Pastors

It’s easy to find songs and hymns on the theme of rest and stillness. There’s Anna L. Waring’s “My Heart Is Resting, O My God,” Kari Jobe’s “Rest,” and Fanny Crosby’s “Jesus Will Give You Rest,” which beckons us:

Will you come, will you come?
How He pleads with you now!
Fly to His loving breast;
And whatever your sin or your sorrow may be,
Jesus will give you rest.

Even with musical selections like these, it can be a challenge to bring rest itself into liturgy and corporate worship. And worship leaders, whose Sabbath Sundays are filled with the work of preparing and facilitating services, aren’t always good models of rest in worship.

Leaders at the second annual Liturgy Collective Gathering are exploring how to find rest together through liturgy, art, and community, a topic inspired in part by the sense of burnout that has plagued church staff during the pandemic.

Initially, Tim Nicholson, music director at Covenant ...