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Spiritual Practices: Sabbath & Rest

resources to support contemplative beginners and adepts, including individuals, families, small groups and congregational practices

Welcome

Welcome to The Ministry Lab's curated list of resources to support Sabbath observations.

Scroll down to find:

  • Books for Adults and Children & Families
  • Websites
  • Blogs, Podcasts, & Articles
  • Downloadable resources and specific Practices
  • Studies & Books In Our Library

Leaders may also find support for Sabbath as self-care in our Boundaries & Safety: Office Hours lib guide.

Adult Books

     The Deepest Belonging: A Story about Discovering Where God Meets Us Cover Image     Dimming the Day: Evening Meditations for Quiet Wonder     Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee               In Good Time: 8 Habits for Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and  Practicing Peace: Michel, Jen Pollock: 9781540900548: Amazon.com: Books               Niksen     Only Work Sundays | A Laidback Guide to Doing Less while Helping Your Church Thrive (Miller)     Pastoral Pause     Practice the Pause: Jesus' Contemplative Practice, New Brain Science, and What It Means to Be Fully Human     Receiving This Life: Practicing the Deepest Belonging     Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude, and Stillness in a Restless World     Lreinventionofwork.jpg     Rest is Resistance     Rest is Sacred     Sabbath in the Suburbs: A Family’s Experiment with Holy Time     The Sacred Pulse: Holy Rhythms for Overwhelmed Souls               The Spacious Path     The Spirituality of Dreaming: Unlocking the Wisdom of Our Sleeping Selves     The Tyranny of Merit     Upside Down Living

Children's Books

Let's Do Everything and Nothing     We All Play

Websites

Downloads & Practices

MaryAnnn McKibben Dana created a set of five videos to compliment Sabbath in the Suburbs. They can be used to open a gathering, as a springboard for conversation, or as a component in a closing worship time.

Each video tackles a different them from Sabbath in the Suburbs, including:

  • Cathedral
  • Start
  • Balloon
  • Language
  • Now

Download a discussion guide for the book here.

View all five videos here.

Find the outline of supplementary 'experiments' for each video here.

Square image with NPR Life Kit's logoSPECIAL SERIES

Your Life Kit for better sleep

Getting a good night's rest is critical to your wellbeing, but it isn't always easy to go to bed or sleep through the night. Life Kit's here to help you and your loved ones achieve optimal sleep.

Mini Sabbath Notecards  Ideas for 1 3 and 5 minute image 1Mini Sabbath Notecards

The Sabbath is a day of rest given to us by God. Although it is right and good to take an entire Sabbath day to rest each week, I also like to incorporate mini-sabbath moments into each day. In the midst of a busy life, just a few minutes can bring us great peace, focus our minds, and usher us back to God’s presence. These Sabbath notecards are designed for busy teens and adults. You might enjoy using them with younger children as well or practicing them as a family.

Let's Do Everything and Nothing

This activity kit inspired by Let's Do Everything and Nothing inspires kids to think of others—interviewing a family member about their day or coloring a heartfelt sign to give to a friend—and all the joy that love brings to their world.

Online Worship

The Creation Spirituality Interfaith Worship Experience meets every Sunday at 6:00 PM CT. Register here for the zoom link.

Studies & Curriculum

When Church Stops Working: A Webinar with Andy Root

What if the solution for the decline of today’s church isn’t more money, people, programs, innovation, or busyness? What if we honored how tired our people are and how hard it is to get volunteers? Perhaps it’s time to reimagine what a congregation is, how it functions, and why it matters.

Engage this conversation with Dr. Andrew Root, professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, who has invested years in studying “ministry in the secular age.” Andy will offer a refreshing, new paradigm for understanding the congregation in contemporary ministry. He will also articulate why congregations feel pressured by the speed of change in modern life and encourage an approach that doesn’t fall into the negative traps of our secular age.   

In Our Library - Children

Sunday Morning     9781640652811: The Very Best Day: The Way of Love for Children

Blogs, Podcasts, & Articles

See J. Dana Trent, author of For Sabbath's Sake, in the documentary: SABBATH: An Ancient Practice Meets the Modern Worlda two-hour documentary that explores the history of one of the world's most important spiritual practices and its timeless relevance for a stressed-out, modern world. Learn more at www.journeyfilms.com.

Eileen Campbell-Reed interviews J. Dana Trent in Episode 113: Sabbath of her 3MMM podcast.

To Transform Work, We Must Rest

Rest is not antithetical to work. We cannot reimagine work without it.

Rest must be central to our reimagining of everything in our daily existence, including our work. 

The Lazy Genius CollectiveCan we get better at resting? Can we set better goals and push toward resting better? This episode talks about the need to look at rest differently and then figures out practical ways to actually do it in regular life.

The 7 types of rest that every person needs (Sleep and rest are not the same thing!)

Avalon Nuovo

DON’T keep the kids so busy

by Lisa Witherspoon, Director of Children’s Ministries, First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, NC

Less Work, More Living; Yes! Magazine, by Elaine Meyer

Movements such as the four-day workweek, right to disconnect, and fair workweek aim to save our sanity and the planet.

The Case for Slow Work from Yes! Magazine, by Paige Curtis

The right to live, work, and play at our own pace is inalienable and worth protecting at all costs.

Joseph Yoo of MinistryMatters wonders about Pastor's Office Hours: Time to Cut Back?

Doors open at Black Table Arts | Longfellow Nokomis Messenger

Please listen to/watch Renee' Jones-Schneider's Star Tribune article, Black Twin Citians Finding Comfort in Safe Spaces. May every BIPOC soul find a safe space.

In Our Library

9781566992299: Be Still: Designing And Leading Contemplative Retreats     Be Still!               The Life of the Body          A Play-full Life | Slowing Down and Seeking Peace (Hamman)     852643     Sabbath by Wayne Muller     Sabbath_as_Resistance     Sabbath Keeping          Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus  -     By: C. Christopher Smith, John Pattison          20 Ways to Keep Sabbath - Schaper, Donna     

Studies - In Our Library

Sabbath as Resistance, New Edition with Study Guide     Slow Church Study Guide