Resisting oppression through rest
'Sabbath is claiming my right to be a human being,' says the Rev. Dr. Brian McLaren
LOUISVILLE — When Brian McLaren's six-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, his church board didn't offer sympathy and wait for him to ask for help. They gave him a job requirement: Work the minimum hours possible.
"The board met, and said, 'we want you to know it is your current job requirement to work the least number of hours that's possible,'" McLaren recalled during an Oct. 7 webinar. "'If you work more than is necessary, then you will be going against our requirement for you at this time.'"
That experience, McLaren told 45 leaders of new worshiping communities gathered online for "Sabbath as Resistance," transformed how he understood pastoral ministry and rest. Years later, he instituted a 45-hour maximum work week for his own staff.
The 90-minute conversation, facilitated by the Rev. Jeff Eddings, began with a “lament for grieving global terrors” from Cole Arthur Riley's "Black Liturgies" as McLaren acknowledged global suffering — Gaza, Ukraine, environmental destruction, political turmoil — and the human inability to hold it all. In that tension between caring deeply and recognizing our limits, the evening's exploration of Sabbath took root.
McLaren, author of numerous books including "The Great Spiritual Migration" and the Nautilus award-winner, "Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart," joined Eddings to explore how intentional rest challenges systems of overwork while nurturing the spiritual resilience needed for sustainable ministry.
Eddings, associate for spiritual formation and coaching in the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement, created the Sabbath Innovation Lab after recognizing a gap between the biblical command to rest and the reality of ministry life. "I created this Sabbath lab as an opportunity for folks to come together in a cohort once a month and to read and reflect on Sabbath, and, more importantly to practice Sabbath and see how that impacts our life," he explained.
The lab has been meeting for a year, reading works by Abraham Joshua Heschel, Tricia Hersey and Walter Brueggemann while experimenting with Sabbath practices.
McLaren, who turns 70 next year, shared how his understanding of Sabbath has evolved throughout his ministry. He offered two working definitions: "Sabbath is resting before I'm tired" and "Sabbath is claiming my right to be a human being, not just a producer and consumer."
The conversation explored the original context of the Sabbath commandment in Scripture. McLaren suggested that the background for biblical law wasn't primarily theological abstraction but the concrete reality of slavery and oppression in ancient economies.
"I think the backdrop to the Bible is slavery. It's oppression," McLaren said. "It's oppression by the wealthy and powerful who want to manipulate as many people as they can, to work as hard as they can, to make their lives feel more secure and more easy and more luxurious."
This reading positions the Sabbath commandment as revolutionary social legislation — a weekly shutdown ensuring even the most vulnerable received rest. One day each week, the entire economic system paused.
McLaren connected this to contemporary church culture, where pastoral overwork is often celebrated rather than questioned. He encouraged pastors to establish maximum work hours with their boards and to build in compensatory time when special programs require additional effort.
"We'd like you to work 40 hours a week. You're allowed to work up to 45, but if you do more than that, it's not going to go well for us," he recalled telling his team, creating institutional structures that interrupted the expectation of constant availability.
The discussion also explored Sabbath's role in fostering creativity and delight. McLaren cited musician Bruce Cockburn's song "Don't Forget About Delight," emphasizing that Sabbath creates space for joy and play often sacrificed to constant productivity.
For pastors navigating a time of anxiety and rapid news cycles, McLaren offered a reframing of hope itself, drawing on former Czech president Václav Havel: "Hope is not the certainty that things will turn out as we wish. Hope is the confidence that some things are worth doing no matter how they turn out."
This understanding, he suggested, allows communities to create what sociologists call "temporary autonomous zones" — pockets where people practice freedom and rest even within demanding circumstances, living as they believe people ought to live regardless of external pressures.
Several pastors in attendance shared their own Sabbath struggles and discoveries. The Rev. Grace Lee, former “lead honker” for the Wild Goose Christian Community, described how her understanding had evolved: She first learned to practice Sabbath "to be resilient," but now experiences it as rest "in spite of" — a subtle but profound shift that acknowledged both the weight of current realities and the defiant act of choosing rest anyway.
Drawing on an earlier invitation McLaren introduced of sabbath as a reminder to play and to delight as a child would, one participant offered an image that appears to her when she needs to stop working: a little girl on a playground wearing heart-shaped glasses, blowing bubbles saying, "come blow bubbles with me."
It was the kind of invitation Sabbath extends every week — permission to be human, to rest, to trust that the work will be there tomorrow. And perhaps more importantly, permission to model for congregations that faithful ministry includes knowing when to stop.
The Sabbath Innovation Lab continues to meet monthly, inviting leaders to experiment with practices honoring what Eddings, who recently returned from a sabbatical stay on a tidal island, calls "the natural tidal rhythms in our spirit" — the ebb and flow of energy that resists being overridden by the demands of an always-on culture.
The deadline to apply for 1001 New Worshiping Communities' Sabbath and Sabbatical Grants is Nov. 7.
NWC Leaders of at least two years can apply for 1-2 Week Sabbath Grant for $1,500. NWC Leaders of at least five years can apply for 4-6 Week Sabbatical Grant for $3,500.
For resources on Sabbath to share with your community.
View the webinar with McLaren.
Watch Sabbath videos by “Sabbatical Jeff” Eddings for the Sabbath Innovation Lab: “Rituals for entering Sabbath,”“Sabbath values,”“Sabbath snacks,” “You don’t have to figure it out!”“Try, try again,” and “The Tides of Lindisfarne”
Read more stories in this series on Sabbath: “Sabbath as Resistance”, “The Gift of Sabbath, “NPR journalist and spiritual director helps others find their way,”
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