Spiritual Practice: Sabbath Challenge

November 28, 2023 | Jake Harp

Sabbath. Followers of God in the Old Testament participated in its celebration, our Lord and Savior practiced it, and Christians of all different flavors have engaged in this ancient discipline to bring themselves closer to God. God gave his people the sabbath instruction as part of the “Ten Commandments” as a gift to help them live how he designed them to live. As Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27a). While Jesus warned against a legalistic abuse of this specific practice (“man was not made for the sabbath”- Mark 2:27b), he consistently reinforced the value of the sabbath through his own actions and teachings. There are many facets of the sabbath, but the primary purpose is to rest from work in order to spend time with God. In this time with God, we worship him in a variety of ways.

There are many different ways to engage in this rhythm, but here are several possible first steps:

Crawl - Commit to cease work for the day you choose to sabbath this week.

Walk - In addition to a commitment to cease work for a day, plan a special meal with your family or community to spend time together and talk about what you love about God.

Run - In addition to a commitment to cease work for a day, take a complete break from screens on your chosen sabbath day. Turn your phone off, power down your television, and plan to spend time doing things that aren’t mediated by technology.

A great resource to generate more sabbath practice ideas can be found here.

Jake Harp

Jake is a native of Illinois where he first learned about ministry by watching his dad work in the church. He has earned degrees from Missouri Southern State University and Lincoln Christian University. Prior to starting at Venture during the summer of 2022, he served as a Small Groups Minister in Southwestern Missouri. While in Missouri, he and his wife began growing their family and moved to Hamilton County with three kids and one on the way. Jake also has a love for ax throwing which caused him to open up his own mobile ax-throwing business.