Where in the world is Dennis?

If you are wondering why I haven't posted on this blog recently it's because I've been away on vacation.  On September 13 and 14 I was with the Southern Baptists of Michigan leading a couple of workshops at a great event they hosted for their pastors and church leaders.  As soon as I got back home my wife and I left for a much needed vacation in Panama City Beach.  The hotel where we stayed charges for WIFI so I made the decision to take a true vacation from everything. 

Typically, when we go on vacation it takes me a day or two to relax enough to enjoy myself and to stop thinking about the various responsibilities I have.  Not this time!  I played golf a couple of times, but mostly we sat around the pool, walked the beach, ate some fantastic fresh seafood dinners, and read and talked.  We had two or three rainy days, but when the sky was clear we enjoyed watching the beautiful sunsets that occur there on the beach.

Today, I'm back to work with a LOT of emails to check out and phone calls to return, but that's OK.  We had a great time away and have returned refreshed and ready to get back to work.  And do you want to know something?  I was gone for two weeks and the world continued to get along just fine.

Too many pastors seem to think if they take a vacation their church will fall apart while they are gone.  For a number of years early in my ministry I think I had the same mindset.  Even though the church gave me two weeks vacation, I never took but one week.  As I tell workshops now, I guess I was so arrogant that I thought God couldn't do it without me.  If you think like that you need to remember the graveyards are full of indispensable people.  They died, and the world continued just fine.

You and your family deserves a vacation...a true vacation that doesn't include you returning phone calls, e-mails, and jumping every time your phone calls off.  Take the time to refresh yourself and reconnect with this beautiful world God has created.  Do this 2-4 times a year and you'll be amazed at how much more productive the rest of the year will be, and how much your family will appreciate it.