Making Room for What Matters - Part 2
The Biblical Wisdom of Stopping
For many Ohio State fans, September 12 was a frustrating and painful night.
The Buckeyes entered halftime leading Texas 20–3. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, the lead had grown to 23–3. The game appeared to be over.
Then everything changed.
Texas scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and won 24–23, completing the largest fourth-quarter comeback ever against the top-ranked team in the country.
We do not know everything that was said in the Texas locker room at halftime. Halftime itself did not guarantee a comeback. Texas still had plenty of work to do when the team returned to the field. But halftime provided something every team needs: an opportunity to stop.
The players could catch their breath. The coaches could evaluate what was happening. The team could remember the plan, identify necessary adjustments, and prepare to re-enter the game with renewed focus.
Ohio State fans may not enjoy the illustration, but we understand the lesson: sometimes continuing to do what we have been doing—only faster and harder—is not the wisest response. Sometimes we need to stop long enough to ask whether our current direction is taking us where we need to go.
That is the heart behind our Seventh Year Sabbath.
The Wisdom of a Seventh-Year Rest
In Leviticus 25, God gave Israel a surprising command. After cultivating the land for six years, they were to stop during the seventh.
“The land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord” (Leviticus 25:2).
For an entire year, the Israelites were not to sow their fields or prune their vineyards in the usual way. The ground itself was allowed to rest.
For people whose lives depended upon agriculture, this required tremendous faith. Their survival was connected to what they could grow. Stopping meant surrendering some control over their productivity and trusting God to provide.
The Sabbath year reminded Israel that the land belonged to God. Their crops grew because of His provision. Their security did not ultimately come from their labor. They were responsible to work faithfully, but they were never meant to believe that everything depended upon them.
That is a lesson we still need.
We can begin to believe that constant activity is the same thing as faithfulness. When the calendar is full and the building is busy, it feels as though ministry is happening. When we see a need, our instinct is often to create another event, add another class, or recruit another team.
Eventually, stopping can feel irresponsible.
But God intentionally commanded His people to stop. For Israel, Sabbath was not laziness. It was an act of trust. They stopped because God told them to stop, believing He could sustain them even when they were not producing in the usual way.
Our church calendar has become very full. Many of the activities we've added to our schedules are good, and God has used them. But after years of adding ministries and events, we believe there is wisdom in pausing some of them for a season.
We need room to breathe.
We need time to listen.
We need to remember that the church belongs to Jesus and that He is perfectly capable of sustaining His work.
A Pattern, Not a Command
We want to be clear about what we are—and are not—claiming.
God gave the Sabbath year to Israel as part of His covenant with them. The church is under the new covenant of grace through faith in Jesus Christ, so we're not obligated to keep the the covenant God made with Israel. Our Seventh Year Sabbath is not an act that we are required to do Biblically, and we are not suggesting that every church must follow suit.
We are voluntarily borrowing a pattern God gave His people because we believe its wisdom can help us.
We want to rest from constant activity, renew our dependence upon God, and refocus our attention upon His Word. We are not claiming that Leviticus 25 requires Pataskala Grace Church to pause selected ministries in 2027. We are saying that God’s law reveals something true about us: human beings need intentional rhythms that interrupt our work and remind us that we are not God.
If Israel could trust God enough to stop cultivating the land for a year, perhaps we can trust Him enough to pause some church activities.
Perhaps God can accomplish things that our programs cannot.
Perhaps He can use the space we create to cultivate something deeper within us.
Stopping to Hear God’s Word
The seventh year was not only associated with rest. It also included renewed attention to God’s Word.
In Deuteronomy 31:10–13, Moses instructed Israel to gather during the seventh year and hear the law read aloud:
“Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law.”
Israel was not merely told to stop working. They were told to listen.
The goal was not inactivity. The goal was renewed faithfulness. As the people heard God’s Word, they would remember who He was, what He had done, and how He had called them to live. Even their children were included so that the next generation would learn to know and obey the Lord.
That is central to our plan for 2027.
Throughout the year, our Sunday morning messages will focus on the Gospel of Luke. We want to spend an entire year looking carefully at Jesus—who He is, how He lived, what He taught, whom He welcomed, why He died, how He rose, and what it means to follow Him.
We will also use a shared Bible-reading and journaling plan. The goal is not simply to complete a reading schedule or fill pages in a journal. We want to develop a daily rhythm of listening to God through His Word, responding in prayer, and putting what He says into practice.
We want parents to read and talk about Scripture with their children. We want spouses and friends to encourage one another. We want Life Groups and Discipleship Groups to become places where people are known, loved, challenged, and helped to follow Jesus.
In other words, we are not clearing the calendar so that we can do nothing.
We are creating room to focus on what matters most.
Continuing the Essentials
Some may hear the phrase “Sabbath year” and wonder whether the church is shutting down for 2027.
It is not.
We will continue gathering every Sunday to worship, pray, hear God’s Word, celebrate what Christ has done, and encourage one another. We will continue providing ministry for children during our services. Our Life Groups and Discipleship Groups will continue creating places for Christian relationships, prayer, biblical encouragement, and shared life.
We will continue caring for people, supporting missions, discipling students, practicing hospitality, and sharing the hope of Jesus.
We are not taking a Sabbath from being the church. The church is the people of Jesus—gathered to worship and be equipped, then scattered to serve and make disciples. We are pausing some organized activities so that each of us can take greater ownership of that shared calling.
Acts 2:42 describes the priorities of the earliest Christians:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
They gathered to learn God’s truth. They shared their lives. They ate together. They prayed. They cared for people in need. They worshiped together and welcomed others into their homes. Their faith was visible both in their larger gatherings and in ordinary relationships.
The early church did not depend upon a large calendar of specialized programs to accomplish its mission. Believers gathered faithfully and then carried the life and mission of Jesus into their homes, relationships, and communities.
The church was not simply a place they attended. It was a people to whom they belonged and a mission in which they participated.
That is the kind of church we want to become.
We are not attempting to reproduce every cultural form of the first-century church. We are seeking to devote ourselves to the same biblical essentials: God’s Word, prayer, worship, fellowship, generosity, hospitality, and shared life.
People over programs. Relationships over events. Discipleship over attendance.
The Church Is Not “Someone Else”
Modern American churches often operate as though “the church” is an organization that provides ministry to people. We ask what the church is doing for children, what the church is doing for outreach, or what the church is doing to care for people.
Those can be fair questions, but they can also reveal a misunderstanding.
The church is not merely the pastors, elders, staff, or ministry leaders. The church is not a building or a collection of programs. The church is the people of Jesus.
If you belong to Jesus, you are part of His church.
That means the church ministers to children when Christian parents, grandparents, teachers, and friends teach children to know and follow Jesus. The church reaches the lost when believers build relationships, share their hope, invite people into their lives, and explain the gospel. The church cares for hurting people when followers of Jesus notice, listen, pray, visit, give, encourage, and serve.
We must be careful not to place the work of the whole church upon a faithful few.
It is easy to ask a small group of volunteers to organize a program and then assume that our responsibility has been fulfilled. It is much harder—and much more personal—to invite someone into our home, read the Bible with our children, disciple another believer, or patiently walk beside someone whose life is complicated.
Yet that personal ministry is exactly what we see throughout the New Testament.
The church gathers so that we can be strengthened, taught, encouraged, and equipped. Then the church scatters to live on mission.
People over programs. Relationships over events. Discipleship over attendance.
A Purposeful Pause
Our Seventh Year Sabbath is not a retreat from ministry. It is a purposeful pause from some forms of organized activity so that we can give renewed attention to Jesus, Scripture, prayer, and relationships.
We have summarized the year with four words:
Rest. Recenter. Revise. Re-enter.
We will rest from selected activities that have filled our calendar and required significant time and energy.
We will recenter on Jesus through Sunday worship, the Gospel of Luke, our shared Bible-reading and journaling plan, prayer, Life Groups, Discipleship Groups, and personal ministry.
As the year progresses, we will revise our methods by evaluating what genuinely helps people know Jesus and make disciples.
Then we will re-enter ministry with greater clarity, preserving what is fruitful, changing what needs to change, and holding every method with open hands.
Leviticus does not command our church to follow those four steps. They are simply our way of applying the wisdom of a biblical pattern to our present situation. The theological center of this year is much simpler:
We are resting from doing so much so that we can recenter on Jesus—personally and collectively.
Like halftime, the Sabbath is not the end of the mission. It is an opportunity to stop, listen, remember what matters, and prepare to move forward with renewed purpose.
For one year, we are choosing to trust that God can do something important when His people stop striving, open His Word, deepen their relationships, and fix their eyes upon Jesus.
We are not trying to become less committed to ministry. We are asking God to teach all of us how to become ministers.
For many Ohio State fans, September 12 was a frustrating and painful night.
The Buckeyes entered halftime leading Texas 20–3. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, the lead had grown to 23–3. The game appeared to be over.
Then everything changed.
Texas scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and won 24–23, completing the largest fourth-quarter comeback ever against the top-ranked team in the country.
We do not know everything that was said in the Texas locker room at halftime. Halftime itself did not guarantee a comeback. Texas still had plenty of work to do when the team returned to the field. But halftime provided something every team needs: an opportunity to stop.
The players could catch their breath. The coaches could evaluate what was happening. The team could remember the plan, identify necessary adjustments, and prepare to re-enter the game with renewed focus.
Ohio State fans may not enjoy the illustration, but we understand the lesson: sometimes continuing to do what we have been doing—only faster and harder—is not the wisest response. Sometimes we need to stop long enough to ask whether our current direction is taking us where we need to go.
That is the heart behind our Seventh Year Sabbath.
The Wisdom of a Seventh-Year Rest
In Leviticus 25, God gave Israel a surprising command. After cultivating the land for six years, they were to stop during the seventh.
“The land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord” (Leviticus 25:2).
For an entire year, the Israelites were not to sow their fields or prune their vineyards in the usual way. The ground itself was allowed to rest.
For people whose lives depended upon agriculture, this required tremendous faith. Their survival was connected to what they could grow. Stopping meant surrendering some control over their productivity and trusting God to provide.
The Sabbath year reminded Israel that the land belonged to God. Their crops grew because of His provision. Their security did not ultimately come from their labor. They were responsible to work faithfully, but they were never meant to believe that everything depended upon them.
That is a lesson we still need.
We can begin to believe that constant activity is the same thing as faithfulness. When the calendar is full and the building is busy, it feels as though ministry is happening. When we see a need, our instinct is often to create another event, add another class, or recruit another team.
Eventually, stopping can feel irresponsible.
But God intentionally commanded His people to stop. For Israel, Sabbath was not laziness. It was an act of trust. They stopped because God told them to stop, believing He could sustain them even when they were not producing in the usual way.
Our church calendar has become very full. Many of the activities we've added to our schedules are good, and God has used them. But after years of adding ministries and events, we believe there is wisdom in pausing some of them for a season.
We need room to breathe.
We need time to listen.
We need to remember that the church belongs to Jesus and that He is perfectly capable of sustaining His work.
A Pattern, Not a Command
We want to be clear about what we are—and are not—claiming.
God gave the Sabbath year to Israel as part of His covenant with them. The church is under the new covenant of grace through faith in Jesus Christ, so we're not obligated to keep the the covenant God made with Israel. Our Seventh Year Sabbath is not an act that we are required to do Biblically, and we are not suggesting that every church must follow suit.
We are voluntarily borrowing a pattern God gave His people because we believe its wisdom can help us.
We want to rest from constant activity, renew our dependence upon God, and refocus our attention upon His Word. We are not claiming that Leviticus 25 requires Pataskala Grace Church to pause selected ministries in 2027. We are saying that God’s law reveals something true about us: human beings need intentional rhythms that interrupt our work and remind us that we are not God.
If Israel could trust God enough to stop cultivating the land for a year, perhaps we can trust Him enough to pause some church activities.
Perhaps God can accomplish things that our programs cannot.
Perhaps He can use the space we create to cultivate something deeper within us.
Stopping to Hear God’s Word
The seventh year was not only associated with rest. It also included renewed attention to God’s Word.
In Deuteronomy 31:10–13, Moses instructed Israel to gather during the seventh year and hear the law read aloud:
“Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law.”
Israel was not merely told to stop working. They were told to listen.
The goal was not inactivity. The goal was renewed faithfulness. As the people heard God’s Word, they would remember who He was, what He had done, and how He had called them to live. Even their children were included so that the next generation would learn to know and obey the Lord.
That is central to our plan for 2027.
Throughout the year, our Sunday morning messages will focus on the Gospel of Luke. We want to spend an entire year looking carefully at Jesus—who He is, how He lived, what He taught, whom He welcomed, why He died, how He rose, and what it means to follow Him.
We will also use a shared Bible-reading and journaling plan. The goal is not simply to complete a reading schedule or fill pages in a journal. We want to develop a daily rhythm of listening to God through His Word, responding in prayer, and putting what He says into practice.
We want parents to read and talk about Scripture with their children. We want spouses and friends to encourage one another. We want Life Groups and Discipleship Groups to become places where people are known, loved, challenged, and helped to follow Jesus.
In other words, we are not clearing the calendar so that we can do nothing.
We are creating room to focus on what matters most.
Continuing the Essentials
Some may hear the phrase “Sabbath year” and wonder whether the church is shutting down for 2027.
It is not.
We will continue gathering every Sunday to worship, pray, hear God’s Word, celebrate what Christ has done, and encourage one another. We will continue providing ministry for children during our services. Our Life Groups and Discipleship Groups will continue creating places for Christian relationships, prayer, biblical encouragement, and shared life.
We will continue caring for people, supporting missions, discipling students, practicing hospitality, and sharing the hope of Jesus.
We are not taking a Sabbath from being the church. The church is the people of Jesus—gathered to worship and be equipped, then scattered to serve and make disciples. We are pausing some organized activities so that each of us can take greater ownership of that shared calling.
Acts 2:42 describes the priorities of the earliest Christians:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
They gathered to learn God’s truth. They shared their lives. They ate together. They prayed. They cared for people in need. They worshiped together and welcomed others into their homes. Their faith was visible both in their larger gatherings and in ordinary relationships.
The early church did not depend upon a large calendar of specialized programs to accomplish its mission. Believers gathered faithfully and then carried the life and mission of Jesus into their homes, relationships, and communities.
The church was not simply a place they attended. It was a people to whom they belonged and a mission in which they participated.
That is the kind of church we want to become.
We are not attempting to reproduce every cultural form of the first-century church. We are seeking to devote ourselves to the same biblical essentials: God’s Word, prayer, worship, fellowship, generosity, hospitality, and shared life.
People over programs. Relationships over events. Discipleship over attendance.
The Church Is Not “Someone Else”
Modern American churches often operate as though “the church” is an organization that provides ministry to people. We ask what the church is doing for children, what the church is doing for outreach, or what the church is doing to care for people.
Those can be fair questions, but they can also reveal a misunderstanding.
The church is not merely the pastors, elders, staff, or ministry leaders. The church is not a building or a collection of programs. The church is the people of Jesus.
If you belong to Jesus, you are part of His church.
That means the church ministers to children when Christian parents, grandparents, teachers, and friends teach children to know and follow Jesus. The church reaches the lost when believers build relationships, share their hope, invite people into their lives, and explain the gospel. The church cares for hurting people when followers of Jesus notice, listen, pray, visit, give, encourage, and serve.
We must be careful not to place the work of the whole church upon a faithful few.
It is easy to ask a small group of volunteers to organize a program and then assume that our responsibility has been fulfilled. It is much harder—and much more personal—to invite someone into our home, read the Bible with our children, disciple another believer, or patiently walk beside someone whose life is complicated.
Yet that personal ministry is exactly what we see throughout the New Testament.
The church gathers so that we can be strengthened, taught, encouraged, and equipped. Then the church scatters to live on mission.
People over programs. Relationships over events. Discipleship over attendance.
A Purposeful Pause
Our Seventh Year Sabbath is not a retreat from ministry. It is a purposeful pause from some forms of organized activity so that we can give renewed attention to Jesus, Scripture, prayer, and relationships.
We have summarized the year with four words:
Rest. Recenter. Revise. Re-enter.
We will rest from selected activities that have filled our calendar and required significant time and energy.
We will recenter on Jesus through Sunday worship, the Gospel of Luke, our shared Bible-reading and journaling plan, prayer, Life Groups, Discipleship Groups, and personal ministry.
As the year progresses, we will revise our methods by evaluating what genuinely helps people know Jesus and make disciples.
Then we will re-enter ministry with greater clarity, preserving what is fruitful, changing what needs to change, and holding every method with open hands.
Leviticus does not command our church to follow those four steps. They are simply our way of applying the wisdom of a biblical pattern to our present situation. The theological center of this year is much simpler:
We are resting from doing so much so that we can recenter on Jesus—personally and collectively.
Like halftime, the Sabbath is not the end of the mission. It is an opportunity to stop, listen, remember what matters, and prepare to move forward with renewed purpose.
For one year, we are choosing to trust that God can do something important when His people stop striving, open His Word, deepen their relationships, and fix their eyes upon Jesus.
We are not trying to become less committed to ministry. We are asking God to teach all of us how to become ministers.
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