Monthly Day-Retreats for Connecting With Creator and Creation

As your car gets closer to the farm, you find your breathing slows, your pulse relaxes,
your foot becomes a little less heavy on the gas pedal, and your world of action and decision-
making are now far away in the rearview mirror. You turn into the driveway, ease to a stop
alongside a few other cars, step out and breathe in deeply the fresh air of Sabbath Life. Joining
a few others in your cohort under a shade tree, you catch up on one another’s lives and learn
what the day has in store. Maybe you will help plant seeds or mulch young sprouts. Or you
could prune grape vines, pick blue berries, feed chickens, collect eggs, clean up a forest trail
after the last storm, deadhead the pollinator flowers, or harvest squash and cucumbers. For the
first couple of hours of your sabbath day, you connect directly with the natural world, learning
to appreciate the interconnectedness of creature and creation.

A bell rings and the ten or so members of your cohort regather and make your way to a
wooded knoll where columns of tall trees hold up a green canopy and you settle into a circle of
chairs for a simple liturgy, Scripture, heart sharing, and communion. After worship, the group
delights in flavors of the month as you share in another meal that LAUGHS (Local, Affordable,
Uncomplicated, Good, Healthy, Seasonal). Stories and laughter rise from around the tables as
your monthly family shares the day and your lives with each other over lunch.

When your physical hunger is satisfied, it’s time to enjoy some spiritual nourishment.
For the next two hours, your group enters into a time of silence and connection with the Spirit.
Maybe you will walk a trail through the woods or investigate how pollinators move among
wildflowers, maybe you will lay out a blanket on the grass or climb into a hammock between
two trees for a well-deserved nap or some devotional reading, or on a hot day you might even
choose to give the Great Pyrenees a cool bath.

This personal time with God ends much too soon and the group regathers for some end-
of-day sharing, debriefing, thankfulness, and appreciation for how good God is. The day closes
with a group prayer, you say your goodbyes, load up a bag of seasonal veggies and fruits, and
slowly drive back out onto the asphalt of life in the fast lane. The God who created you surely
knew what you would need, providing for relational, physical, and spiritual nourishment
through this dispersed-retreat experience called Sabbath Life.

For the last several years, I have been a participant, and now a leader, in a ministry
called “Sabbath Life.” This is a cohort-based monthly Sabbath time primarily for clergy and
ministry professionals in a setting that connects them with God, one another, and the other-
than-human parts of creation. On the seventh day of creation we read that God rested from all
of God’s labor, called the day holy, and set it up as the proper rhythm for humanity. I consider
this to by my monthly retreat where a group of ministry leaders give each other space to “just
be” in the presence of the Holy, with a few others on this journey together. Cohorts form for
monthly gatherings from February through November (or other periods of time depending on
the setting). We now offer Sabbath Life cohorts at farms, denominational camps, and a non-
profit support ministry.