I grew up in a bi-religious household. My mom was, and still is, a devout Roman Catholic, and Dad was on a constant search for God on the more charismatic, conservative Christian side. What this meant for my sister and I was that Sunday mornings were spent at Mass with Mom, unless it was summer, which meant that we attended the weekly 5:00pm Saturday evening Mass. And, since we didn't take family vacation trips and rarely attended summer camp, we also were on the hook for daily weekday morning Mass with Grandma who was our babysitter since both Mom and Dad worked outside of the home.
Years later, after I had finished grad school and was living on my own, I joined a new church where I was a member of the choir, which meant that I was at church every Sunday. During the summer, we still had choir, and I was there every Sunday, unless I had to work some occasional extra hours. Soon, though, one summer, those occasional extra hours became a permanent Sunday shift and those occasional summer Sundays away from church became permanent Sundays of separation from the sanctuary for the year.
When I became engaged, my groom-to-be and I set out to find a church home that we could enjoy together. It was summertime, and as we shuttled around various houses of worship on those summer Sundays, I was struck by how empty these sanctuaries seemed during what would have been their main services during the fall. All of Christendom, it seemed, was on vacation.
In academia, I was well-versed in the idea of sabbatical - an extended break that professors took away from the daily grind of classes in order to singularly focus in on a passion project or to simply take a rest. And for the professional clergy staffing congregations, the sabbatical is a reward for the challenging work of ministry. But, for those of us filling the seats, singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school, organizing the coffee hour, greeting the visitors, and all of the other myriad and important tasks of church life, summer vacation has become our de facto sabbatical.
Now, with the arrival of September, school buses, and falling leaves, we'll all return to those church pews, like children at the end of summer break, enjoying this renewed fellowship and a happy reunion as we share what we did over the summer. And as joy-filled as these times of re-acquaintance will be, I find myself wondering if there will come a September when all of those who fled the loving arms of their churches during our summer sabbaticals will simply not return. Will those who enjoyed sand and surf and sun-kissed skin and Sunday sleep-ins for three months decide that maybe this September they'll just sit out the whole church thing? And, an even bigger question: are we right to assume that come September there will always be a church home to return to?
So tell me what you think? Have you taken a church sabbatical this summer? Does back to school mean back to church for you?
