served as pastor of Briarwood Baptist Church in Watkinsville, Georgia. His wife, Laura, is a retired educator, and the couple now live in rural Madison County near Athens. They are members of Level Grove Baptist Church in Cornelia.
Encouraging pastors, churches
In retirement, Standard felt led to do something different from a typical interim ministry.
His goal, he said, is to encourage both pastors and churches.
Standard explained that careful preparation for retirement is what enables him to offer this ministry free of charge.
“I’m grateful that the Lord helped me to be able to put back enough to prepare for retirement,” Standard said. “We’re not dependent on extra income from ministry to live. Every opportunity I had, I strongly urged pastors to put all they could into Guidestone.”
He recalled, “The first church I pastored, Dykes Creek Baptist in Rome, Georgia, began paying in each month. I didn’t even know what the Annuity Board (Guidestone) was at 22 years old when I became a pastor.”
Although he does not charge for the ministry, Standard said churches often help with some of the expenses. He also emphasizes that churches should not count the sabbatical as part of a pastor’s regular vacation time.
The first church to take him up on the offer was Friendship Baptist Church, a small congregation in rural Madison County. The church had never done anything like it before. The pastor’s wife had battled cancer and gone through many treatments, and the couple had three small children at home. The church used the opportunity to give the pastor a four-week sabbatical. During that time, the family was able to take a couple of trips together and find refreshment after a difficult season.
Standard said churches that have participated often express the same thought: “We’re so glad we did this for our pastor.” Pastors, too, have told him they are grateful, knowing their churches may never have considered offering a sabbatical had Standard not stepped in to make it possible.
“I don’t try to fix problems in the churches,” Standard said. “I tell the pastor, don’t fill me in with all the problems going on. Just let me preach the Bible and let the Lord lay on my heart what I need to preach. It’s been amazing. People have said this is exactly what we need to hear. I share with the church that your pastor has not told me what to preach.”
Slowly ‘catching on’
Standard does speak to churches about pastoral ministry, the pressures pastors face, and the value of the sabbatical they are offering. Many congregations, he said, do not realize that a number of pastors never even use all of their allotted vacation time.
“When a church makes the conscious decision, we’re giving our pastor this time off; it’s not his vacation, protect that time away,” he said.
Standard assures churches that if an emergency arises, he will respond. But he also urges them, “Let’s not call your pastor back for anything, unless it’s just an absolute necessity.”
“I wish I could say I’ve done 20 at this point, in five years,” Standard said. “I think it’s been slow catching on, getting the word out there, and people feeling comfortable to do this for their pastor, because it’s a new thing for a lot of churches.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Charles Jones and originally published by the Christian Index.
