Church Sabbatical: A Theology of Stopping

Without stopping our churches become duty-full but sad places defined by our work but not by joy and measured by our results but not God’s presence.  God’s people, created for rejoicing, become like an overworked spouse; full of responsibility and empty of romance.  Our churches become efficient at doing business and balancing the books and counting attendance, but not discerning the Spirit. Sometimes it’s hard to diagnose, this hyperactive lethargiosis.  It is a subtle and silent sickness, but so terminal.  The symptoms are often imperceptible for the roar of activity all around.

  

Stopping is a bit counter-intuitive for the really good church member.  If you ask her to stop, she will tell you with a straight face and a withered soul, “I love what I do!” Or, he might say between gasps for breath, “I love the church and this is what I can do!” But isn’t there also a gnawing desperate motivation? Isn’t there an unspoken concern as well?  We don’t really believe that God will throw the riders into the sea.  We don’t really believe that Mary chose the better part. “If I don’t keep this up and recruit others and generate enthusiasm,” we say to the honest part of our hearts, “the whole thing will come down like a house of cards.”
 

So, while we are out in the field and in the kitchen working, our God has already slaughtered the fatted calf and just distributed the really good hooch to the steward’s amazement and wonder.  It’s not too late.  Edwin play.  The invitation is for all of us. “Stand still.” “Choose the better part.” “Come on in and enjoy the party.” “Keep the Sabbath.” It starts by stopping. 

It is, I am convinced, our punctuated cessation of duty that reconnects us with the one another and allows us to always be falling in love.  The same thing can happen in the unloveliest of churches.  They can fall in love again if they just stand still and let God kneel down and sweep them up and become his bride.  

"The sabbath was reinstated as a sacramental bridging of the abyss, offering immediate relief from the powers of nature and the peril of death. The sixth day would remain under these powers, but on the seventh day there was to be relief, renewal, and restoration as an eschatological “jubilee,” a provisional, but promising, hope of complete reconciliation."

Sabbath rest, therefore, is a recreation of the divine embrace of Eden.  Stopping is the means to the end, not the end itself.  The end, the seventh day, is to rejoice in the other six.  And as unlikely as that may seem when the doctor tells us of a “radiographic opacity” or the basement has flooded or our child is sick, it is possible.  Heaven comes down and kisses this fallen world. We are not called to be dour servants of a demanding church, but rather to be salubrious slaves of a cavorting Christ.

Congregational Sabbath: Less doing...More Being.

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Quote from: Anderson, Ray. The Soul of Ministry: Forming Leaders for God's People. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997, pg. 65
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Why Congregational Sabbath?

Q:  Why would a church consider Congregational Sabbath?

Statistics suggest that for all of our strategic thinking and hard work, our strategies have been largely ineffective at transforming individuals and the culture, even when there is numerical growth in our churches. For example:
1. Only 10% of all Christians possess a "biblical worldview that informs their thinking and behavior." (George Barna, The Habits of Highly Effective Churches. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1999, pg 131)
2. Of the 38% of Americans that attend worship, only 22% of them engage in any additional education (William H. Willimon, The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002, 213)
We shouldn't be too surprised.  Too often Jesus presides over our multi-tasks as an honored guest but not as the Good Shepherd leading us and calling us by name. Too often, we do good works and we wonder why we have to work so hard.  And when increased activity is our answer to flagging attendance and rampant church ignorance, we must ask, “Is renewal happening or are we simply running faster on the wheel?”
Perhaps the need is to stop working for renewal and begin to be renewed. Perhaps what the church needs is not more, but less.  Perhaps the church should be less busy and more joyful; less bound to tradition and more free to express God’s love in creative ways; less isolated from and more open to our community.  Perhaps a better model for renewal is not being driven, but being led. Do we truly trust the Good Shepherd when He bids us, "Follow me!”?

I do not doubt that God is moving in many of our churches. Praise the Lord!  But our churches will remain invisible to the world as long as we conduct ourselves exactly like the world.  In our corybantic culture, stopping is something of a miracle in itself.  And miracles always draw a crowd!  The Sabbath promise is not only that God will breathe new life into our souls, but that our collective dependence on God will be noticed by a world that is desperately searching for something they don't know and have never seen.   

"And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking

bread from house to house, they were taking

their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 

praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." (Acts 2:46-47)

         Maybe, it is time, to stop working so hard at the things that bring superficial success and let God lead us to the place where real change can take place.

Congregational Sabbath. Less doing. More being.

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Congregational Sabbath. Is it Biblical?

Congregational Sabbath. Is it Biblical?

It had better be!  If it is not, then we better stop right here and let this wild notion cross the road and vanish from our sight.  Here are some sources in Scripture where we can begin to build the foundations of our theology of congregational sabbath:

"By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.  And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." (Genesis 2:2)

Notice how the Creation isn't "finished" until the seventh day. The finished part is the "resting" which may also be translated as "delighting" in.

"The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." (Exodus 14:14)

I believe that one of the reasons that the church is so invisible in this world is that the church operates like everything else in this world; by our own strength.  Often, all that is seen of the church is Christians trying to fight for their lives instead of God fighting for them.  

"You all remember the sabbath and keep it holy."
 (Exodus 20:6, emphasis mine)

We can keep a personal Sabbath, and we should. But the command is for "you all" to take the Sabbath together.

"You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines." (Leviticus 25:11)

The Sabbath dare is that God will provide for us when we leave the ground fallow. The question is, do we trust God enough to stop?

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor...(Isaiah 61:1-2)

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me....to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18a, 19)

Jesus picks up the jubilee/year of the Lord tradition at the beginning of His public ministry in Luke.

"'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." (Matthew 4:19-20)

In your church, right now, who's leading? The Good Shepherd or you?

"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Does your faith feel like an easy yoke?

"He called out to them, 'Friends, haven't you any fish?' 'No," they answered.  He said, 'Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.' When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish." (John 21:6)

Jesus sometimes asks us to fish a little differently

"The Lord added daily to those that were being saved." (Acts 2:47b)

Who, again, was adding to their number?

Congregational Sabbath: Less doing. More being.

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Where Can I Find More Information About Congregational Sabbath?

Q: Where can I find more information about Congregational Sabbath?

Though the idea of Congregational Sabbath (Church Sabbatical) has it's roots in the Bible, it's application has been rarely documented. In fact, only recently has the idea of church-wide Sabbath rest really been a serious player in discussions of church renewal.  Here are some extra-biblical resources that I have found valuable:

1.Linn, Jann G. Reclaiming Evangelism: A Practical Guide for Mainline Churches. St. Louis, MO: chalice Press, 1998. (A great little book where "Year-Long Congregational Sabbatical" is lifted up as the first of eleven steps for authentic church renewal.  Pastor Linn is a pioneer in this movement and a valuable resource for those considering congregational sabbath.)

2.Digby, David, ed. A Concise Compendium, privately printed, 2000 (This little pamphlet documents the congregational sabbath experiences of the First Christian Church of Ames, IA. Great people! Write for a copy:  www.fccames.org)

3. Heschel, Abraham. The Sabbath. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1951 (Probably the very best treatment of Sabbath. His observation that Sabbath is the sanctification of time is a major cornerstone to the application of congregational sabbath.)

4. Rohler, Amy and Adam Rohler, "A Communal Sabbath: One Church's Annual Practice of Rest," Congregations, Spring 2009:33-37 (Great article illustrating one church's annual Sabbath practice.This church, in New York City, shuts its doors for the month of August and encourages it's members to worship in other places. Fascinating real-world experience!)

5. Snook, Geoffrey, Catching an Eddy: Church-Wide Sabath Rest as a Tool for Congregational Renewal. ProQuest Dissertation Publishing, May 2011 (This is my D.Min. Dissertation from the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. It includes both the theology of congregational sabbath and the process of implementation in a medium-sized church.  Request your copy by calling ProQuest at 1-800-521-0600, ext. 77020, $34)

6.  Loder, James. The Transforming Moment. San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1981 (A very scholarly argument suggesting that transforming moment happens when we come to the limit of our human strength and understanding for this is the place where God can then be seen to work.  Fun implications for the study of Sabbath which puts us in that same place and takes transformation out of our hands.)

7. Snook, Geoffrey. White Wave Manifesto (Currently unpublished...but I will keep you all posted and check out excerpts on this blog!)

Congregational Sabbath: Less doing. More being.

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What is Congregational Sabbath?

Q: What Is Congregational Sabbath?

Through the practice of Congregational Sabbath, our congregations will discover the power of God at work in her midst so that we might become the joyful presence of God in the world.

In Congregational Sabbath, the church ceases to move so that it will be moved.  In Congregational Sabbath, we stop trying so hard to be the Church so that God may kneel down to embrace His Bride.  In Congregational Sabbath we trust the busyness of the Church to the One who created the church. In Congregational Sabbath, we stop trying to save the world and discover that it has already been saved.

Congregational Sabbath is a promise at the end of a dare: God promises to start when we dare to stop. When we dare to let our burdens down, God promises to lift our weary souls up.  Perhaps pastor,  theologian, and congregational sabbath pioneer sums it up best:

"Churches need sabbaticals as much as individuals. Spiritual stagnation deepens in the soil of freneticism. A congregational sabbatical can be a time for nurturing spiritual roots, a time for slowing down and taking the time to listen, to pray, and to learn. But it means just what is says--taking a sabbatical from the routine and schedules that define a church's life.  The usual work of committees and departments is suspended, especially the development of programs. Only the bare essentials to keep the machinery going are maintained during sabbatical time. The governing body can attend to necessary business, but this, too, needs to be kept at a minimum. established groups, such as church school classes, women's and men's groups should also be involved in sabbatical time, either by choosing not to meet or focusing their time on prayer and study. The point is to step away from customary activity. Renewal will not occur if the old routine is maintained. It would be like a teacher taking a sabbatical but continuing to teach. It is the break from routine that helps to create the space for something new to emerge." (Reclaiming Evangelism: A Practical Guide for Mainline Churches. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 1988)

In Scripture, congregational sabbath has been called "jubilee" (Leviticus 25) and the year of the Lord's favor." (Isaiah 61 and Luke 4)  Others have called it "church-wide sabbbath rest"  or "church sabbatical."In this blog, I will consistently refer to this idea of cessation of church activity as "congregational sabbath" in an effort to consistently reflect the common, though variable, theme of episodic ecclesiastical cessation.

Congregational Sabbath: Less doing.  More being.

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Welcome to Church Stopping: Resources for Congregational Sabbath

Welcome to Church Stopping!

Authentic Church Renewal through Congregational Sabbath/Church Sabbatical

"You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines." (Leviticus 25:11)

"The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." (Exodus 14:14)

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me....to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18a, 19)

"You all remember the sabbath and keep it holy. (Exodus 20:6, emphasis mine)

"The industrial era at climax, in the panic of long-anticipated decline, has imposed on us all its ideals of ceaseless pandemonium. The industrial economy, by definition, must never rest.  Rest would deprive us of light, heat, food, water, and everything else we need or think we need. The economic impulse of industrial life (to stretch a term) is limitless. Whatever we have, in whatever quantity, is not enough.  Our bellies and our wallets must become oceanic, and still they will not be full. Six workdays in a week are not enough.  We need a seventh. We need an eighth. In the industrial world, at climax, one family cannot or will not support itself by one job. We need a job for the day and one for the night. Thank God for the moon! We cannot stop to eat. Thank God for cars! We dine as we drive over another paved farm. Everybody is weary, and there is no rest."  

(Wendell Berry, foreword to Norman Wirzba, Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006).

Jesus will never be real to us or be compelling to an exhausted world until we finally "adopt the paradoxical and radical expedient of just stopping."

(Norman Wirzba, Ibid.)

Congregational Sabbath: Less doing. More being.

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