A Sabbatical Reading Review

In last week’s post, I shared a thank you to Wilkesboro Baptist Church for the opportunity to take a sabbatical. One of my primary activities during the several weeks away from the regular rhythms of work was reading. As followers of Jesus, we are always to be learning. One of my favorite passages comes from 2 Timothy 4:13 where Paul requests that Timothy bring books and parchments when he visits. Even while in prison during the final stages of his life, Paul was learning. I commend reading to you as a means of spiritual growth.

Reading is one of my hobbies and joys. Over the past several years, I’ve developed the practice of tracking my reading annually. Tracking anything functions as an accountability, and it lets me look back for review and reflection.

For me, books on theology, apologetics, ministry, and leadership get my mind going. I try not to read these at bedtime or I’m likely not to sleep. During the sabbatical I finished several books that I had started and read several other books that made an impression on me. You can find more suggested reading on my reading page. In this post, I’ll share some short reviews of several of the books I recently completed. Look for additional reviews in the weeks ahead.

What is Wrong with the World? by Tim Keller

I’ve been a fan of Tim Keller’s preaching and writing for a long time. His books on Preaching and Prayer have been helpful for my spiritual development. What is Wrong with the World? was compiled by Kathy Keller, after Tim’s death. It comes from sermons Keller preached on the doctrine of sin. This book expands the basic view of sin as breaking God’s law to the various ways that sin permeates and damages us.

Here’s a great quote from the book that I used this week in my sermon: “The real reason you keep having problems with these enslaving habits is because you don’t have an appetite for something better. I’m not talking about believing in God. I’m not talking even about obeying God. I’m talking about tasting God… The way to get out from under the enslaving habits—the secret to freedom from spiritual slavery—is to worship. You need deep, heartfelt worship. Worship that moves you to tears. Worship that fills you with joy. You have to sense the overwhelming greatness of who God is and what he has done for you.” (169-170).

The Pastor Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision by Gerald Heistand and Todd Wilson

I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while and just got around to reading it. Heistand and Wilson are pastors with a heart for doctrinal thinking and pastoral depth in writing. They argue that pastors should be theologians. For them, the pastor should make time for deep reading in theology and even for writing theologically. I was convicted by this book and inspired to finish one writing project and begin work on another.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Several years ago, I read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport and was not disappointed by Deep Work. Our ability to concentrate intentionally has been drastically affected by the technologies that were supposed to make our lives simpler and easier. While our smartphones can simplify tasks and make communication easier, they can also suck attention and lead to wasted time. Newport suggests methods of scheduling and planning where distractions are removed and intentional work is done. His recommendations partially shaped how I organized my time for thinking, reading, and writing over the past several weeks.

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

Having read a couple of Comer’s books now, I believe his works serve as a helpful correction to some contemporary struggles in our walk with God. I’m grateful that as a writer, Comer doesn’t simply observe/describe problems, but he offers solutions. However, some of his solutions are not as helpful as I think they could be. (More on that in the highlight that follows: A Heart Aflame for God). Here are some quotes from The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry:

  • Dallas Willard, “There is nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” (19)
  • Corey ten Boom, “If the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.” (20) 
  • Carl Jung, “Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.” (20) 
  • John Mark Comer, “Love is painfully time consuming…. Hurry and love are incompatible.” (23)
  • Non-Christian Mary Oliver, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” (53) 
  • Walter Brueggemann, “People who keep sabbath live all seven days differently.” (150)
  • Wall street banker: “We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture… People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been completely consumed. We must shape a new mentality. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.” (182) 

Comer offers quotes, insights, and statistics that are meaningful. I find his insights on Sabbath and rest a helpful reminder for over busy people. In fact, I interacted with two other books on this sabbatical that directly addressed Sabbath: The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan and Subversive Sabbath by A. J. Swoboda. I would generally commend all three books to you with the following caveat. Attempts today to modernize a Sabbath practice can easily fall into traps of legalism which Swaboda and Buchanan both admit. Further, the language of Sabbath is confusing. Observing Sabbath is the Old Testament command found in the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11 and repeated in Deuteronomy 5:12-15. God modeled rest in Genesis 1 after six days of creation, and God commanded Sabbath to his people in the Old Testament. The Sabbath was one of the ways (along with circumcision and the Law) that made his people distinct from the idolatrous world around them. By Jesus’ day, Pharisees and others had added a great number of Sabbath day laws to make sure that one kept the Sabbath. Jesus corrected the Pharisees’ legalism and challenged their assumptions by healing on the Sabbath day and by his statement in Mark 2:27-28 : “And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

I think contemporary expressions of setting aside a day of rest and worship are important, and I’m generally thankful for Comer, Buchanan, and Swodoba. However to call the day we set aside to rest and worship a Sabbath day is to confuse Christian living with Jewish Law. Even if we practice rest and worship on Sundays, we are not practicing Sabbath. New Testament believers quickly adopted the first day of the week, Sunday, as the Lord’s day in remembrance of the resurrection. Another reminder about Sabbath practice for contemporary believers is that is is not reissued as a New Testament command. Remember, it was a day that the nation of Israel was to set apart for God. But many new believers in the early church were slaves or those who had no control over their weekly calendars so a Jewish Sabbath would have been largely impossible for them to keep. Even throughout history, Sabbath practitioners have had to make exceptions for those in war, working in hospitals, or emergency responders. Our own national history reflects that within the past generation, the general tendency of society to set aside a day (Sunday) as different has been largely ignored. Liquor laws that prevented the sell of alcohol on Sunday were a remnant of New Testament application of the Sabbath principle.

The principle of rest and worship is what I believe Christians should take away from the reminders in the books above. When we set aside a day for rest and worship and create a regular rhythm of giving one day a week devoted to God through Christ, we are embracing the intention of the Sabbath day. We do need rest, and we must worship. Ultimately, Jesus is our Sabbath (Hebrews 3-4). He fulfilled the Sabbath when he fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17), Jesus must be the focus of our day of rest and worship. Thus, gathering on Sundays for worship is the beginning of continuing a biblical pattern of rest, worship, and reset.

Naturally, we will have questions about setting apart a day for rest and worship. What should we do? What must we not do? Etc. Mark Buchanan offered great advice to those questions in his book The Rest of God when he said, “We should do what gives life on our day of rest/worship.”

A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation by Matthew Bingham

Bingham offers an excellent response to spiritual formation from a Reformed perspective. Much writing on spiritual formation has found practices and ideas from a variety of doctrinal traditions. While evangelicals can certainly learn from formational practices from alternative denominational influences, we ought to be attentive to where those influences derive.

I appreciated A Heart Aflame for God as a Reformed explanation for spiritual formation. Bingham argues that spiritual formation should be Word-centered: including Bible reading and Scripture meditation as the foundation for Christian prayer. Spiritual practices, disciplines, and formational elements can be more than that, but Bingham’s focus is on biblical simplicity. Following are some quotes from the book that delineate Bingham’s arguments.

  • Archibald Alexander, “Those Christians, therefore, who are most diligent in attending upon the Word in public and private will be most likely to make progress in piety.” (72)
  • B.B. Warfield, “Life close to the Word of God is life close to God.” (72) 
  • Bingham, “Reformed spirituality is word-centered spirituality.” (75) 
  • John Flavel, “Keep the Word and the Word will keep you. It is the slipperiness of our hearts in reference to the Word that causes so many slips in our lives… We never lose our hearts till they have first lost the efficacious and powerful impressions of the Word.” (91)
  • Charles Hodge, “We cannot make progress in holiness unless we devote much time to the reading, and hearing, and meditating upon the word of God, which is the truth by which we are sanctified.” (109)
  • Thomas Watson, “Meditation is ‘serious thinking upon God.'” (135)
  • In reference to meditation and slowing down Bingham writes, “Life is getting faster. And while some might be inclined to dismiss this accelerating pace as neutral or even beneficial, there are good reasons to suspect that our habitual exposure to this hyper-paced world has serious consequences for our capacity to slow down and pay attention to things that really matter.” (145). This is why we need meditation on the Word.

In short, Bingham provides a helpful strategy of Bible, meditation, and prayer as the primary means of spiritual formation. I would commend Bingham’s book and Comer’s book together as a beneficial counterbalance.

In the weeks to come, I hope to post additional reviews of some other books. For those interested and willing, reading is a most excellent way to grow and to be challenged. Some of what we read ought to challenge our currently held notions. Some of what we read ought to reinforce our doctrines and convictions. If you are a reader, consider some of the books above as reading options for the coming year. Or look through the reading list here on my website. If you are not a reader, may I encourage you to start. Begin with God’s Word. Read it every day. After that, pick one book and finish it. You’ll be amazed at how reading can impact your thinking and even your spiritual life. It is also a way to combat the relentless pace of media, advertisements, and the distractions of today’s technological environment.

Let’s read to the glory of God.

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Thank you Wilkesboro Baptist for my Sabbatical!

I don’t think I realized how much I needed the rest and reset until several weeks into my time away. Before I left, some of you told me, “You deserve this break.” I appreciate your sentiment, encouragement, and words, but I definitely did not deserve this sabbatical. It was a gift. Thank you elders, personnel committee, staff, deacons, and congregation for letting me take this sabbatical–this season of rest or reset from typical or normal labors. Professors often use sabbaticals to research and write, and I was able to use this sabbatical for reading and writing. (More on this in a future post).

The concept of sabbatical is rooted in the biblical concept of Sabbath. In the coming weeks, I plan to address the idea of Sabbath in sermons and lessons, but the important lesson of the biblical idea of Sabbath is that it is a gift. Consider the first Sabbath. God rested. He created for six days, then modeled rest on day seven. Day seven was actually Adam and Eve’s first full day. Think about it. Adam and Eve’s first full day alive in the garden was a Sabbath day, a rest day, a day of fellowship with God. They didn’t received the Sabbath as a reward for their labors, but rather as a gift from God.

This season of sabbatical has taught me that I need to Sabbath regularly. I must set aside a day of the week to intentionally rest from normal labors. Sabbath is for rest, worship, service, and play (Yes, play. More on this in a future post/sermon). One author suggested that what we should do on Sabbath is what gives life and not what drains life. I think that is why we find Jesus healing on the Sabbath so often in the New Testament. Sabbath rest is a gift from God for our wholeness and our health. I’ve not always done well with setting aside regular labors to rest, worship, and focus on God. For me normal labors would be emails, sermon preparation, planning, vision, leading meetings, etc. Ideally, on my Sabbath, I would rest from these normal labors (and generally rest from my smartphone). This is likely to be for me Friday evening through Saturday evening as my regular labors include preaching on Sunday mornings.

Here are a few Sabbath reminders for us all. First, Sabbath was made for man, not man for Sabbath. Legalism and judging others (as exemplified by the Pharisees in the New Testament) defeat the purpose of Sabbath. Second, Sabbath is an opportunity to worship. Most of us will be able to Sabbath on Sundays as we gather for regular worship and a regular pause in our weekly labors. Third, Sabbath is a gift of rest. Whatever you do or don’t do (activities) on your Sabbath (if you choose to keep one), rest should be a part of your Sabbath. Again, I hope to share more about this in the days to come, but for the moment review Paul’s reminder in Colossians 2:16-19:

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

Ultimately, fellowship and relationship with Jesus through the gospel is the entry point and the purpose of biblical Sabbath. I don’t share with you these thoughts about Sabbath to create new rules or become legalistic. Rather, I share them because I’ve become convicted regarding my own need to slow down, meet with God, learn to trust him, and rest in him.

I’m deeply grateful for the staff and elders and deacons at WBC during these several weeks. Being able to rest and reset has been good for me, but it has also been good for WBC. Others have led, preached, taught, and served. The church is a body, full of members who love and serve one another. Shared leadership and shared service is good for our building up in Christ. See Ephesians 4.

This season of sabbatical came at just the right time. With my father’s death just as my sabbatical was beginning, I was able to grieve and not drown myself in work. Church family, thank you for letting me care for my father over these past several years, for the many of you that ministered to him and to me, and for your support of me and my family during this season of grief. This time away to grieve, rest, and reset have been good for my soul. To Wilkesboro Baptist, I say thank you.

There were many things I missed during these several weeks. I thought I would miss preaching the most, but actually the thing I missed the most was singing with you all on Sunday mornings. It was such a blessing to be in worship on Sunday February 22 to sing along with the choir, children, praise team, and congregation. What a wonderful and meaningful experience of congregational worship!

For much of the past few weeks, I read, rested, and wrote. Next week, I plan to share a post reflecting on several of the books I read. Thank you for the privilege of be refreshed and filled as I return to the office and my responsibilities as pastor.

Photo by Emmanuel Phaeton on Unsplash