The Sabbath - 08.16.15

Today the feel of the message is going to be noticeably different. It’s less “prophetic” and more pastoral. I have a shepherd’s heart and feel as directed to share this very practical information from God’s word as I did the strongly prophetic messages of the preceding weeks. I want to talk to you today about the Sabbath. Over the last few months we have been preparing to launch our Saturday night services. Part of that preparation has been researching other churches that have started Saturday nights and we have gathered some really good information. We had several of those churches tell us… “Don’t do it! It will destroy the family lives of your pastors and staff and it will wear out your volunteers.” Of the several churches that we talked too who have sustained a healthy Saturday night service and kept balance in their staff families and health with their volunteer ministry teams…the one key is understanding what God has to say about the Sabbath. Let me say this…our goal for starting Saturday night services is not to grow a big a church. We want a healthy church. Our goal is to increase capacity, create movement, and seize opportunity. Healthy living things grow and reproduce but not all growth is healthy. Growth is a natural byproduct of health but big is not the goal. We said in the beginning we have a culture of “try” and Northplace. We are going to “try” this for a year and if its not working we can always going back to what we were already doing. I’m not worried about whether or not people will come to Saturday…I’m worried about us doing it in a healthy sustainable way. The difference in Saturday services working and not working will not be based on attendance but our ability to get this principle of the Sabbath and understand what God has to say about rest.