Rest, Receive, Restore: Creating Space for Those Who Serve at the Abbey

“No one was there more than an hour, but it seemed like it had been hours.” That’s how Bob+ Grant, Assistant Pastor at the Abbey at Pawley’s Island, recalls the church’s recent Night of Rest. The event gave those who serve in the church a time to receive and be restored, and it was thoughtfully designed “to create a space and a place where people could come in and just relax and receive.”

Bob+, who is well into his sixth decade of ministry and who has served at Pawley’s Island since 2011, brought a wealth of experience that shaped the Night of Rest. “I’ve been a strong proponent of Lectio Divina and the spiritual disciplines that have been associated with Celtic spirituality and the value of contemplative aspects of the Christian walk. So, when the whole idea of an evening of rest and restoration came up, [Senior Rector Allen Hughes] asked me to take the lead on that,” Bob+ recalls.

He gave the worship team guidelines for music with an “Abbey sound”: slower songs with a restful and peaceful feel, interspersed with chanted and read Scripture. Bob+ explains, “People were free to join in if they wanted to, but they were also really free just to sit and listen and receive because the music was being sung to them and over them. I was just inviting them to take a deep breath and exhale, relax and receive.”

He continues, “Practically speaking, people have been rushing around, and they’re taking short breaths. They just need to take a deep breath and exhale and relax. So, the music was conducive to that. I invited them physically just to relax and to put themselves in a position to receive.”

The evening also included soaking prayer, something Bob+ had experienced at the AMiA’s Winter Conferences. “There were several of us that had committed to be part of the prayer piece. And so, in the empty pews behind the people that gathered, we would stand behind, gently place a hand on their shoulder or shoulders and have soaking prayer.” Those who had volunteered were encouraged to pray Psalms over the participants. “Everybody got prayed over,” Bob+ says. “I think there were words prayed over people that wound up being very personal and meaningful to them.”

And then, Bob+ says, “When people felt like they were in a place where they needed to depart, they could just quietly get up and leave. There was no dismissal.” The event’s relatively short timeframe was a strategic element, he explains. “We had intentionally wanted to keep it limited to a maximum of an hour so that people felt like in the future, when we have those evenings of rest, people know that they can come and even come late and just come sit, bathe in it, marinate in it; and then, when they just felt like they had received what they came for, they were free to get up and leave.”

Through it all, Bob+ and his team hoped participants would experience a space of holy vulnerability where they could let their guard down and receive God’s presence through his Word and through worship. He calls it “a peaceful place and space that was safe where they could receive and just be bathed in the scriptures. … You’re not being herded out to do something. It’s not trying to cheerlead you into some place. It’s just space that you can enter into … to just soak in the Lord’s presence and his work.”

Feedback from participants afterward confirmed “how meaningful it was and helpful and how much it had blessed them,” Bob shares. “We created an environment in a space where the Lord could minister to people, and he did. I think some people felt like they’d been healed and refreshed and loved on and cared for. … It was almost like it was a monastic atmosphere where people could just come and soak.”

The church is planning more evenings of rest in the future and encouraging its musicians to further identify the “Abbey sound” that fosters peace and contemplation. This is rooted in the larger goal of helping to form an understanding of rest and work rooted in God’s design.

“The Hebrew understanding of the day is that it begins at dusk. And so, the idea is you rest and then you enter into your labor out of rest. The Western culture tends to view it the other way: We work our tails off and then we need to go to sleep. We’re tired,” Bob+ explains. “We’re trying to help people find a place of the Lord’s rest and peace. And then you enter into what you do out of a condition of rest rather than running your wheels off and coming to the point of exhaustion. … Really the attitude is we enter into rest so that we can engage in full and productive labor.”