It has been five years since I began my ministry at First Church to the children, youth and families of First Church in 2019. When I arrived at the religious education program at First Church, you were discerning how to reshape RE to meet the evolving needs of our families. Eight months later, all of us were learning how to navigate life and church in a pandemic. We have come so far together since then, reinventing and restructuring our religious education program multiple times since that first year. Together over the last five years we have hosted multiple regional OWL training weekends and Youth events, and witnessed our OWL program and Youth group return and grow. Beloved traditions such as Mystery Friends, Holiday Giving Tree, and Valentine Making have returned and new traditions have been born such as Sandwich Making Day have emerged.
I am enormously grateful and proud of the progress we have made together in creating a joyful, welcoming and inspiring environment where children, youth and families can thrive and grow. It has been exciting, fulfilling and exhausting work. I find myself both filled with ideas on how we can continue and short on the time, energy and resources needed to make that reality happen. I am fortunate that my upcoming sabbatical will offer a time to recharge and refocus.
A minister takes a sabbatical to fill up their spiritual, educational and personal well and a congregation provides this gift of time to ensure that the health of the minister and work of the church can continue to thrive. A sabbatical offers a time away from the day-to-day life of a congregation, to provide a time of rest and rejuvenation for the body, mind, and spirit.
I have requested that my five-month sabbatical time be divided across two years in the summer months to ensure the continuity and progress we have made in religious education can sustainably continue in my absence. Our religious education program is scaled back in the summer due to lower attendance.
Over the next few months, the CRE team. RE volunteers and church staff planning will be engaged in preparing for my time away, which will begin on May 20 through to July 31, 2025. I will continue to communicate our progress and the nature of our plans over the next few months. Our faith is needed now more than ever, and I promise to continue to dedicate myself to serving this congregation, even in my absence, thankful for the gift of service and sabbatical.
Rev. Kimberlee Tomczak Carlson
Minister of Religious Education