How Important Is It For Pastors to Observe A Sabbath? What does a Sabbath look like for a church leader? We re kind of a strange bunch when it comes to taking a day off. First off, we face a common misperception that we only work two hours a week to begin with. If you speak to the average 9-5 employee, about taking a day off, they might ask, why? The average person is completely clueless about how we spend our time. Our schedules vary from church to church and denomination to denomination. I talk about how ministers spend their time in episode 14, so there is no need to reexamine this today. Suffice to say, church leaders both need and deserve time off. Oddly enough though, we usually don t take it. In the Old Testament, God instituted 10 commandments. The 4 th command is the requirement to set aside a day to rest. Kind of an unusual command, would you say. I mean that it alongside not worshipping idols, not killing anyone or lying or cheating. God prioritized this command and there was a severe penalty for ignoring it. In fact, twice in the Old Testament, God threaten people with execution if they ignore the Sabbath. Imagine being hauled before the judge. Ok, what is the crime? Your honor, this pastor did not take a day off. The judge replies, how do you plead? You say, guilty your honor. All right, I sentence you to death. Ignoring the Sabbath was serious stuff in Old Testament times. Under Moses, one guy was caught carrying a bundle of firewood on the Sabbath. (Numbers 15:31-35 ) Once again, the judgement was death. Very serious stuff.
The Sabbath applied to your own household, including your servants, your livestock and even your farming land. Time and time again under the Old Covenant, the prophets warn the Israeli people to observe the Sabbath. When they refused, God takes their land from them and writes the epitaph that their land would lie unfarmed for the years that the Sabbath was ignored. A number of years ago, while working a sales job, I came to know a fellow salesman who was tops in his field. His name was Sidney. Because he wore a yarmulke, it was obvious he was Jewish. I soon learned that Sidney was a rabbi and quite wealthy, since God had blessed him. Sydney was also very fearful of Fridays. If we had some sort of sales meeting on Friday, in all likelihood he would not come. The Sabbath for the Jew begins at 6 p.m. on Friday and goes to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Sidney s worry was attending a meeting and something going wrong. For example, if he got stuck in traffic and the clock struck 6 p.m. on a Friday night, he had to steer the car off the highway. Take the keys out and that car became his home for the next 24 hours. Since he only ate kosher, he would probably have to fast as well. This seems odd to us as Gentiles, but Jews to this day take Sabbath seriously because they know how important it is to God. To not observe the Sabbath is to disobey God. I am saying all this to underscore that taking a Sabbath for a minister is important to God. I know pastors who lost their marriages, their ministries and even their health because they refused to take a day off. You come over into the New Testament, and you see Jesus messing with everyone s theology about defining what constitutes work. They chide him for healing on the Sabbath over and over. They criticize him for preparing food on the Sabbath while walking through a field of grain and list goes on.
Jesus concludes that the law supports doing what is good on the Sabbath; if that means laboring to rescue and animal stuck in a pit, so be it. His point is that we should not get legalistic about it, but honor the general principle. So what does a Sabbath or day of rest look like for a church leader? I mean, people go to church on their Sabbath during the two hours a week that you work. Ok, sorry about that, but my point is that when people set aside Sunday to stop working and go to church as part of their day of rest, that is the very day you are not taking a Sabbath. The other sort of weird thing about Sabbath days for leaders is that your job is to seek God; be in prayer, study scripture. What do you actually do on a Sabbath? Is that a day to not seek God. Obviously not, but I am after making a point. A Sabbath for a pastor means a total disconnect from church work. That means you don t answer telephones, you don t do church-related business, you don t prepare sermons and if you want to get the most benefit from a Sabbath, you don t talk church with your spouse. One pastor said, If we didn t talk about church, my wife and I wouldn t have anything to say. That is kind of pathetic if you think about it. When you first started courting, I doubt that you spent much time talking about church problems and now that is all you have in your conversational arsenal? It seems like something got messed up along the way. A Sabbath for a pastor means to spend time disconnecting. It is a time with family that does not have a ministry objective. A Sabbath for a church leader means you take the blue tooth out of your ear and de-compress. As a young pastor, and long before the IPhone, we had a phone in our bedroom. We kept it there, just in case there was an emergency at our church; like if someone needed crisis counseling, someone was in an accident etc.
Our standard procedure was to be available 24/7 to show people that we were committed to serving them. That was a really dumb idea. That phone did not stay silent very much. People called at all hours with every kind of problem. 99% of the time, those problems could have waited until morning. With a phone in our bedroom, we created our own stress. Knowing that people have access to you all the time creates an expectancy for the unforeseen changing your life at any time. We started to let people know. Leave a message and we ll get back to you when we can. Some people got upset with us, but that wasn t their fault. You see, we had communicated that we were accessible 24/7. Here is what we concluded however. We re not God. That s a huge admission for a pastor. The world does not revolve around us which means it will go on with or without us. God is not depending on us to hold things together. We serve at his pleasure and his pleasure and command is that we Sabbath regularly. During my time of devotions one morning, the Holy Spirit issued a challenge. The scripture is when Jesus tells us to observe the birds of the air. In my particular case, God challenged me to actually do that. As I watched, I noticed that birds sit atop trees a great deal and most of their activity is singing. From their vantage point, they see the food or the materials they need for housing on the ground. They fly down, get what they need and go back to singing. In my case, God was speaking to me through this verse about how we spend enormous energy trying to make our way in life, struggling and striving sometimes to survive. Yet Jesus tells us in this simple illustration to get in a place where we can see the resources that are readily available, go get them and enjoy life. One of the downsides to ministry is that it is easy to fall into a rut. Someone once said that a rut is a grave with both ends kicked out. We carry the
burdens of people in trouble; marriages in crisis, budgets that don t add up, staff conflicts well, I don t need to tell you. The list goes on for as long as you let it. A Sabbath is an intentional disconnect. Sabbath was a gift to the Jewish people. In the desert, manna came from the sky each day to feed them, but on the Sabbath day, no manna came. They were to gather Twice as much Friday and rest. Throughout scripture, the Sabbath rest was a concrete way to say, God, I trust you to supply without my labor. In the New Testament, Hebrews talks about a rest that each Christ-follower is ordained to enjoy. Too long to exegete, but New Testament faith is a picture of a Sabbath rest. Resting in the finished work of the cross plus nothing for our acceptance, justification, wholeness and healing. As a church leader, God wants you to remove your hands off of the work at least once a week and put it entirely in his hands so that he can make you whole. When was the last time you went out and had breakfast with your spouse or took in a movie or left for a weekend together? Do you think it is right that years fly by while you stay under a grind year after year. Is it OK for your family to always miss out on fun times together? After all, they didn t sign up to live this way. The Sabbath is a gift. Even if you are struggling financially, you can still take a drive, get a coffee; break the routine in some way. Breathe some fresh air and start dreaming again. Listen to music, take up a hobby, do some yardwork or build something. I encourage you to engage yourself in something completely different than ministry work; something that you enjoy or that gives you some physical exercise.
Oftentimes this vocation is rather sedentary. We do a lot of sitting, writing, reading, etc. So, Get moving. Do something different. The problems of ministry will be there tomorrow, but you need to be renewed. One of the added benefits of a Sabbath is reconnection. Who are you aside from being a minister, aside from your everyday responsibilities? You and I need to have a place where we connect with God as a child with a Father and just enjoy his presence. Most times we come before God needing inspiration for sermons, prayers to overcome obstacles or help during trials and that is all legitimate, scripture and necessary. When was the last time you just spent time with your heavenly father to just hang out; no agenda and be yourself? One leader I was privileged to know for a brief time before he went to be with the Lord was John Carr. He was a Scotsman who travelled with the world ministering extensively, helping and strengthening leaders and churches. He and his wife lived a very humble life. John would often speak about his Mount of Olives. These were the times he valued most. You came to understand that these were times when he just went for a long walk only to spend time with his Lord. The twinkle in his eye and the richness of his teaching ministry impacted me greatly. The essence of the man was derived from these precious times with God. Some churches and denominations afford a minister the opportunity to take a sabbatical for several weeks or months. If you have that sort of financial and positive support from your church, that is a great opportunity. Take it if you sense your life heading towards burnout. Pastor, you owe it to yourself and your calling to carve out a day a week for a Sabbath. Only you can decide to unplug and it will feel weird if you ve never done it, but in the long run you will be more focused and more effective in your ministry to God. Thanks again for taking a few moments to listen to this podcast. I have put together a few ideas you might find helpful in today s download. You can get it here.
As always, we end with a quote. This one is from Stephen W. Smith: When practiced, Sabbath-keeping is an active protest against a culture that is always on, always available and always looking for something else to do.