Sabbatical Rhythm

As I sat and participated in our church’s online service last Sunday, I had both a strange and familiar feeling. The strange feeling was due to such a different medium. I wasn’t close in proximity to the people I was attending the service with. I couldn’t give a handshake or a hug, or even share a smile with them. I did however have better coffee on hand than I usually get at church. The strange feeling was easy to understand and recognize. I think we are all feeling it in these days.

The familiar feeling was a little more difficult for me to place. As I considered how I was experiencing church, it finally dawned on me that the familiar feeling took me back 4 years to when I took an intentional Sabbatical to reset some rhythms and practices that would lead to a healthier life and ministry. During the Sabbatical my relationship to my church changed as I created space between myself and the ministry and our family rhythms changed in order to try and pursue a healthier more balanced life and ministry.

What many are feeling in the physical distance between themselves and their church communities is much like a Sabbatical. When a Sabbatical is taken with a level of intentionality to reset rhythms and practices to become healthier it is a beautiful and life-altering time. Our people in our churches are experiencing a Sabbatical-like moment and I contend that if we empower them to make this time an intentional time of reset they could not merely survive a quarantine but instead thrive in the years to come because of the intentional steps they took during the quarantine.

The honest truth is that change for all of us is hard, especially in our day-to-day lives. Everyone wants to pray more, connect with God on a deeper level, have a healthier marriage and family life, lose a few pounds and read those books that we heard were good but haven’t taken time to tackle. Right now, we are in a unique moment where change is happening whether people want it or not. So why not help them make changes in their rhythms and practices that will lead to long term health and vitality?

Click here to download a guide that will walk someone through making a Sabbatical plan for this season. I use the terms rhythms and practices throughout the guide. A rhythm is the frequency in which you will engage in the activity. The practice is the content of the activity that you do. I would suggest working through this guide with an eye towards creating a daily and weekly schedule that will be lived into. Also, for some it might be worthwhile to just work through one of the areas below. Even becoming healthy in one area would be beneficial!

We are all in this together. My prayer is that by pursuing greater spiritual and relational health in this season we might see the Kingdom advanced even as we experience hardship around us. May you experience God’s blessing these days as you pursue all that God has for you.

Kyle Magstadt

Associate Superintendent for Church Multiplication
North Central District of The C&MA