Now, here’s something I’ve never heard of before. Interesting idea!
Karen writes,
Curious whether any of your congregations have a DAWG-days requirement (you may call it something else)? Days Alone With God. Each staff member has a scheduled day of the month for retreat/prayer/seeking/listening to God as part of their work for the congregation and then confirms that it was taken. Most of the churches I have heard of doing this include the “support” staff, but some only have this requirement for the pastoral staff.
Anyone?
If yes, any advice for how to structure it or talk about it?
Karen, my dove, I got nothing. But I’d love to hear what the gang has to say. Gang?
For a couple of years, a pastoral colleague in a neighboring congregation and I held one another accountable for taking a monthly retreat day. It was a good practice; come to think of it, I miss it!
Love the idea.
My internship supervisor would take a retreat day each month for (mostly) prayer and study, He said it really made a huge difference in his ministry and self-care. I haven’t managed to do the same yet, but it’s a ministry goal.
I served in a co-ministry with my husband, each of us working (allegedly) half-time (hah!) and sharing one salary. We soon figured out that as long as one of us was “minding the store,” the other one could be doing something else. So we each began the practice of taking a 2-night study leave away from home/church each semester. We found various places to do this — home or summer cabin of a friend, renting a cabin at a state park (inexpensive and very nice in West Virginia), a retreat center, etc. Usually we’d go with a project — a sermon to research intensively, a class to plan, something like that. Occasionally it would be more open-ended and less result-focused — journaling, sketching, going for long walks, catching up on sleep.
This might not be everyone’s definition of a DAWG, but it sure worked for us!