Settling into my First Sabbatical Ever!

Fall 2024

Settling into my First Sabbatical Ever!

I have been teaching full-time since 2009, though I bounced around a lot from job to job—Ohio, Washington, Pennsylvania, New York, Oregon, and now I live in Oregon, but my institution (Northern Seminary) is in Chicago. All that to say, I didn’t stay at one institution long enough to earn a Sabbatical, until now. I was at George Fox University (Oregon) for six years, and I had earned a Sabbatical, but I left for Northern before I could take my Sabbatical. That was a bummer, but I have no real regrets about going to Northern. I love my co-workers and students!

But I am so glad to say that I just started my very first Sabbatical last week. It is every academic’s dream to get the time away from meetings, committee work, and grading (I love teaching and time with students, so that’s not a burden), to work on the (3) “r’s”: research, ‘riting, and rest.

As many of you know, Northern had a difficult period of turmoil over the last couple of years, and it was all hands on deck while we tried to smooth things out. We have a small team, so I had to be heavily involved in a lot of different things to help get Northern back on track—and I am proud to say we are in a great place, and making progress on hiring a new president who will guide us into the next stage of life for Northern.

Back to my Sabbatical: some of you might be curious about what I will be up to. Here are some questions I get.

How long is the Sabbatical?

Summer + fall quarter, which amounts to about six months. I actually taught two courses this summer, because Matt Bates hadn’t started yet and NT courses needed to be taught, and I love teaching, so it wasn’t a burden. I enjoyed both courses very much.

Am I traveling?

Not for “fun.” My kids are in college, high school, and middle school. The kids at home have very busy sports and activities schedules, and I want to be there for as many of those soccer and volleyball games as I can—they grow up so fast! I do have a few speaking events, but my main goal is rest and research. So, “fun travel” will have to wait for a few years until the kids are older.

What am I working on?

I have four main projects I am working on, at various stages of completion.

Brazos Book with AJ Swoboda. I am co-writing a book with AJ on the subject of building a healthy and strong faith, especially after experiencing deconstruction, disillusionment with Christianity, and issues of doubt. We are about 95% done with the manuscript. So excited to share some of our ideas.

Tell Her Story—for Kids! Carmen Imes and I are co-writing a kids book version of Tell Her Story. Carmen has written her portion, and now I am working on mine - such a needed resource for families.

Commentary on Letters to Timothy and Titus. I am co-writing a commentary with Sydney Tooth on LTT. I have been putting this work off for too long, now is the time to dig in, so I plan to do a good deal of the research this fall, and then turn to writing in 2025.

Follow Up Book to Strange Religion. The biggest project I am working on this fall is my follow-up book to Strange Religion, my tentative title is World Right Side Up. In Strange Religion, I didn’t really talk prescriptively about how Christians should live now. I wanted SR to be a kind of “weird history of early Christianity.” This new book will focus on how we live out that strange religion of the Jesus way in the here and now. Early critics of Christianity said they were turning the world upside down; but the gospel of Jesus Christ should actually do the opposite—turning the world right side up. (See what I did there?)

SO: that’s it, that’s my Sabbatical, and plenty of movies, TV, pickleball, good eats, fancy coffee, time with family (like visiting my kiddo in college), watching soccer on TV, getting in shape, and maybe a few naps.