Our matching Celtic cross medallions will accompany us on every step along the way of our sabbatical journey.

Welcome to the Kindem Family’s Sabbatical Notes Blog!

Our Sabbatical Journey has ended, but the pilgrimage continues.  To read the story of our travels, you can browse through this site.  For the latest post, go to the SABBATICAL CELEBRATION post.

If this is your first time here, we invite you to read on below.  Thanks for visiting!

I (Erik) serve as pastor of Peace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.  In April of 2013 our congregation’s Sabbatical Planning Team submitted an application to Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) for the National Clergy Renewal Program, funded by The Lilly Foundation.  The purpose of this program, in the words of CTS, is “to strengthen Christian congregations by providing opportunities for pastors to step away briefly from the persistent obligations of daily parish life and to engage in a period of renewal and reflection. Renewal periods are not vacations, but times for intentional exploration and reflection, for regaining the enthusiasm and creativity for ministry, for discovering what will make the pastor’s heart sing.”

The word sabbatical has its roots in the biblical concept of Sabbath (“to rest” or “to cease”). Sabbath keeping is setting aside time that God consecrates and makes holy.   In Genesis, taking time for Sabbath is presented as an integral part of God’s structure and plan for all creation.    The theme for our particular journey, excerpted from our application narrative is:  “To explore what a balanced life of faith could look like, both for a pastor and his family, and for the people he serves; a life in which Sabbath-keeping and Earth-care are central components of the baptismal vocation.”

In August 2013 we received word from CTS informing us that their answer to our proposal was YES!  (You can read about that moment–and the drama that led up to it–in my post, “It started as a conversation about shoes…” Click HERE.)  In March 2014, I, my wife Chris and our two youngest children, Kai (9) and Naomi (6), began a four month sabbatical sojourn that took us from the shores of Puget Sound to the snowy woods of New England and then on to Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Italy, and home again.

This blog is our primary means of sharing meaningful moments and encounters we experienced along the pilgrim’s path with a far flung following.  We invite you to “come walk with us” and so trace our steps.

(NOTE: You can subscribe to this blog by following the prompts at the upper right section of this homepage screen.  Also, to see where we were geographically on any given week, you can click on the ITINERARY link above.)