Summertime is Sabbatical Time

On July 8, 2008, the Connective Tissue blog saw the glowing blue light of day for the very first time. Almost ten years and 2,000 posts later, I’ve decided to take my first official writing sabbatical. For the last few years I’ve watched writers like Trevin Wax with admiration and a touch of envy. Every year, Trevin hits pause on his wildly-popular blog for the month of July. And for the last few years I’ve thought, “I should probably do that.”

So this year, I’m gonna do that. I’ll resume posting in August, but for July, things are gonna go dormant. Here are a few thoughts behind the decision:

• Writing is exhilarating. For me, writing has always been a creative outlet, a relatively life-giving activity that allows me to process my own thoughts and give you a peek into my brain (#yikes). However…
• …writing is exhausting. With the exception of a brief break at Christmastime, I’ve posted something every single weekday since January 2, 2017. That’s a relentless pace and a crazy streak for me, but it’s time for me to go Cal Ripken (#sportsreference) and intentionally break the streak to give my brain a break (and yours, too).
• I need to catch up. I’ve always tried hard to separate writing time from ministry time. But as ministry opportunities increase, I plan to temporarily reallocate writing time to get my head back above water (and maybe even get ahead of the game going into the fall).
• Vacations and writing don’t mix. I’m going to spend some down time with family over the next few weeks, and trying to keep up the pace of a weekday blog while on vaca gets in the way of sleeping in late, playing UNO, and eating ice cream out of the tub (mmmm…. #IceCreamOutOfTheTub).

On the off chance that you are predicting withdrawals, I’ve gotcha covered. I’m going to link to two archived posts per day via Twitter and Facebook. If you currently read the blog through email subscription or RSS feed, consider following those platforms to see some content you might have missed the first time around. (You can also wade through those nearly 2k posts in the archives.)

Or (#marketingalert) consider picking up a copy of People Are the Mission or attending a One-Day Workshop. Both of those options are proven to help deliver your daily dose of guest services content.

Have a great July, campers. I’ll see you in a few weeks!

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