Newsletter

 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;  for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.  Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish

-Hebrews 4:9-11a

2025 was another year of reimagining. We as a church spent several years thoroughly reimagining the way we do nearly everything, from Sunday worship, to financial management, to missions, to youth ministry, and much more.

This year, we continued that. We began a novel approach to fundraising - we identified those events of the church which felt like a mental and emotional drain with diminishing returns and were willing to say they’ve run their course. At the same time, we began conversations around fundraising efforts which could be spearheaded by just a couple people. Without as many “all hands on deck” events, the hope was that people would not feel so burnt out or spread so thin by having to be constantly working on behalf of the church.

We also saw a significant alteration in the structure of our music ministry, which interspersed our traditional adult choir with regular performances by our Sunday School and Youth, as well as individuals sharing their talents in solo or ensemble pieces. This saw a dwindling choir of 3-4 faithful weekly regulars expand to as many as 12 singers who, while they could not commit to a weekly schedule, found a monthly or occasional participation suited their availability well.

While these changes have not been “magic bullets” suddenly addressing lingering concerns (for instance,there are questions remaining about how to successfully promote the events we do host, and there are vacancies in the special music calendar), they do seem like overall positive moves.

This year has highlighted for me something else needful in the life of our church - rest. True, restoring, transformative sabbath practice. Not only has there been a clear increase in enthusiasm around systems which are less demanding as just described, but also many members of our congregation have told me outright how deeply in need of rest you are.
“I’m tired.”
“I’m burnt out.”
“I’m feeling crispy around the edges.”
“I’m ready to be done.”
“One more time and I can hand this off to someone else.”
“I just want to come to church and not feel like I have a job to do.”
And other similar things have been a common refrain within our walls for the last several months.

And so as we look ahead to 2026, my big question is how can we, the members and friends of Hammond Presbyterian Church, become a community that practices Sabbath? What would it look like if instead of feeling like we are giving our lives in service to the church, we experienced church as life-giving, empowering us to respond to God’s call on our lives?

I don’t have easy answers to this question. I have some ideas percolating, and some of them may crop up sooner than others. I am also very interested to hear the ideas and collective wisdom of our congregation as a whole.

God has told their people to be a people of Sabbath. More words are dedicated to the fourth commandment than to any of the other ten. As we journey through this year together, I pray we can see the fulfillment of the promise offered by the author of Hebrews, that there remains a sabbath-rest for us, the people of God.

New Year’s Blessings,
Rev. Dr. Shea Zellweger