A sabbatical is one way of honoring your pastor both spiritually and financially. It may feel like an extra expense to the church but it’s really an investment in the pastor’s faith and future ministry.
Sometimes success is exhausting. We work so hard to achieve a goal that once we reach it, there is nothing left in the tank and we crash into deep fatigue. This is normal, we cannot expect our output to remain at this high level without needed to rest deeply at some point.
When people object to the practice of sabbatical by saying it’s not biblical, they are really imposing their own cultural standards onto the scriptures. They are twisting the scriptures to match their own experience and encouraging us to follow the example of disobedient Israel.