Even clergy members need summer vacation

It's worth remembering, the Rev. John Hondros says, that even Jesus wasn't averse to taking time off once in a while.

"Jesus is God, and he retreated," notes Hondros, pastor of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church, 5300 S. El Camino Road. "So he teaches us we need time for renewal."

Even members of the clergy, who, it turns out, enjoy a summer vacation as much as the nonordained rest of us. But, before they can embark on their summertime getaways, high on clergy members' to-do lists is finding somebody who can fill in for them to ensure that ministry continues even while the minister is away.

For some clergy members, the answer can be found right in their own pews.

"We are very blessed in our parish that we have two retired clergy who assist on Sunday in the distribution of the Eucharist," Hondros says. "They're on hand when I go on vacation to take care of the services and (parishioners') pastoral needs or emergencies."

The Rev. Jim Robinson, pastor of First Henderson United Methodist Church, 609 E. Horizon Drive, says retired ministers almost are always happy to return to the pulpit, even if only temporarily.

"They usually miss preaching, and (filling in) gives them an opportunity to preach," he says.

A senior pastor's vacation also can be an opportunity for associate ministers to temporarily take on the senior pastor's duties. Robinson says most associates welcome the chance to broaden their array of ministerial skills.

For example, "a lot of times, an associate really doesn't preach a sermon every week," Robinson says. "So that gives an associate an opportunity to increase his preaching skills."

While he was an associate at his last church, the Rev. Jim Houston-Hencken, now senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Las Vegas, 1515 W. Charleston Blvd., says his senior pastor would take the summer off.

"I loved that," he says. "I got a chance to really sharpen my skills as a preacher."

In the same vein, Robinson says, "if you have a pastor of another congregation go on vacation, the associate pastor from another church can go there and use that opportunity to preach."

Robinson has done fill-in ministry at churches that weren't his. If nothing else, he jokes, it gives the visiting minister a chance to dust off his or her best sermons for a fresh crowd.

"As a pastor, you have a lot of sermons, but you have basically one or two or three that are really special, that just hit home," he says. "So that's the beauty of it: They've never heard it before, and you go over there and it's, 'Wow, that's pretty cool.' "

Some clergy members enlist lay members of their congregations as vacation fill-ins. The United Methodist Church, for example, has a lay speakers program that trains lay people to preach sermons. Robinson says he'll probably use members of his church's lay speaking ministry when he heads off on vacation this summer.

Finally, some clergies' solution is not to find fill-in ministers at all but, rather, to depart from usual services while they're gone.

"What some churches do is turn that Sunday into, maybe, a music Sunday," Robinson says. "The pastor is gone, so music will be the message."

While leading worship services is the most visible duty of fill-in ministers, Houston-Hencken says they also may be charged with performing such lesser-seen but just-as-vital ministerial tasks as home visitations and hospital calls.

"We don't schedule any weddings or baptisms during that time, unless it's an emergency baptism," Hondros says. "And, obviously, for funerals or hospital visits, they would take care of that."

Hondros has found that parishioners are "really good about respecting" a clergy person's need for downtime. Actually, he says, "the real discipline comes with me, because I'm used to being on hand for people."

Clergy, Houston-Hencken says, "spend their lives serving others and being on call, and it's an emotionally taxing job. Vacation is critical, and those who don't take it run the risk of burnout."

Still, Houston-Hencken says most ministers are "always prepared to come back from vacation" for such unanticipated crises as a congregant's death.

"You have to come back, because those are critical moments in people's lives," he says. "So I consider it a vacation with a leash."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.