17 May 2017 | Budapest, Hungary [Karen Holford] Perhaps a dangerous question to ask: “On a scale of 0-5, where 0 is not at all delightful and 5 is very delightful, how delightful was your last Sabbath?”
This was the question posed to 27 people attending the Trans-European Division Family Ministries Leadership (FML) Training event in Budapest, 5-10 May, just prior to the international ‘Reach the World’ Conference.
Fortunately, most of the church leaders and pastors rated their previous Sabbath in the 3-5 range of delight but there were a few who rated their previous Sabbath at 0. Worrying!
The question was part of a whole Sabbath event exploring Sabbath as a delight. The FML Training meets for 5-6 days every year for three years. Each year the trainees spend Sabbath exploring one aspect of family spirituality, and this time the focus was on ‘Making Sabbath a delight’ based on Isaiah 58:13-14.
The day began with a creative and interactive group Bible study based around four different Bible passages about the Sabbath. Drs Pamela and Claudio Consuegra, visiting family ministry directors from the North American Division, gave a presentation about the challenges and opportunities of making the Sabbath a delight for your family when you are a busy pastor or church leader.
In the afternoon ten interactive tables of activities helped the group to explore the delights of Sabbath using creativity, multi-sensory experiences and reflection. One table was filled with colourful craft materials, and an invitation to create something to remind you to plan delightful Sabbaths. Another was filled with thank you cards, giving participants an opportunity to write a thank you note to God for His gift of the Sabbath. The story of manna was illustrated using paper plates and popcorn. People drew around their hands and then wrote on each finger, one way they could help others on Sabbath. The final table held nuts and raisins, to help families reflect on the blessings of the past week and celebrate together by eating raisins. Then they could share the challenges they were facing in the week ahead, eat nuts to remind them that hard tasks need to be broken down into smaller pieces, and pray for each other’s challenges.
Finally the group explored the importance of making Sabbaths delightful for everyone in the family, especially the children and young people. If we want to inspire them to become Seventh-day Adventists, and retain and nurture our members, we need to help them have refreshing and delightful Sabbaths. The group created a long list of delightful Sabbath activities. This is now available on the Family Ministries Resources page of the TED website.
During the day, people expressed their enthusiasm: ‘I will never think of Sabbath in the same way again!’ ‘Next week we’ll do some of these things with our own family.’ ‘I’m going to challenge the way Sabbath is being lived out in my local church.’ ‘If we truly made Sabbath the delight it is meant to be, then everyone would want to experience it!’
How would you rate your last Sabbath? More importantly, how would the children and young people in your churches rate their enjoyment of their last Sabbath – or any Sabbath? What could you do to make Sabbaths more delightful in your area of influence, and what ideas would you like to add to the list of Sabbath activities we have made? Email your ideas to Karen Holford [email protected]. The best three Sabbath ideas submitted by June 15th will each receive a free copy of her book: 100 Creative Activities for Sabbath published by Pacific Press.
If you are interested in attending the Family Ministries Leadership Training from 2018-2020, or you would like more information, please contact Karen Holford. [tedNEWS]
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tedNEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
