Traveling and Lessons Learned

Recently we returned from a six-thousand-mile journey, more or less. We were gone for exactly thirty days which qualifies it for the longest vacation I have ever taken. Well, it ties it. But those two vacations could not be more different.

A couple of years ago I decided to take my full vacation all at once. As a priest, I signed a letter of agreement with each of the congregations I served. It is an accepted policy by most congregations to grant a thirty-day vacation annually for a rector, which is the head of the congregation in an Episcopal Church. I never seemed to be able to take that much time, since there always seemed to be something going on that needed my presence. I decided that I would finally take what the congregation had agreed upon and planned to be away for thirty days. Then I unplugged. I deleted my email app on my phone and told the staff to not call me. What I did not know came back to bite me.

The congregation I was serving had recently replaced a long-term staff member with a person who had many gifts but was uniquely different from the person replaced. There had been several issues related to the new staff member before I left on vacation but it exploded during my absence. I had met with several key members who were influencers in the area of ministry of this staff member and assured them that I would fully address the issue after my return. It was two days before my vacation and I was too busy getting ready to leave to attend to it before I left.

As I look back on that time, I cannot remember where we went on vacation. That memory is shrouded by the range fire that was burning when I got back on the grid. In my twenty-seven years of ministry I had never seen such a situation go from fairly quiet to a full out frontal assault. I will not get into the specifics here but I do share this extensively in a book I am writing. Suffice it to say, there was poor leadership involved in both the staff member, key influencers and a particular board member. I have changed names to protect the innocent but it stands as one of the most peculiar lessons on leadership I have ever encountered.

The vacation provided rest but over the next year, I felt like I had burned my candle at both ends and needed those thirty days of vacation. Perhaps I should have taken them but even though the situation in the congregation was much different, I did not. There were many lessons in that but I will save those for the book as well.

This vacation was much different. There were challenges, particularly my truck having mechanical issues but when we returned home there were no emails that needed answered, no phone calls I needed to return and no one acting out. Clearly I preferred this vacation to the other.

Of course I am not leading a congregation any longer so I do not have to face issues related to that. But as I look back, I know there were many things that I could have done to have kept the conflict from exploding. But as I sit here now, I know that thirty day vacations needed to have been the norm not the exception. I cannot undo the past but I can certainly share the lessons learned.

Until next time,

DP