Sowing Seeds of Sabbath
Today is yet another Sabbath Saturday for the Stevens family and for Soul City Church. We believe that our Success as leaders and as a church is directly connected to the discipline of Sabbath. We believe that our posture of Dependence on God is directly connected to the discipline of Sabbath. We believe that our capacity to genuinely Enjoy each other and our kids is directly connected to the discipline of Sabbath. So today, we Sabbath.
Here’s what we won’t do:
- Email, Text, Twitter, Facebook, Blog (this post was written earlier smarty pants!)
Here’s what we will do:
- Rest, Play, Talk, Plant Flowers, Clean the House, and Wrestle (Daddy vs. Elijah)
See you on Sunday.
Jim
smarty pants…hahaha
Aug 29, 2009 @ 7:41 pm
Camille01
First time visiting. Just wondering about the cleaning
house part. That wouldn’t be rest for me. Is
it for your family?
Aug 29, 2009 @ 5:40 pm
Jennifer Torres
Love that sabbath rest is 'built in' to your leadership's DNA. Definitely needed as time goes on and work progresses!
Came across the site from Clover – looking to update ours and checking out the service. Are you pleased with it overall?
Well, know your 'neighbors' over in Milwaukee/Racine are praying for you
Aug 31, 2009 @ 5:05 am
Meghan
Adam preached on the sabbath yesterday, and gave a shout out to your blog.
Why is it so hard to observe the sabbath? Frustrates me that we all have a hard time with it.
We're trying to do the same, no computer, phone, etc.
Sep 01, 2009 @ 12:48 am
Brent
Growing up, the sabbath was a long standing tradition in my rural, mid west, dutch/calvinistic home. Frankly, for the longest time it was easy to observe the sabbath–everyone did it. But today…. It's a huge battle. Lots of distractions and attractions; lots of pressure to stay connected, to keep up, to not be too "legalistic" etc. –and most of us try to hold the sabbath alone. That's the worst part.
That's why I am really, really glad to see the sabbath rest coming "back in to vogue" so to speak.
I know that it's much more than that for you (I can tell from the depth your blog alone).
A good sabbath rest one of those things that once you get a taste of it, you want more. Once you finally unwind and quiet your spirit to the point of connecting with God through the fun and recreation and relaxing and putting aside the normal routine, you don't forget it.
Never the less, it is a battle! That's why scripture seems to note that the sabbath is a *community* event. At the very least, if the entire community (church, congregation, etc.) values the sabbath, then individuals like us stand a chance of keeping it.
But literally doing sabbath in community is amazingly powerful. Many years ago I visited a church in the southwest burbs of Chicago. Their tradition was to have the entire church show up at someone's house every Sunday right after the service. They had food, and fun, and rest (like crash out on the couches rest!), and then eventually, leftovers for dinner. The entire day from Sunday school at 9 AM till dinner was over at about 7 PM was all about doing sabbath together. Needless to say, it was a very small church
but they really knew how to do life together.
Sabbath is so much easier in community. I think that's because it is a community event.
Sep 03, 2009 @ 2:21 am