A Sabbath to the Lord

Welcome! This page shares the vision for our extended Sabbath time, plus some additional information and resources you may find useful.

Introductory Video – A Sabbath to the Lord

Vision Leaflet – further information about the vision

Resources – how can I find out more? (referenced in the leaflet)

Additional Resources – shared with PCC as part of the proposal

Frequently Asked Questions – will be updated regularly

Introductory Video

Vision Leaflet

The following leaflet has been prepared to share more information about the vision and what it will look like in practice.

260309 A Sabbath to the Lord Leaflet-9-FINALDownload

Resources

Vicar’s Report to APCM – 11 May 2025 – ‘Immeasurably More’

Pastoral Letter – 27 July 2025 – ‘Immeasurably More’

Pastoral Letter – 14 December 2025 – ‘A Bigger Yes’

PCC Minutes – 15 February 2026 – ‘Vicar’s Report’

PCC Proposal – 3 March 2026 – ‘A Sabbath to the Lord’

Additional Resources

Shared with PCC as part of the proposal and discernment process.

The Work/Rest Rhythm (The Navigators)
Sabbath is not a ‘have to’ thing it is a ‘get to’ thing…

Hey Church: A Fallow Year Ain’t A Bad Idea (Stephen McAlpine)
Churches suffer from the law of diminishing returns when they never rest.  Busyness has become so culturally embedded that churches mirror culture’s frantic pace rather than offering an alternative to it.  What if Sunday gatherings continued – Word, prayer, communion, modest worship – but all the programming stopped?  What if that space gave an opportunity for the pastor to hear people’s concerns more contemplatively?  A fallow year might not be a bad idea.  A fallow year might just yield a bumper crop the following year.

Laying Down Things We Love To Do (Chosen and Called)
Are you holding onto something God is asking you to surrender for a time, for good?  Has a gift become more important to you than the Giver Himself?  Let us hold loosely to all things, to worship Christ alone.  Salvation is by grace, not works – our identity shouldn’t rest in what we do – God cares more about us than our output.

The Faith to Rest (Christian Workplaces)
Receiving the gift of Sabbath from God is an acknowledgment that He is sovereign and He fulfils His promises.  Psalm 127.1-2 reminds us that God is in control, and we can rest in that truth: ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.  In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.’

Immeasurably More (Cris Rogers)
In addition, a scan of a chapter from the book Immeasurably More (pages 150-159) was shared, but we do not have permission to post that on our website.

Frequently Asked Questions

The following will be updated as questions are asked and new information is shared.

The call to Sabbath is a call to make space for God, to recharge and refresh ourselves spiritually, to learn more about our parish as it is today, and together discern how God is calling us to serve him in ministry and mission in the future.

Sabbath is about rest – but not only in the sense of ‘not doing something’.  It is about refocusing ourselves on God, growing in trust and in sacrifice, (re)learning to rely only on him.

At the same time, although some are quite happy to carry on as we were, the truth is that many people were serving at or beyond capacity.  We have been asking much of people – sometimes too much.

When Jesus says, ‘I am the true vine’ in John 15 he talks about pruning.  But which branches does the Father prune?  The ones bearing fruit: ‘every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.’  Christ Church is a fruit-bearing church; though the pruning is hard, through this Sabbath time we trust God will work in us to be even more fruitful.

This formed a key part of the PCC’s discussions, and the need for ongoing care is the reason why there will be some midweek ministry of a form.  Two options being considered are:

  1. a reduced Warm Welcome Tuesday (e.g. refreshments but no soup), plus a midweek service followed by refreshments on a Thursday morning;
  2. a midweek service on a Wednesday morning, followed by Warm Welcome / refreshments.

If you have any other suggestions, please let us know! (Whatever we do will need to be called ‘Warm Welcome’ as we have funding from Birmingham City Council to run it – however it fits well with the PCC’s concern to ensure we support those who are lonely or isolated.)

We are going to do all we can to reduce the impact of this.  We will ask guests for their contact details, so we can share information about ongoing hospitality ministry and socials, and then whatever starts up again after the Sabbath time.

But also there is nothing to stop us as individuals staying in contact with people on a personal level (as long as we do it in a safe way).

The PCC has asked Ben to meet with the leaders of the different prayer meetings and gatherings to discuss what prayer will look like during the Sabbath time.  Two options are:

  • continuing as we are, but perhaps ask different meetings to have a focus on the Sabbath time;
  • bring them all together into one (or two) central gatherings, including prayer for the Sabbath time but also healing and wholeness, overseas mission, the life of the church, and so on.

Not everything is stopping: there will still be at least one simple hospitality session a week, plus Life Groups (which includes Afternoon Fellowship and Renew Wednesday). Also our Sunday ministries will all continue in their current form.

See ‘Why are we doing this?’ above.

In a sense, nothing!  This is not a suggestion that everything is broken and we need to wipe the slate clean and start again, or never do anything like ministry x or y again.

The vision is to make space for us to discern together how to build on all we’ve done in the past, to show God’s love and share God’s gospel with the people of our parish today.

Toddlers is a special case as any decision affecting an employee has to be treated differently.  While the PCC has voted in principle to include Toddlers in the Sabbath time, no final decision can be made until the completion of a formal employee consultation process.  That is ongoing and unlikely to complete before the end of the spring term.

We are treating Renew Wednesday (youth group) as if it is their Life Group, so it will be invited to continue or stop, as all the other Life Groups.

Young Adults gatherings (lunch once a month, Bible studies twice a month) happen on Sundays, which are not affected by the Sabbath time.  Even if they were on a different evening, the Bible studies would be treated as a Life Group.

Ben shared a vision for a Sabbath time and invited PCC members to offer immediate reflections or ask any questions.

PCC members then went away to reflect and pray, and contact Ben for further discussion (which some did).  At the next meeting the PCC discussed a formal proposal for the Sabbath time, which was voted on by secret ballot (11 in favour, 1 against, 1 abstention).  A separate discussion regarding Toddlers followed and was also voted on by secret ballot (12 in favour, 0 against, 1 abstention).

In a sense, yes – most people were expecting a reduction in our midweek ministries, not a complete rest from them.  However, the threads of this vision can be traced back several years, including a PCC Away Day and Ministry Team meetings a decade ago.  For a long time people have said Christ Church is doing too much, finds its identity in ‘doing things’, needs to do some serious pruning, needs a rest.

More recently, the PCC has been discussing the strain on volunteers and our midweek ministries since at least March 2024 (two years ago!).

People have been – quite rightly – advocating for ‘their’ ministry.  PCC members have had many conversations with many different people, hearing their concerns and bringing them to our meetings.

As a group the PCC is responsible for the whole mission of the church, and that includes a concern for the pastoral health of the church.  Given all that we felt further delay and more uncertainty would be worse than making a decision – even one that is as courageous as this vision.

And, part of the decision included how to communicate and engage the wider church on the vision and decision, to ensure everyone has the opportunity to share their thoughts, ask questions, and hear more.

From September onwards PCC asked Ben to engage with different ministries to form a vision document and plan.  The idea was a good one, and we hoped it would help us make decisions about how to continue our midweek ministries.  However it became clear after the first few that the process wasn’t going to help us make any decisions; the process was demonstrating what we already knew: that every ministry has value because every person has value. Therefore the vision documents were not going to help us make the decision about reducing what we do midweek.

Absolutely not.  The hope is that the PCC doesn’t have to come up with any ideas because different members of the church are gathering to suggest new or refreshed ministries.  Some of them might be to run all year round, some might be for a month, a term, a season.  Some might be in our building, some might be somewhere else.  I (Ben) believe these things will start to bubble up through the Sabbath time, and I’m excited to see what does.

That said, the PCC does need formally to approve whatever ministry takes place.  The PCC is responsible for the whole mission of the church; in practice this likely means the PCC will want to ensure we have a balanced range of ministries, each with clear leadership and a vision that fits within our overall vision and mission.  Also, the PCC needs to ensure all ministries meet Safeguarding requirements.

No! Excluding staff, all our ministries cover their costs (or close to it) or are funded by grants (e.g. Warm Welcome).

It is true that the initial budget for 2026 (which the PCC received in December 2025) had a significant deficit in it (£53k in cash terms). However, careful work by the Finance Committee has reduced the budgeted deficit down as far as is possible (e.g. by delaying planned spend on the building). We do still have a cash deficit in the budget for this year (£15k – being looked at by PCC on 17 March), but are able to absorb it without using a significant proportion of our reserves.

We do need to address this long-term – we can’t keep spending our reserves forever! However, the vision for the Sabbath time is not about saving money, but making space to seek God together for how he is calling us to serve him in the future.