My primary work today is to coordinate, create and lead gatherings for worship at LaSalle Street Church in Chicago. This is my life’s passion and calling. I have worked to create opportunities for the people of God to worship, and I have researched and listened and experienced and prayed that my work might be fresh and relevant, meaningful and rooted. But on a daily basis, my life is full of deadlines, emails, phone calls, rehearsals and meetings. My weekly balance of action and reflection is difficult to maintain when the next Sunday is full of new opportunities, challenges and responsibilities. My goal for this sabbatical is to take some time off and reflect back to the basics - to focus again on those fundamental principles that are foundational to my calling and my life.
My plan for the sabbatical includes quiet, reflection, observation, conversation, prayer and study in a variety of contexts. I plan to spend time alone, to spend time in the mountains with my family, and to enter into the worship and community life of two influential centers of worship renewal, the Iona Community in Scotland and the Taize Community in France.