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.

Community Sabbath (Week Three): Hi-Lu Farms

(Photo from www.freeimages.com, #1573842.)

“And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey...”
(Exodus 3:8)

Growing up on the Hi-Lu dairy farm on the plains of western Kansas, it may come as no surprise that Maggie McIntyre and her four sibling learned early on the value of hard work.  After all, there was always work to be done. There was the herd of 40-60 Brown Swiss cows that needed to be milked every day. There were also fields of wheat, corn, milo, alfalfa, and soybeans that needed to be cared for and grass pasture that needed to be managed.  There were chores at home and chores in the field in addition to the normal demands of homework and school activites.  

For Maggie, this hard work has translated into a highly successful legal career and a happy marriage all while raising two very active and talented teenage boys.  In every way, she leads a productive and busy life.  However, Maggie will be the first to tell you that productivity and busyness are not the measures of a good life. 

"My father always took a Sabbath," she says.  "On Sunday, we milked the cows and we went to church. My mother prepared a roast or fondue, something simple. But that was it.  No other work was done. If we were in the middle of harvest, we stopped. After church, we spent the rest of our day visiting with friends and relatives, relaxing, playing croquet and watching sports on TV." 

For her parents, Howard and Irene Lutes, keeping of the Sabbath was an important part of practicing their faith, and not just on Sunday.  Maggie would often find her father praying and reading before dawn and her mother would sometimes take a break in the middle of the day and go to the study to read her Bible. "I think it is hard to really have a relationship with God if we don't invest any time in prayer and meditation," Maggie says. "Stop light prayers are good, but we need to dedicate an hour or more every day if we are going to have a real relationship with anybody, including the Lord."

"It is counter-cultural, for sure," Maggie says. "Even back then in rural Kansas, our neighbors didn't always stop for the Sabbath.  In fact, one of our neighbors, whose wheat field was across from the church, always harvested on Sunday while we were having church. It was hot, so the windows of the church were open.  His combine was loud and it was disruptive to the service.  My father didn't like that."  

In ancient Egypt, the Hebrews were enslaved to their Egyptian taskmasters.  In today's busy, outcome-based world, we are sometimes our own taskmasters.  After being delivered from slavery, ancient Israel took time every week to remember that they were no longer slaves.  They took time every week to celebrate the benevolent God who delivered them to a land flowing with milk and honey; a land much like Hi-Lu Farms.  We need that time as well.

"Church shouldn't be secondary.  And not just Sunday morning, but Sunday evening and Wednesday night.  That is how I was raised and how I have raised my own family.  As a result, my boys didn't always get to do every activity that their friends did, but I wasn't going to go to soccer tournaments on Sunday.  They didn't always like that, but I hope that they understand why we made that decision.  If we are too busy, our relationship with God suffers."

"Church Stopping. Less Doing. More Being.

Community Sabbath (Week Two): Eat More Chicken

(Photo from www.freeimages.com #1563678. Thanks Adriana!)

Then he (Nehemiah) said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."  (Nehemiah 8:10)

If you have ever craved a chicken sandwich after church on Sunday, you probably know that you can't satisfy that craving at the local Chick-fil-A.  In fact, in every mall, on every college campus, in every city, on every Sunday, that mouth-watering bit of breaded goodness is unavailable.  

By some estimates, the act of shuttering approximately 2000 stores across the country for the Sabbath costs the giant chicken sandwich chain over 500 million dollars annually.  (The Christian Century, April 26, 2011) But Chick-fil-A founder, Truett Cathy said it was always about more than money: it's "about the way Chick-fil-A people view their spiritual life." (www.truettcathy.com)

"Spiritual life! Well, good for Chick-fil-A," says the cynic in me.  "With revenue of over six billion dollars per year, they can cultivate their 'spiritual life' with little risk!  My company simply doesn't have the kind of cushion that allows us to be holier than thou.  We must keep working.  Furthermore, it would be financially and spiritually devastating for our church to take a Sunday off. Our child's college application will suffer and I will loose my promotion if our family celebrated the Sabbath together." 

Right?

Theologian Rabbi Irving Greenberg, suggests that the real expense might be in ignoring the Sabbath:

Shabbat (the Sabbath) [provides] the necessary leisure to be one’s self and to enter into deeper relationships.

Rest is more than leisure from work, it is a state of inner discovery, tranquility, and unfolding. . . . The Sabbath commandment is not just to stop working, it is actively to achieve menuchah (rest) through self-expression, transformation, and renewal. On this day humans are freed to explore themselves and their relationships until they attain the fullness of being.

[The Shabbat’s] focus remains the enrichment of personal life. In passing over from weekday to Shabbat, the individual enters a different world. The burdens of the world roll off one’s back. In the phrase of the zemirah (Sabbath table song): “Anxiety and sighing flee.” In the absence of business and work pressure, parents suddenly can listen better to children. In the absence of school and extra-curricular pressures, children can hear their parents. Being is itself transformed. The state of inner well-being expands. As the Sabbath eve service text states: “The Lord . . . blesses the seventh day and [thereby] bestows holy serenity on a people satiated with delight.” The ability to reflect is set free. Creative thoughts long forgotten come back to mind. One’s patience with life increases. The individual’s capacity to cope is renewed. (www.publicdiscourse.com, September 18, 2014)

There is a cost to Sabbath keeping, for sure. I believe that if Truett Cathy were alive today, he would agree that 500 million dollars is a lot of money and a lot of good could be done with that additional revenue; more restaurants could be opened. More employees could be hired. More could be given back to the community. However, there is also a reward for stopping that is worth more than money. For Nehemiah it was the 'joy of the Lord." For Rabbi Irving Greenburg, it is 'holy serenity on a people satiated with delight." These are things that money simply cannot buy.

In the end, maybe the question isn't whether or not our corporations, churches, and families can afford to take a Sabbath, but if we can afford to continually ignore it.

Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.