Soma Summer: July Sabbath

Vision

Our vision for July is to create space and a milestone for our church to rest deeply in God’s grace through changing things up a little bit and as an outflow of the study we’ve done on the ancient Hebrew festivals. We want this month to be marked by celebrating, giving, resting in grace, and slowing down.

  • Celebrating God’s Story — Remember how God has redeemed and restored.

  • Giving – Listen to the Spirit and reflect about how God is calling you to give your time, money, and resources out of an overflow of generosity.

  • Resting in Grace  – Take stock of where you’ve been, how you’ve lived, the things you’ve believed in. Allow God to “search and know your heart” and rely on his forgiveness

  • Slowing + Simplifying. — Change the pace of life, get away, and experience sabbath.

With all of that in mind, we want to make shifts in our church-wide gatherings, our missional communities, and encourage individual practices during July.

Church-Wide

We’re slowing down and simplifying this month to create space for all the above. Which means we won't be gathering as we typically do on Sundays. This will give all those serving a time of rest, but also create space for different things throughout the month. We will have two gatherings around simply being together: 

  • July 9th from 10am to noon – Brunchnic in the Park

  • July 30th from 10am to noon – Brunchnic at the Beach

Details will be published in the app and on our website.

Individuals & Family Practices 

Overall, we want to send you into this month with a few ways you can take ownership of your personal formation and rest and so we want to encourage you in these ways:

  • Practice a Sabbath. This month offers a great opportunity to try a sabbath. Use this guide to help.

  • Practice Intentional Vacation. Are you going on vacation? How can you apply some of the principles from this teaching to your vacation this month? 

  • Practice Hospitality. Think of someone you want to get to know better. Invite them over and enjoy welcoming them into your home.

  • Revisit Personal Formation Plan. Feel free to reach out to leadership for coaching.

MCs Practices for this Month  

As an MC you can absolutely decide how you want to spend your time this month; however, we have a few suggestions or ideas.


  • Story & Being - Take a break from content and instead get together and hear each other’s stories. Could take the entire month to do that. Let it be a reminder of God’s work in your life and an encouragement of God’s work around you.

  • Missional Feast - Throw a party and invite others into it. Or join a party within your neighborhood (4th of July is a great opportunity)

  • Invitational Hike - Go on a hike on Sunday during the month where everyone feels the freedom to invite friends to join. Enjoy creation. Feel your lungs move. Have fun.

  • Look over the past several months, including your MC retreat, and remember how you’ve grown this year.

  • Consider getting together to serve others in your neighborhood and those you’re on mission to.

Preparing For Retreat

It’s hard getting away to rest and relax. It’s even harder to leave all our worries, troubles, and responsibilities behind for the purpose of growing in our love for God and one-another. But that’s what we’ll endeavor to do on Friday. We hope you have great expectation for deepening your personal knowledge of Jesus love and presence in your life.

Our hope for this retreat is that we might encounter Christ in the wilderness together.

There are a few ways to help us hear the voice of the Spirit into our lives:

  1. Physically Leave - Get out of your setting and get to a new setting. We’ll do that.

  2. Technologically Leave - Prepare your work, family, and friends that you’re getting out of town so you don’t get pulled back into the situations, responsibilities of your ordinary life. Our hope is we will be encouraged and then sent back to our ordinary lives with renewed power and confidence in Christ.

  3. Relationally Engage - Get ready to make new friends and hang out with new people.

  4. Prepare to Meet God - It’s hard to come into these things entirely “cold”. We encourage you to read Psalm 16 and do a Lectio Divina based on the psalm. For the retreat we will be reflecting on the lives of David and Jonathan as they engage battles and grew together as friends and this psalm will help us get in that mindset.

Lectio Divina of Psalm 16

PAUSE

Take a few moments to breathe. Set down your phone, remove distractions. Allow yourself to become present in this moment with the Spirit of God. 

Spirit, give me a heart to hear you. Give me a passion to know your voice above all others. Spirit, I come needing a bigger picture of your work, I come needing to trust in more of who you are.

REFLECT

Read the Psalm 16. And reflect on the words, phrases, and images the Spirit is highlighting for you. What is the Word saying to you? How does the Word challenge you and stretch you?

Thinking about this retreat? What do you desire? How do you long to grow in your understanding of God? How are you feeling about God

ASK

Read the passage again. Ask God to move and transform you through the words and through this retreat. Ask for others that you know are coming to this retreat. Pray for your DNA group. Pray for your household to be cared for while you’re God. Pray for God’s work to be done through this retreat.

YIELD

Read the passage again. Then pray a prayer of surrender. Yield and submit to this passage. “Not my will, but yours.”

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