What is a Sabbatical? by Dr. Gary G. Hoag

The Biblical Perspective on Sabbatical

This post aims to offer a biblical and practical reflection on the question: What is a sabbatical? My interest in the topic comes from two areas. First, ECFA has adopted an “Excellence in Leader Care” standard that reads as follows.

“Every organization’s board and senior leader shall work together to develop a care plan for the senior leader. The plan shall be approved annually by the board to demonstrate the organization’s commitment to caring proactively for the leader’s well-being and integrity.”

As part of such a care plan, many churches and ministries suggest that stewards in specific roles or positions take a sabbatical periodically. Second, as GTP represents one of those ECFA-accredited ministries, I gladly report that I will take a sabbatical for 16 weeks from 1 January 2026 to 23 April 2026.

But what is a sabbatical?

Biblical Perspective

“One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”  He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.””

 Mark 2:23-28

The purpose of the sabbath in the biblical record related to resting from “normal” work. The Pharisees interpreted this as saying that every steward must go from “normal” activities to doing “nothing.” To enforce this, the Pharisees listed 39 prohibited sabbath activities (Source: find the 39 Melachot in the Mishna, the written copy of the oral law):

“No carrying, burning, extinguishing, finishing, writing, erasing, cooking, washing, sewing, tearing, knotting, untying, shaping, plowing, planting, reaping, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, selecting, sifting, grinding, kneading, combing, spinning, dyeing, chain-stitching, warping, weaving, unraveling, building, demolishing, trapping, shearing, slaughtering, skinning, tanning, smoothing, or marking.” Imagine the burden of these sabbath prohibitions!”

This explains the Pharisees’ response to Jesus’ behavior in Mark 2:23-28.

He violated not the sabbath instructions in the Torah (the written law from God) but their interpretation of it. Jesus showed us that sabbath rest was not about going from “normal” activities to “nothing” but about shifting from “normal” activities to “needful” ones.

Discerning “Needful”

To support this, Jesus cited David, who did the “needful” in 1 Samuel 21. David went to the priest and got the sacred bread to feed his hungry soldiers. Similarly, Jesus did the “needful” when he picked grain. So, understanding sabbath or sabbatical time as doing “nothing” comes not from God but from the Pharisees or modern-day legalists.

Biblically speaking, Jesus modeled doing the “needful” on the sabbath. This explains why Jesus said, “the Sabbath was made for man” (as a sabbath time should bring blessing to a person), and “not man for the sabbath,” which implies heaping a burden on a person. Notice the shift from sabbath as restrictions to sabbath as release.

Stewardship of Sabbatical

Churches and ministries benefit by asking the person requesting leave to list needful activities for physical, spiritual, emotional, social, and professional renewal in a plan before the sabbatical. This allows flexibility and accountability. Some need rest; others want exercise. Some need time to reflect; others desire time to write. After the sabbatical, a brief report can sum up the time away from regular duties and celebrate the fruits of focusing on the needful.

Conclusion

Churches and ministries in the USA do well to maintain ECFA accreditation and to have a stewardship care plan. If that care plan includes provisions for sabbaticals, everyone wins when it defines “sabbatical” in a biblically informed way as “creating margin for a steward to experience renewal by pausing from normal work to focus on needful activities.”

With this definition, churches and ministries can facilitate renewal with biblical integrity, flexibility, and accountability.

Gary G. Hoag, Ph.D., serves as Founder of Global Trust Partners (gtp.org). In obedient service to Jesus Christ, GTP multiplies faithful stewards and mobilizes peer-accountability groups (such as ECFA in the USA) to build trust and increase local giving to God’s work. He also serves as Professor of New Testament at Kairos University (kairos.edu).