How one family at Willow Creek makes Sunday different
Just one-and-a-half pages in the book Soul Feast by Marjorie Thompson were enough to convince Willow Creek member Pam Orr that she needed to change something about her life. During the fall of 2001, she joined a Women’s Ministries class at Willow Creek to study this book on spiritual disciplines.

“The section about Sabbath observance was clearly convicting to me,” Pam recalls. “I shared the passage with my husband Barrie, and shortly after, on January 6, 2002, we decided to do it as a family.”

A Day Set Apart
Since then, Pam and Barrie, and their kids Hannah (9), Jacob (7), Caleb (5) and Elisabeth (3) have set aside Sunday as a day to take a break from everyday activities. They begin their day by attending the 9 a.m. service together as a family (the kids go to Promiseland), followed by a big family breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon — either at home or occasionally at their local IHOP restaurant.

“For me, work is being in the kitchen,” Pam shares. “So sometimes for either our breakfast or dinner on Sunday we choose to go out for a meal. If we stay home, everyone pitches in with cleaning up right afterward. Another big hit for dinner is to let the kids go through the refrigerator and pantry to see what they can make, then they write up a menu, set the table nicely and we all order food from their ‘buffet.’”

The rest of the day is also spent as a family, sometimes with extended family or friends. “We all love to play sports, so we tend to go to the park to play ball or take bike rides,” Pam says. “We like to slow it down on Sundays and find God together on walks or while camping or at the zoo, just appreciating God’s creation in the flowers, trees and animals.”

Sundays have also become a great day for family meetings, when needed, such as talking about allowances. “We’ll read a book together, too, and discuss it,” Pam adds, “or play games inside if it’s raining or cold, even cuddle together in a big pile on the floor with a movie and popcorn — the kids really love to do that!”

But What About Errands?
Sundays used to be like any other busy day for the Orr family, filled with house projects, chores and running errands. “It was just another day to focus on our to-do list,” says Barrie. “Now we see Sunday as an opportunity to be unhindered by our that list, so we can focus on God and on being together as a family. Sabbath observance is not about a list of don’ts — it’s about what we get to do.”

For Barrie, it comes down to being obedient to the Sabbath command in the Ten Commandments and viewing it as a privilege. “It’s a sign of God’s covenant with his children to rest on the seventh day,” he adds. “I find it draws me closer to him.”

Pam sees it as a natural order of life. “From the beginning, God modeled a rhythm of work and rest for us in the creation story,” Pam says. “If you look at it, man’s first day on earth was spent resting with God — how cool! It’s just been such a gift to our family to have this weekly time together.”

How the Kids Respond
Pam admits she does find herself thinking, “I can just throw in that one load of wash,” but often her kids will hold her accountable by reminding her that there are plenty of other days for those kinds of tasks.

“We’ve found that Sabbath observance is really important in our kids’ week,” Pam notes. “They feel the busyness of our life during the rest of the week and look forward to that one day when we get to be a family undistracted. They just enjoy the fact that we are together.”

In fact, she related a story about Jake when he was 4-1/2: “Putting him to bed on a Saturday night soon after we started our Sunday routine, he asked what day it would be the next day. When I responded with, ‘Sunday,’ he excitedly said, ‘Yesssss! It’s the Sabbath!’” she says. “It’s been very well received; they’ve really embraced it.”

Some Challenges
As with most things in life, the Orrs have come across certain challenges with this way of doing Sundays.

“We’re not part of a society that honors this type of observance, so we’ve found we’ve had to say no to things like meetings that would take away from our day together,” Pam shares. “And we’re still learning and growing in this area of life. We’re just an ordinary family — not super spiritual — who loves God and doesn’t want to lose sight of him in this crazy, hectic world.

“Another challenge is ourselves,” Pam continues. “It is really hard to put off that to-do list, especially when there aren’t many large chunks of time like this during the rest of the week,” she says. “But we’ve chosen to trust and acknowledge that God is in control, not us.”

Barrie agrees. “No matter how big that to-do list gets, our God is always bigger than that,” he says. “Observing the Sabbath day is well worth the effort. When you make the commitment, God will bless it. He will show up.”

Incredible Rewards
Pam and Barrie believe the biggest benefit of Sabbath observance is that it gives them the space and time to experience God together, to rest and to be a family without guilt, obstacles or distractions.

“As a stay-at-home mom, so much of my life is about my kids, yet I rarely get the chance to just slow down and watch them,” Pam says. “Sabbath observance gives me that freedom because I’m not restricted by my work.”

So for more than two years now, this family has held fast to their convictions about setting Sunday aside, and they’ve found it to be a huge blessing. “God has definitely met us in observing this discipline,” Barrie adds.