Covenant Stories: Sabbath Rest

Story #14 in the Covenant series

I would have to say that our time meeting at Fox Run Elementary was wonderful. Unfortunately, we were facing a hard deadline. The school district was very accommodating to churches that wished to meet in schools, but they would only allow a church to meet there for two years. They weren't wanting permanent residents, so their policy made good sense. We hoped that we would grow while we were at Fox Run and reach a place where we could afford our own building. Unfortunately, though we added some wonderful families in those years, we also lost the last of the families from the Kenny era. By then there were only 2 families from the original church. Though the land was paid for, we did not have the money to even consider beginning a building project.

Our two years in the school would be up in the middle of 1997. As the date approached, we began looking for a new place to meet. We had even less money in our budget than we had when we left the Duckblind Lounge, and schools were no longer an option. I drove around our neighborhood, as I had two years earlier, looking for a place where a church could meet for a few hundred dollars a month. I didn't find anything. There were places, to be sure, but none that we could afford.

It was pretty discouraging, and I began to have renewed doubts about whether our church would be able to stay together.

About that time I met a Disciples of Christ minister, who was the pastor of Rolling Oaks Christian Church. They were about a mile away from Fox Run. I have long since forgotten how we met, but we ended up having lunch together. I told her about our situation, hoping she might have a fresh idea about where a church could meet.

As it turns out, she did.

"Gordon, why don't you just meet in our church building?"

I had never considered meeting at another church. Not only that, I had never heard of such a thing.

"We use the building on Sunday mornings, of course, but if you can meet for worship sometime when we're not there, you're welcome to use the place. Our leaders would probably want you to pay something to help with the extra electricity and janitorial needs. Maybe $250 a month. You would be welcome to study here and prepare your sermons during the week if you like."

We had a conversation about this with the church. We were small enough in those days that we could all get together and have a church family discussion. We talked about the pros and cons of such a move. We felt like growing would be even harder in another church, but the truth is, we had no options. We didn't have anywhere else to go. After some discussion we decided to try something VERY different.

We decided to have church on Saturday nights.

The idea immediately appealed to some of us. I imagined leisurely Sunday mornings, sleeping late and reading the paper in bed. Others were skeptical but willing to try it. Unfortunately there were two or three families who could not make the transition. Sharon and Stephen, the boy with autism who made fire engine noises, would not be able to come on Saturday nights. There were a couple of others. I was terrifically sad to lose them, especially Stephen, who had begun making eye contact with me after two years of greeting him every Sunday morning. But there was nothing we could do. We were out of options.

I'll never forget the Sunday morning following our first Saturday night church service. For the first time in years, I slept past 5 am. I got up, slipped on some house shoes, and went out to the curb to pick up my Sunday paper. As I stretched, enjoying the morning, a car drove past. The family inside was dressed up and obviously heading for church. The father was driving and turned to look at me. I raised my palm in the air and shook it gently, offering a little wave. He turned and looked straight ahead. As I watched the car disappear I realized how many times I had been in his position. Driving to or from church, if I saw people out mowing the yard or doing other things, I would think, "Those are the people who don't go to church. How sad."

Suddenly, I was on the other side. I felt a certain freedom being at home on Sunday mornings. It was almost as if Sunday had become, of all things, a day of rest.

We met on Saturday nights for two years at Rolling Oaks Christian Church. A lot happened to us while we were there. George died. His was Covenant's first funeral. Our membership dropped to its lowest point. And we experienced our most difficult controversy, one that threatened to split the church. They were hard days. But strangely restful days. When we remember our days at Rolling Oaks Christian Church, we all say variations of the same thing:

"We never understood Sabbath rest until we stopped going to church on Sundays."

Gordon Atkinson

We will never forget the hospitality of our brothers and sisters in Christ at Rolling Oaks Christian Church. We had a chance to return the gift a few years later when we had our own building and I met a pastor who was looking for a place for his church to meet. That story later.

Note: I'll write about George's funeral and the controversy in the next two stories.

Rolling Oaks Christian Church circa 1997

Two of my daughters and a friend at a church supper at ROCC.

I celebrated 5 years as pastor of Covenant Baptist Church while we were meeting on Saturday nights at ROCC

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• sabbath
• the covenant stories

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