Renewing God’s Rhythm for Rest: A Practical Sabbath

Recent studies of active Christian ministers reveal that burnout is a growing danger for clergy in the West.¹ The exhaustion and overwhelming stress of pastoral care threatens the longevity and well-being of Christian ministers. The causes are multifaceted. Caring for the needs of a congregation, preparing biblical exposition, counseling, and administrating complex volunteer organizations demand many hours of intense output. Moreover, research indicates that ministry, unlike many secular employments, intrudes into the personal life of the clergy member and his family through the “presumptive expectations, personal criticism, family criticism, and boundary ambiguity” of ministry life.² Recent surveys shockingly report that 50 percent of clergy spend ten or fewer hours weekly with their families.³ This kind of widespread imbalance is tragic. Pastors have physical and spiritual needs that require weekly rhythms of rest, spiritual refreshment, and family time. When these rhythms are ignored, the fallout is devastating.

Likewise, the stress of busyness and the demands of productivity enslave and overwhelm the minister’s congregation just as he is overwhelmed. Culture operates in excess. Secular rhythms function on the extremes of overwork or withdrawal—full-on or full-off. Furthermore, Western culture has tied individual productivity to personal value. The author Tilden Edwards associates “this drivenness” to produce with a cultural “shift from sensing a giveness to who we are through family, religion, and community membership, to defining ourselves (and being defined by others) in terms of what we produce.”⁴ The worldview of culture “that strongly links productivity with worth” is antithetical to the gospel.⁵ However, like culture, pastors and congregants may be deceived into equating productivity with success, and “the need to accomplish leads to a terrible frenzy about time.”⁶ Bereft of the time to complete the work that the minister has allowed to define him, burnout ensues.

“The need to accomplish leads to a terrible frenzy about time.”

Man’s worth, however, is not determined by what he does. The sovereign Creator uniquely placed his “image” in man. (Genesis 1:27, ESV). Therefore, man’s value is God-given. Nothing an individual accomplishes or fails to accomplish will make him fundamentally more or less valuable. Christians must embrace the reality that “constant activity hasn’t satisfied us at the deepest level.”⁷ Likewise, “busyness” in pastoral ministry “will [not] translate into fruitfulness.”⁸ In God’s economy, fruitfulness comes through obedience. Yes, all Christians have too much to do. Yet, through the weekly rhythm of Sabbath, God has provided grace for his people.

“Constant activity hasn’t satisfied us at the deepest level.”

The Sabbath rhythm—ceasing for a day a week from the normal rhythms of work—is often inconvenient. Eugene Peterson echoes the unnatural feeling of ceasing on a personal Sabbath by stating, “Sabbath-keeping often feels like an interruption and interference with our routines.”⁹ Furthermore, a Christian minister may feel “tremendous guilt” obeying a Sabbath rhythm because he has not completed his to-do list.¹⁰ However, there is no shame in obedience. “All life requires a rhythm of rest.”¹¹ Additionally, a minister should not view a Sabbath as an attempt to escape the trouble of ministry. Obedience to God’s design for the week “is not running away from problems, but [embracing] the opportunity to receive grace to face them.”¹²

“All life requires a rhythm of rest.”

The modern life of the minister, professional, and parent is overwhelmingly busy. Yet, God graciously invites believers to join his rest in the weekly Sabbath. As the Gospel declares God’s intervention into our chaos to save us by his power, the rhythm of weekly Sabbath is a practical provision of that divine grace. Therefore, all Christians, including ministry leaders, should consider the biological, biblical, historical, and spiritual arguments for a weekly Sabbath rhythm. For, indeed, God has provided grace to sustain us for the work at hand—in part, through Sabbath Rest.

Biological Argument for a Practical Sabbath

“I am just too busy for a weekly Sabbath” seems to be a common expression in pastoral ministry. Indeed, ceasing for twenty-four hours from the regular rhythms of work, extracurricular activities, and weekly responsibility may seem irresponsible or even impossible. However, God made man for rest. Genesis 1 begins with the affirmation of God’s sovereign power in the creation of the material world, including humankind. As Creator, God alone defines the rhythms of human thriving. When individuals disregard God’s life patterns, including the weekly Sabbath, suffering follows. Operating outside the natural provisions God has designed for life will result in the loss of emotional, spiritual, and physical health.

Recent studies of clergy report that ministers fail physically. A 2016 Schaeffer Institute of Leadership Development survey of over 8,000 American ministry leaders found that 26% struggled with fatigue, 54% felt overworked, and 9% experienced burnout.¹³ Another study among Dutch Reformed pastors reported that prolonged stress and fatigue are inherent in ministry and pastoral work. The Evers and Tomic study revealed that relational stress, isolation, limited social support, and role ambiguity contributed to the stress and fatigue of ministry.¹⁴ Additionally, clergy with good intentions often succumb to workaholism—a condition reportedly affecting 10% of the United States adult population.¹⁵ Sadly, leaders and congregations may identify work obsession as a virtue in pastoral ministry because the work is “Kingdom work.” However, God’s servants fail if they are not first obedient to God’s design for their physical health. ­

The Center for Disease Control recently declared sleep deprivation a public health epidemic.¹⁶ Rest, including sleep, is not a result of the Genesis Fall. As the author and pastor A.J. Swoboda acknowledges, man was “made, from the foundations of the world, to rest, or to Sabbath, in God.”¹⁷ While resting in God is spiritual, it also includes physical rest. The Creator designed man to thrive through the biological rhythm of daily sleep and weekly Sabbath. Therefore, Pastors are also “subject to all [the] laws and rhythms” of Creation.¹⁸ The “Genesis rhythm” of sleep must not be neglected if a minister is to function with energy in his ministry calling.¹⁹ The hours given to nightly rest, preferably six to eight hours, are essential acts of obedience that God rewards with fruitful labor. Moreover, Christian author Wayne Mueller wisely states, “If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our Sabbath.”²⁰

“If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our Sabbath.”

While sleep is a daily rhythm of rest, God’s natural pattern for physical thriving also reveals a weekly rhythm—Sabbath. God has designed man to thrive physically, emotionally, and spiritually sharing with him in a weekly day of rest. Old Testament Jewish law mandated one day of rest for every six days of labor. Although no longer legalistically demanded, the weekly Sabbath remains a wise and necessary rhythm for New Testament Christians.

Recent studies link Sabbath keeping with better or improved physical and mental health.²¹ In his paper for the Journal of Religion and Health, Benjamin Doolittle concluded that “clergy who create the space [in Sabbath] to engage in outside activities may also have the ability and the emotional capacity to disengage from their ministerial demands, thereby re-energizing themselves.”²² When Christian ministers neglect their physical need to practice the Sabbath, burnout, exhaustion, lack of productivity, and even pride will inevitably result. As Lynne Baab attests in her book Sabbath Keeping, a Sabbath is “a practical and ancient solution to an enduring human need.”²³ Obedience to God’s designs is not only the door to spiritual health; it is the path to physical well-being. The evidence is overwhelming. God designed our bodies for this weekly Sabbath rhythm.

“A practical and ancient solution to an enduring human need.”

Biblical Argument for a Practical Sabbath

The New Testament Church has long upheld the Bible as the “only and the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice.”²⁴ Adherence to this conviction does not mean that all actions of life are prescribed in Scripture. Some things are simply prudent for stewardship. God, however, is gracious to share his wisdom directives for the fullness of life. Although the New Testament does not strictly prescribe a Sabbath for the Church, the pattern of a weekly Sabbath continues as a recognition of God’s creative order and human need.

The subject of the Sabbath in Scripture spans both biblical Testaments. The Old Testament begins with a Sabbath pattern in Genesis 2:3, “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” In God’s original design, man was created and enabled to rest with God through the Sabbath. Author A.J. Swoboda states, “The picture is stunning—the first day for Adam and Eve was not a day to work the garden. God established a weekly rhythmic reminder of his love—the Sabbath.”²⁵ Sin, however, ruined man’s Garden experience. The Curse brought striving, suffering, and exhaustion into the human reality.

In Exodus 20, God reveals through the giving of the Ten Commandments that his design for the weekly Sabbath was not discontinued in the Fall. As a reminder of the rest to come through the Messiah, the children of Abraham were commanded to observe the Sabbath. The fourth commandment demanding a 24-hour period of Sabbath observance “is the lengthiest of all the commandments, making up about a third of the text of the Decalogue.”²⁶ The Hebrew word sabbath comes from the Hebrew verb shabbat, which means “to cease or desist.” Jewish Law demanded that the children of Israel obey the creative pattern of ceasing from work on the seventh day of the week. However, over time the Jews added restriction upon restriction for the observance of the fourth commandment. By the time of Christ, the demands for Sabbath observance in the Jewish religious system greatly exceeded the Law of Moses.

While the Jewish Sabbath became a restrictive mandate binding the lawbreaker rather than benefiting the Jewish observer, the Old Testament Scriptures reveal that God’s intention for Sabbath was not restriction but delight. For example, the prophet Isaiah describes the Sabbath as a day of joy. Isaiah 58:13 instructs the nation of Israel to “call the Sabbath a delight.” Even under the law, the Sabbath rhythm of the Old Testament was an invitation to God’s seventh-day rest, or menuha (Genesis 2:2)—a delightful invitation indeed.

Additionally, the Sabbath was a day to heighten spiritual awareness in the Jewish nation. God gave Israel the day to remember their Creator and his creation (Exod 20) and to remember their redemption (Duet 5:12). The fourth commandment provided a day to “be still and know that I (Jehovah) am God” (Ps 46:10) and to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps 34:8). On the seventh day of every week, God in his love welcomed, rather commanded, the nation of Israel to “lie down in green pastures” (Ps 23:2). The Sabbath for the Jews was a return to the Garden—a little heaven on earth. Indeed, as the Jewish philosopher and Rabbi Abraham Heschel observed, “The Sabbath is an example of the world to come,”²⁷ For the Old Testament Jew, the fourth commandment demanded obedience but offered delight through restorative physical and spiritual rest.

“The Sabbath is an example of the world to come,”

Under the New Covenant, the demands of the law are satisfied in Christ (Matthew 5:17-20). Grace, not law, is the New Testament theme. As the early Church became increasingly Gentile, God’s New Testament people relinquished the fading demand and pattern for Jewish-Saturday Sabbath, adopting with celebration the first day of the week as the “Lord’s Day.” Sunday was set aside for worship, teaching, prayer, and the observance of the Lord’s Table in the New Testament text (Acts 20:7; I Cor. 16:2). Revelation 1:10 refers explicitly to Sunday as the “Lord’s Day” for the New Testament Church. The debate over whether Sunday should inherit the obligations of the O.T. “Sabbath Day” has persisted throughout much of Church history. The discussion concerns whether the Scriptures require a “transfer of Sabbath theology to Sunday worship.”²⁸

However, the evidence of the New Testament text and the dominant, though not exclusive, practice of the Christian church supports the acknowledgment that the fourth commandment of the Mosaic law no longer binds the people of God to a strict observance of the Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday, or any day of the week (Galatians 4:10; Col. 2:16-17). Notwithstanding, the natural design in Creation for human thriving continues. A Sabbath rhythm of six days of work with one day of ceasing work continues to honor God’s plan for spiritual and physical health. While a lawful obligation for the Sabbath no longer governs the people of God, Sabbath continues to be a gift for the New Testament believer. As Jesus insisted, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Wayne Muller states in his book on Sabbath, Legalism “suffocates our joy and drains the spontaneity and passion out of this gratuitous day of delight.”²⁹ The New Testament rhythm of weekly Sabbath—whether observed on Sunday or another day of the week—benefits the holistic wellness of the Christian adherent and should be treated as a wise gift, not a legalistic obligation.

Historical Argument for a Practical Sabbath

Historically, Christianity has long debated the Sunday-Lord’s Day-Sabbath issue. Summarizing the seventeenth-century John Pocklington, John H. Primus of Calvin College lists the three primary Sabbath views from Church history. “Some said that the Lord’s Day is the Christian Sabbath. Christians keep the Sabbath commandment on Sunday. Others said that the only relevance of the Sabbath commandment is that one day a week ought to be set aside for the worship of God. Christians should keep the commandment but not on the seventh day, and not necessarily on the first day of the week. Finally, still others said that keeping a weekly day of rest and worship, although spiritually beneficial, is not obligatory at all.”³⁰

As Pocklington describes, positions have long varied in understanding and implementing the Sabbath rhythm.

The first millennium of Christian history shows general continuity in the continuation of a Sabbath rhythm. At times the practice of the Church even bordered on Sabbatarian, which is the strict observance of the Old Testament Sabbath on Sunday. In 321 AD, Constantine, the newly minted Christian Emperor, issued legislation requiring Sunday to be set aside from all work, effectively legislating the O.T. Sabbath to Sunday.³¹ While Sabbatarian practice became codified at points in Catholic Church history, the Sunday laws varied in implementation and enforcement throughout the Dark Ages.³² However, by the end of the eighth century, the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, as seen in Canon 13 of the Council of Fraiul, reaffirmed that Sunday was to be regarded as a day whereby the Christian church is to “abstain from all sin and all works of the flesh, and from … all agricultural work, and let nothing else take up your time but to go to church, hear the sermon with the greatest devotion.”³³

Still, as Pocklington related in his three views on the Sabbath practice of the Christian church, many church leaders rejected the strict Sabbatarian practice. The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas interpreted the Sabbath rhythm as “spiritual rest in God but rejected the strict mandate to observe a literal Sabbath day of no work.”³⁴ Additionally, sixteenth-century reformers Calvin and Luther verbalized a rejection of Sabbatarian or even semi-Sabbatarian theology.³⁵ Luther stated, “As far as outward observance is concerned, the commandment was given to the Jews alone.”³⁶ He held that the command of Sabbath “according to its literal, outward sense … does not concern us Christians.”³⁷ However, while not viewing the fourth commandment as binding to those “set free through Christ,” Luther believed a Sabbath rhythm was to be followed “for the sake of bodily need” and so that “people may have time and opportunity … to participate in public worship.”37

Like Luther, the sixteenth-century reformer John Calvin rejected a Sabbatarian Sunday advocating for the practical observance of the Lord’s Day. However, Calvin did expect “decorum, order, and peace in the church” on Sunday.³⁸ Calvin gives three purposes for the fourth commandment that he believed practical under the New Covenant. Namely, a Sabbath rhythm would function “to represent…spiritual rest, in which believers ought to lay aside their own works to allow God to work in them;” Secondly, to “provide a day for them to assemble to hear the law…and through this remembrance be trained in piety;” and, finally, to provide “a day of rest…in order that they may have respite from toil.” However, unlike Calvin’s balanced position on the Sunday-Lord’s Day-Sabbath, his followers began to rigidly enforce a Sabbatarian Christian Sabbath in the subsequent centuries.

“Christian Sabbath” is found in literature as early as the twelfth century.³⁹ However, the practice of the Christian Sabbath did not become mainstream until much later in the Puritan Protestant movement in England and the American Colonies. In Nicholas Bound’s The Doctrine of the Sabbath, written in 1595 in London, the Puritan writes that the fourth commandment is “naturall, morall, and perpetuall.”⁴⁰ Therefore, the Sabbath Sunday is a day that requires “the most carefull, exact and precise rest.”⁴¹ The climax of Puritanical Sabbatarianism came in the American Colonies of the mid-seventeenth century. The colonial Puritans practiced the “New England Way” of the “Christian Sabbath” with the conviction that “good Sabbaths make good Christians.”⁴² One author stated that the “Sunday Rules” of the Puritans “made the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time look relaxed. In certain towns, people were forbidden to smile on Sundays, and mothers were not allowed to kiss their children.”⁴³

While the Puritans carried the legislation of the Sabbath-Sunday the farthest, the influence of the Puritan Christian Sabbath-Sunday view continued in North America—although with far less rigidity—into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For example, in the wartime context of 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order regulating the Armed service to require that “Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.”⁴⁴ Even today, many states have blue laws regulating Sunday sales of alcohol, hunting, car sales, professional sports, and horse racing.⁴⁵ However, for most Americans, Sunday is neither a day for Christian worship nor rest.

The survey of Christian practice throughout Church history reveals a general adherence to setting aside one 24-hour day in seven—primarily Sunday—as a day for rest and worship. Yet, specific practice, the rigidity of observation, and biblical understanding of the Sunday-Lord’s Day-Sabbath have widely varied. The modern Western church, however, is losing the natural Sabbath rhythm. While exercising liberty from legalistic Sabbatarianism, the Western church is losing the benefits of the rhythm of a full day of worship and rest. A rhythm the Church, as history reveals, would be wise to reengage.

Spiritual Benefits of a Practical Sabbath

The benefits of a practical Sabbath are many. Indeed, obedience to the rhythm of setting aside one day in seven for worship and rest will benefit one physically. However, the benefits of Sabbath time extend beyond the physical. Sabbath creates space for spiritual restoration and growth. The English Puritan Thomas Watson recognized that the Sabbath “is not only a day of honor to God, but a day of blessing to us; it is not only a day wherein we give God worship, but a day wherein he gives us grace.”⁴⁶ Christians need the grace of God for life, and the Sabbath rhythm is a means for the reception of divine aid. Therefore, the people of God must learn and practice the Sabbath rhythm for spiritual health.

The primary benefit of Sabbath living is that it orients one towards God. Apart from this periodic pause from the grind of the weekly labor cycle, a Christian—including a ministry leader—will fail to behold and acknowledge God adequately. It is in a Sabbath rhythm that one has time to reflect on the character of God.

Marva Dawn explained that Sabbath is spiritually beneficial because when we cease work for a day, “we dispose with the need to create our own future.”⁴⁷ By setting aside a day and relinquishing power over one’s tasks, God is acknowledged as God. The sovereignty of God is true regardless of one’s recognition of his authority. Yet, the appreciation of his power to sustain one’s life, career, ministry, and endless responsibilities will result in true rest. In the paradox of the Sabbath, the people of God physically rest to acknowledge God while acknowledging God in order to truly rest. The first is a willful discipline, while the latter is a gracious discovery. It is busyness that conjures the “hallucination” that I am God.⁴⁸ Author A.J. Swoboda poignantly states, “Sabbath dethrones humanity from the self-aggrandized place of lordship over creation by handing authority of the world back to the One to whom it already belongs.⁴⁹ The Sabbath rhythm creates the time and space to see God as he is—sovereign.

“Sabbath dethrones humanity from the self-aggrandized place of lordship over creation by handing authority of the world back to the One to whom it already belongs.

When work becomes the object of our devotion, our labor becomes our idol. Christians are not immune from the selfish and slavish pursuit of personal value through effort. However, the gospel is an invitation to discover one’s true identity in a relationship with his Creator. One author describes the Sabbath as “letting go, for one day out of seven, of all the parts of our identities and abilities in which we are constantly tempted to find our security and discover afresh that we are his children and that he is our father and shield and defender.”⁵⁰ Nothing we do will earn God’s love. The Grace of God experienced in the Sabbath teaches us that we are loved and valued not because of what we do for God but because of what he has already done. Rather than worship our work—even ministry work—Sabbath forces us to release that work for a day and worship the Creator who loves us.

Ultimately, the rhythm of Sabbath produces awe and gratitude for life. The fourth commandment in the Decalogue declares, “Remember the Sabbath.” Truly, Sabbath is for remembrance. In his book Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest, Wayne Mueller encourages believers to “remember to delight in your life, in the fruits of your labor. Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of it.”⁵¹ When one stops to recognize the wonder of life, the Sabbath rhythm encourages him to remember the grace of God. Sabbath gives us room to reflect. Indeed, the spiritual gifts of the weekly Sabbath rhythm are profound.

“Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of it.”

Keeping a Sabbath Rhythm

Research shows that observing a Sabbath rhythm is a physical necessity, a biblical principle that spans both Testaments, a varied but continual historical precedent, and a spiritual benefit. However, the question regarding implementing a Sabbath rhythm may be raised—“How do I do it?” Engaging this question is helpful.

The weekly Sabbath rhythm begins by creating space to behold God and observe life before him. As such, “it is both a time on a calendar and a disposition of the heart.”⁵² God gave Israel the Sabbath “as a friendly commandment of weekly rest” to remind his people of their reliance on his divine presence and to sustain them physically and spiritually.⁵³ The observance of the “friendly” rhythm of the Sabbath acknowledges that only God can make man whole and holy. Human effort cannot bring satisfaction and fulfillment. Only the presence of God will satisfy. Thus, a Sabbath rhythm is less a rigid adherence to religious practice and more a day of freedom to lift one’s eyes and see. A day set aside to cease from the insane pace and grind of a week to behold the beauty of God, his matchless love, and the goodness of creation, family, and friends. Legalism belittles the day. “We lose the freedom of the gospel if we become too legalistic about the issue,” says Marvin Dawn.⁵⁴ Embracing the rhythm rather than the legalism of the Sabbath opens the door to finding God’s rest on this side of heaven—but the door must be opened.

Is the Sabbath Rythym Only for Sunday? Additionally, the question may be asked, “Is the Sabbath rhythm only for Sunday?” While Sunday will likely be, for most Christians, the most accessible day to worship and rest, the Lord’s Day-Sunday holds no biblical requirement for Sabbath observance. Furthermore, a Sabbath rhythm is more than just attendance to a public worship service of the local church. One author observes, “For many Christians, attending a worship service is the only activity that marks the Sabbath as a special day.”⁵⁵ However, Wayne Mueller explains that a Sabbath rhythm is more than corporate worship. In his book, he writes, “Sabbath is a time for sacred rest; it may be a holy day, the seventh day of the week, as in Jewish tradition, or the first day of the week, as for Christians. But Sabbath time may also be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, a Sabbath walk—indeed, [it is] anything that preserves a visceral experience of life-giving nourishment and rest.”⁵⁶

Sabbath keeping is really that simple. We choose a day of the week and cease as a “counterrhythm to whatever we have been doing for the workdays.”⁵⁷ We “lie fallow, to be nourished and refreshed.”⁵⁸ But, of course, for some—including most ministry leaders—the Sabbath rhythm will need to be observed on a day other than Sunday, and as the Apostle Paul seemed to think, one day will serve as well as another (Rom. 14:5-6).

Does God intend more than a Day-Off for the Sabbath Rhythm? Finally, the question may be asked, “Is a Sabbath rhythm simply a day off, or does God intend more for the day?” In his book Working the Angles, Eugene Peterson explains that “Sabbath-keeping involves both playing and praying … [as] a complimentary wholeness.”⁵⁹ He boldly states that “a day-off Sabbath is a bastard Sabbath.”⁶⁰ Don Postema further expands on Peterson’s view: “Prayerful Sabbaths without play or playful Sabbaths without prayer are only half-Sabbaths. Prayer without play can degenerate into a dutiful but cheerless religion. Play without prayer can become a mind-numbing escape.”⁶¹ Mark Buchanan adds that “Sabbath invites us to stop. In that ceasing, fresh possibilities abound.”62 God ingratiates the day with the possibility to “shut our eyes if we choose—this is one of sabbath’s gifts, to relax without guilt. But there is also time enough to open our eyes to learn again Jesus’s command to watch and pray.”⁶²

As these authors indicate, a Sabbath rhythm is more than a day off. Leisure cannot replace physical and spiritual rest. God’s rest is only supplied if one ceases with eyes wide open to the glory of the Almighty. The divine rest will only be found in the presence of God. However, recreation and enjoyment are not forbidden in a Sabbath rhythm. The Puritans failed when mothers were forbidden to smile or kiss their children on Sundays. Nevertheless, in pursuit of the many possibilities of enjoyment on the “opposite day,” the people of God must be careful not to fill the menuha, or rest, of the Sabbath rhythm with the business of recreation or the laziness of leisure. Christians, including ministers, must not turn their Sabbath into a day of escape—as a day to merely binge Netflix. Sabbath will indeed be exchanged for a half-sabbath if leisure or sport consumes the day crowding out all time to behold God through the blessing of family, creation, or his Word.

Conclusion: The Sabbath Rhythm in Pastoral Ministry

Ministry leaders must remember the exciting reality that the Sabbath is a delight. But, as Peterson admonishes, “We cannot prescribe a practice [of the Sabbath day] for each other.”⁶³ The only mandate for the minister pursuing a personal Sabbath rhythm is to cease work—ideally for one day in seven—for physical and spiritual renewal through the presence of God. God should be the focus of any Sabbath rhythm. Indeed, ministry leaders may “physically detach themselves from a stressful work situation …but unless they redirect mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, they will not necessarily experience respite.”⁶⁴

Sabbath keeping in pastoral ministry is a challenge. A failure of discipline in the workweek may cause ministers to find a Sabbath day impossible to keep. Furthermore, church-related problems will inevitably appear on a pastor’s Sabbath day that only the presence of an established and known rhythm can navigate. When issues arise, the minister must acknowledge the necessity of his Sabbath need and the sufficiency of the sovereignty of God to sustain the ministry in his absence. Admittedly, some emergencies will necessarily interrupt a Sabbath day. However, through a convictional Sabbath rhythm, the minister should keep intrusions as the exception, not the rule. Preparation is necessary in our 24/7 world because God’s rest is never accidental.⁶⁵

In conclusion, surveys and experience show that burnout in pastoral ministry is rising in Western Christianity. Yet, God offers aid to the weary and the would-be weary minister. God is not willing that any of his ministers would fail out of his work. While Sunday may be the practical day for the Sabbath rhythm of most lay congregants, the Lord’s Day is insufficient for most Christian leaders’ physical and spiritual rest. The beauty in the New Testament Sabbath rhythm is that God has stripped the principle of its previous religious legalism and replaced it with flexibility sufficient to fit full-time and bi-vocational ministry leaders. God is gracious. He made the Sabbath for the minister and not the minister for the Sabbath. The gracious Shepherd now invites Christian leaders to begin somewhere and to begin today.