Community Sabbath (Week Four): Trinity Presbyterian Church, Wichita, Kansas

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing you own interests on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it by not going your own ways, or serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 58:13-14)

In eleven years of ministry at Trinity Presbyterian Church, I came to know this quirky, fun-loving, and diverse congregation to be united by one universal and pervasive ethos: hard work. However, all of the loving care for the building and grounds had not led to increased growth.  The carefully crafted children's ministry had not led to spiritual vistas.  Multiple choirs and brilliant sermons had not parlayed into a burgeoning budget. There was a growing sense that something was wrong and the status quo could not be sustained. "I have noticed people," said one church member , "working harder and longer than is really humanly possible."  Another pillar remarked in a congregational meeting, "At this rate, in ten years, there won't be a Trinity."

The panacea, I was convinced, to cure our ecclesiastical busyness and spiritual ennui, was a year-long, church-wide Sabbatical!  It wasn't an easy sell.  "If you need a Sabbatical, Pastor Geoff," I was told by one especially busy member, "you take one. I like what I do in the church!"

Undaunted...okay, a little daunted...I set out on visits to Sunday School classes, Bible studies, and small groups armed with facts and figures and the Biblical merits of community Sabbath. I devised sermon series, fielded questions, and brought in another pastor who had navigated the surly pre-Sabbatical waters in his own congregation.  

It helped, and so we launched into our year-long, church-wide Sabbath in January of 2010.  It was thrilling. We dropped the evening programs and encouraged the congregation to spend time with friends and family. The choir sang some familiar tunes and shortened practices.  We didn't go on our annual mission trip, opting to serve closer to home. The senior ministry dropped its monthly luncheon.  We streamlined our worship using pre-prepped resources drawn from the revised common lectionary.  We stopped, for an entire year, meeting in committees. In every way possible, without actually closing the doors, we streamlined our church work so that we could participate in God's work

It took a lot of courage. Not everyone elected to participate.  But most did and the results were palpable.  We grew closer to the Lord and we grew closer to one another.  We were able to discern where God was leading us as a people.  As one church member put it, "I see more people becoming involved besides the core group that always participates. There's more energy and the realization that each one of us is called to be a minister of the Word to the world around us-at work, school, or play."

I am very proud to have been a part of our church-wide Sabbatical.  I think it is okay to be proud because it was so clearly not about me. It was about what God began to do in all of us. And that was pretty awesome.

Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.