A week of sabbath for the Presbyterian Outlook
From August 4-8, 2025, the Presbyterian Outlook will step away from the churn of daily work to observe a week of sabbath.
Don’t worry: worship resources will still be available on our website, carefully planned and scheduled ahead of time. But during the week of August 4-8, you won’t find new emails in your inbox. Our social media channels will only post content prepared in advance to invite you into sabbath-keeping alongside us.
Shutting down our services is not a simple act to carry out. Deadlines must shift earlier. Worship resources need to be edited and designed weeks in advance. Website and social posts must be curated and pre-scheduled. As a small, interconnected team, if one person steps away, others inevitably step in to carry the load. We have an extraordinary staff who do this gladly for each other’s vacations and personal needs. But a collective pause is different. A shared sabbath requires us to reimagine the pace and rhythm of our work together.
A shared sabbath requires us to reimagine the pace and rhythm of our work together.
Why shut down for a week?
Because the Outlook, like so many ministries and organizations, is shaped by the culture we inhabit — a culture of constant availability, relentless productivity, and the unspoken assumption that if we aren’t producing something new, we’re somehow falling behind.
In recent years, I’ve noticed how easily that mindset creeps into even the most faithful work. News cycles never stop. Social media never sleeps. The demand for 24/7 content – even from ministries – never seems to relent.
But this is not the rhythm of God.
In Genesis, God rests — not out of exhaustion, but out of delight. Rest is not a reward for finishing the work; it is woven into the very pattern of creation. The sabbath command isn’t an afterthought; it’s a liberation from the tyranny of ceaseless labor. Sabbath tells the truth about who we are: we are not what we produce. Our worth is not in our output. We belong to God, who calls us beloved and whole, even when our hands are still.
In Genesis, God rests — not out of exhaustion, but out of delight.
As the Outlook’s editor, I often find myself contemplating a mission-specific question: not, “How can this ministry survive?” Not even, “How can we sustain ourselves in difficult times?” But, “How can we flourish?”
What does it mean to flourish?
Flourishing requires resources: financial, technological, creative, spiritual, and yes, human. It requires stewardship that cares not just for the work but for the people who do it. It requires saying “no” sometimes, even when the world seems to demand “yes.”
This week of sabbath is one small way we are seeking to flourish, not just as a faith-based organization but as followers of Christ. It is a way of trusting that when we stop, God does not. That when we lay down our work, even for a week, the church will still be held by the One who never sleeps nor slumbers.
Even in a restless world, God calls us to pause.
I invite you to join us. Maybe your sabbath this week is simply pausing for a few minutes each day to breathe, to pray, to remember that you are more than what you do. Maybe it’s resisting the pressure to always be “on.” Maybe it’s letting God remind you that the world does not rest on your shoulders — or ours.
When we return from this sabbath, we hope to do so with renewed energy and clearer vision. We will come back ready to continue our ministry of independent journalism and faithful resources for Christ’s church. But for a brief, beautiful week, we will rest. Because even in a restless world, God calls us to pause.
A sabbath prayer
Holy One, you rested and called it good. Teach us to trust your rhythms of work and rest. Quiet our striving. Calm our anxious hearts. Renew your weary servants with the gift of stillness, so that in pausing, we may remember who we are and whose we are. Amen.
