The Lilly Endowment announced the recipients of the annual National Clergy Renewal Program grants Sept. 20. Each year the grants of up to $45,000 allow clergy to take time off from ministry to "engage in a period of renewal and reflection."

From trips around the world to time alone in a cabin in the woods, clergymen and women apply for inspiration, rest and study. Since 2000 the Endowment has invested more than $23 million in the National Clergy Renewal Program for 755 congregations of dozens of denominations, and their pastors. Salivating yet?

Since October is Clergy Appreciation Month I think the idea of a sabbatical is fitting. Ron Benson writes in Today's Christian that ministry burnout may be endemic to the profession because of idealistic expectations on the part of congregations who expect their leader to do all and be all for the church and a leader who expects the same of the laity. This "codependency" as Benson terms it, can be broken with something as simple as a few months off. The church realizes that life will go on without the usual face behind the pulpit and the pastor realizes there's no place like home I suppose. Check out Benson's article for ideas on paying for a sabbatical, too—assuming you didn't get the Lilly grant this year.

According to Hallmark, who did some demographic digging and found that cards would sell for Clergy Appreciation Month, the holiday (usually the second Sunday in Oct. is Clergy Appreciation Day—this year Oct. 9) was established in 1992 by the not-for-profit group Under His Wing Ministries, Inc., a nondenominational group that ministers to clergy. I couldn't find them on the Net.

But there are a plethora of other ministries of a similar nature available to recharge a Rev. Focus on the Family offers a directory of retreats and renewal ministries on their Web site for ministers, Parsonage.org.

I remember clearly hearing one minister say to hundreds that time away is what recharges. Senior minister Bob Russell of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., spoke at Church Central's Healthy Church Leader conference last year, along with Dr. Thom Rainer, about the qualities that delineate great leaders. Like Jesus, who after feeding thousands retreated to a mountain by himself, great leaders recognize when to withdraw from ministry for awhile—and they do.