Sabbatical Part 1

Over the next several weeks I’d like to share more about our Sabbatical. I still receive questions from people. In fact, today over coffee, a friend who just moved back to Ortega asked me about it. I’ve been working on 4 separate blog/article-type documents that I could share with you. There will be a total of 4 that I am planning on releasing bi-weekly, starting with this one. Once they are all out, we will create a place on the website for them.
I pray they encourage you.
I pray they inspire obedience in you.
I pray that they push you to find your ways to BE STILL and rest.
I pray they even provide some answers to questions you may have had.
ALSO - I’d love to hear from you if you read them! Feel free to ask questions - josh@refugejaxchurch.com
Here’s part 1: WHY WE NEEDED A SABBATICAL
1/4 - Why We Needed a Sabbatical
In June of this year, Beth and I stepped into our 26th year of ministry, meaning the month of May marked the 25th year of ministry. I have served really in 2 roles in ministry: student or youth pastor and church planter/pastor.
I’m not sure I have seen and experienced it all, but I certainly have the conference lanyard collection, journal entries, Bibles, bookshelves, t-shirt collections, and even the scars to show. I have seen countless people come to faith in Jesus, I have preached thousands of times, I have preached to large rooms and small rooms, led countless mission trips and even more summer camps, trying to do the math and it’s somewhere near 100! Do you remember disciple-now weekends? I have led dozens of those, I have taken thousands of coffee, lunch, and dinner meetings and have intentionally discipled hundreds, if not thousands, of teens, men, and women. What an encouraging paragraph this was to write.
I have experienced incredibly fruitful seasons, I have been celebrated, I also have been fired. I have had my life threatened more than a few times, I have been gifted vacations and tickets to football games (Go Dawgs!), I’ve had my family’s life threatened and even been challenged to a few fights... in church parking lots... by deacons and church members. I have been cussed out, called out, positively reviewed, physically grabbed, and given some of the most Godly hugs, high fives, and handshakes at just the right time.
I have served in 5 churches and started 1. Hopefully I will never move again.
I have had the joy of seeing hundreds of people in the ministries I oversaw hear the call from the Lord and step into ministry obediently. If you count the amount of these that now work at Chick-fil-A, the number is probably double. In fact, in Jacksonville, FL, where I pastor, there are a dozen people in ministry that were once in my ministry, plus 2 in Orlando and a bunch in Georgia. I know God did that work, but it’s still awesome to see how my efforts are and were not in vain. That God has used a sinner and a fool like me to do anything.
I have studied countless hours; in fact, I am in a coffee shop right now studying through 1 John for Refuge. Well, taking a break to write this.
I have submitted a million budgets and budget requests.
I have officiated somewhere between 100-150 weddings. I have some stories... just ask.
I have led probably half as many funerals. I remember Mr. Bernie’s funeral and several teenagers/young adults that I buried the most.
I have been to too many awful Christian concerts. I have also been to a few good ones.
I led a few student ministry ski trips. Those are wild, why churches let us, I am not sure. Hey Jake, sorry again about the knee.
I have sat in at least 45 staff meetings per year, for 25 years. That’s over 1100 staff meetings, meaning north of 2,000 hours in staff meetings. I’ll never get that time back.
Email. Can I just say I hate email, text me.
I have had anxiety-fueled sleepless nights over people, problems, and poor decisions others have made, as well as over mistakes I have made.
I have fundraised. Thankful that won’t be necessary in Heaven. I am really bad at fundraising.
I have seen the beautiful, joyful, incredible side of ministry. Where God shows up, where God saves, where God provides, where God draws, where God renews, where God restores, where God heals. Where His presence transforms people in a moment and changes everything. These times are what keep me in the fight!
I have seen the “dung” (Paul’s words) side of ministry. Where people are mean and foolish, where they hurt you and others, where selfishness and immaturity rule rather than Godliness and holiness. Where people leave because they didn’t get their way, or where people tear down the leaders because they are not as good as the person on the podcast they listen to. Where people hurt other people in the church to get their way or point across. I have seen members fight over parking spots in the church parking lot and wave their middle fingers at each other after while mouthing a word that starts with F. Probably forgive.
But none of these are reasons I took a Sabbatical.
I’m not sure any of the reasons above even contributed.
I love Jesus. I love His church. I love His people.
I took a Sabbatical for several different reasons, 5 that I will share and hope it encourages you as you read.

• First, OBEDIENCE. We know that God laid before us during 2025 the assignment to step away for several months in a time of Sabbatical rest. The timing wasn’t best for our church for a variety of reasons. This was not an idea or something we read in a book. It was a step of OBEDIENCE. God had laid before us an opportunity to obey Him in faith and trust Him with the process. There was more uncertainty than certainty: who would preach, who would lead the staff, who would shepherd our young and vulnerable church, these just for starters. We struggled to submit to the Lord in this for a good while. Here’s the deal, though: if the Pastor won’t obey God, how can he be a Pastor? So we obeyed. Even though it didn’t make sense.
• Second, REST. I wasn’t just worn out, or even weary; I was cooked. Done. We had spent the last 6 years building a church and giving everything we had to do so. We had also developed some really unhealthy habits that eventually wore us out. It wasn’t the kind of tired that a nap or a week off would help (we tried). In fact, talk to any therapist or doctor; time doesn’t have the power to heal. We had to stop moving, so we could stop the anxiety, so we could stop the phone and calendar from chiming, so we could finally find rest. The kind of rest Jesus offers where His yoke is easy and His burden is light. A schedule of waking up at 4am, grinding all day, and going to bed at 10pm almost killed us. So we rested. God made us lie down (Psalm 23).
• Third, WINTER. Ok, this one is weird, and in Florida we don’t have Winter. But I have always seen and experienced my spiritual life in seasons. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Spring is awesome, new life, you can feel the Lord coming nearer, life is returning. Summer is when things bloom, flowers are lovely, the sun seems close, God seems closer. Fall is when you can feel His presence faintly, or not as much, but there is no reason why, you see death coming. Winter is dead and cold, God seems distant, if there at all. I have always hated Winter, both in real life and using this metaphor. I have always tried to avoid or plow through winter to get back to spring. In 2025 I found myself in a “Winter” I could not escape. Depressed. I needed help in finding God again. I had not walked away from the Lord or deconstructed, in fact, the opposite really. God was pruning me (John 15), so He could do new things in my life. The problem was, it sucked and was hard and took a long time. So I needed to sit in Winter and let the Lord finish so Spring could come.
• Fourth, ABIDE. My quiet times had become a box to check rather than a place to be with the Lord, to linger in His presence, to meet with Him in prayer and stillness. I am a 90’s Christian, so I still did my quiet time like a good Christian, but it wasn’t life-giving and God wasn’t often involved. Part of the Lord’s pruning in me was to remind me the whole point of my life was to ABIDE. To be with JESUS and to learn to be with Him again. So we learned to ABIDE, again.
• Fifth, FRIENDS. We had friends step into our lives when we were in “Winter” and “Weary” and love on us. Friendship as a Pastor is interesting; most people don’t know what to do with you, and that’s probably fair. But as we found ourselves in a season we had never encountered (Winter and Weary), heart-creakingly, we had some people that we called friends in our life who chose to lean away/pull away from us when things got hard, dark, and weary on our end. That was unexpected and hard. I still love those folks, miss them even, but the Lord used this to show me who my real friends were. True and real friends lean in when things are hard and you need them the most. I am thankful we learned that, and I am even more thankful that we have friends who chose to lean in. They know who they are, and we love them deeply. So we learned we had friends.

Ok, that’s just part 1...
Why did we take a Sabbatical?

• Obedience.
• Rest.
• Winter.
• Abide.
• Friends.

During Sabbatical, I was spending time with a mentor, and we were talking football. If you know me, you know I love football. He asked my favorite position, I told him fullback. (If you’re unaware of what that is, just YouTube and enjoy.) He said that’s who/what you are in ministry. Your calling is to be a fullback. To knock the enemy out of the way, creating space for others to experience the victory. I love that. That has become my new vision of ministry. How can I clear some space, remove obstacles and distractions so that others might fully see and embrace Jesus?
Sabbatical reminded me of who I am as a person, man, Josh.
Sabbatical reminded me of who I am as a Pastor, a fullback.
Sabbatical reminded me that I am Josh before I am a Pastor.
Loved by God.
Seen by God.
Cared for by God.
In abiding we are reminded who we are, and reminded that God really loves us.
John 15: 9-11
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoke to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”