Hello Gracians!  You are reading this blog and I am already well into the first week of my sabbatical.  I’ll be gone for a while, and as you have heard about already, a few of the weeks will be in Japan serving our missionaries and Japanese family members there.  While I look forward to additional time for prayer and study of God’s Word for the health of my soul, a good bit of my time will be spend in consideration of leadership.  Namely, I am hitting some huge milestones in my leadership as a pastor: 30 years of ministry, 18 years at Grace, 55 years old.  It is wonderful to get some time to think about all that, especially what the future holds for my leadership at GCC.

I will be studying important leaders of the past, reading some key leadership books, and interviewing leaders who have spent many years in the same church.  I want to learn how they leveraged their long experience in the later years of their service.  I want to learn from their wisdom.

Getting a chance to break away from the routine for such study can help me think about something that is hard to get time thinking about - what should I be doing differently?  What do I need to let go of or drop out of in favor of other things?  What do I need to be emphasizing?  Of course, I don’t decide all those things myself; our elders lead our church together.  It will help me to come back with some ideas to run by them, some reflections on the past and hopes for the future.  Then together we can prayerfully think about our life together and about healthier and more focused ways to move forward together.

Our elders have been so kind to not merely allow me this time away, but to encourage me to take this time away and to get as much rest and refreshment as possible.  I have to mention our assistant pastor Tag Tuck, who will have additional responsibilities while I’m gone.  He has been so encouraging and supportive in all of this.  He was a great encouragement regarding the Japan trip, rightly foreseeing how supportive many of you would be of this missions opportunity.  I appreciate his team spirit in all of this!

Thanks so much to you, people of Grace, for you amazing generosity toward Caron, Anna, and I in the trip to Japan.  We have exceeded our projected expenses already.  When we are all done, we will put to work the extra funds where our Japan Partnership friends deem most useful.  Thanks for your kind words as we leave for a little while, and thanks in advance for your patience for any ways in which this costs you personally!  I am thankful for you all!

In Him,

Don Ward