Few individuals have the clarity, courage, and staying power to resist pervasive and powerful patterns like those of the 24/7/365 economy on their own. Instead we need enduring communities of support with access to deep wisdom rooted in the past as well as the capacity to adapt and grow into the future. We need communities with practices large and deep enough to orient a sturdy, comprehensive worldview. Christian congregations are communities of this kind, and they already honor Sabbath to some degree in weekly worship. Can they also become places where we help one another to embrace Sabbath more fully?

Christians who wish to explore Sabbath keeping need to have a rich and realistic debate about what specific forms Sabbath practice might take today. Within the complexities of contemporary culture, no specific plan will be accessible to all, and it will be important not to turn the Sabbath into a day that reeks of condemnation rather than gift, as some have done in the past. But pondering, discerning, and having hard conversations about what our present way of living in time is doing to us and how we can respond--this is a good thing indeed.

This two-session study explores the gift of Sabbath and how it has been lived. It also suggests some concrete ways for participants to reengage this ancient practice and live better lives.

We suggest you consider using this study with another Thoughtful Christian study on Sabbath by Walter Brueggemann, entitled "Sabbath as Resistance." It is a four-week Bible study on Sabbath and works very well with this study. Both studies may be purchased individually or together as "Keeping the Sabbath Study Pack." We suggest you use the Brueggemann study first in order to study the biblical context of Sabbath and then engage this study.