This, the Sabbath Day

A question that's been rattling around my head for the past few years is this:

If part of the Adventist mission is to protect the sanctity of the Sabbath rest, then why do we ask our church workers to work on the Sabbath? From pastors to deacons to the worship leader and band, it seems like the people who make a church service happen are the first to pull in and the last to leave after church and between delivering their part (sermon, music) and conversing with the diverse church population in a charming grace filled way, quite a bit of work goes into a Sabbath morning. 

I leave church every weekend feeling like I work on Sabbath every bit as hard as any other day of the week, and I am thinking that I would sure like to take a Sabbath.  I am thinking of the way Rob Bell described a Sabbath in Velvet Elvis. . .

Maybe Adventist church workers should take Sunday as their day of rest.  well, on the other hand, that would seem to contradict the teachings of the church. So that's out.

Why not gather as a church on Sunday?  God commanded us to rest on Sabbath, not gather in churches and listen to sermons.  So why not take the entire 7th day as a day off from everything work related and actually embrace a day set apart?  Doing the church thing on Sunday would be a lot easier!

I guess a less controversial solution would be to create a church service that does not require work.  It could look like gathering in smaller groups and reading the bible and talking about spiritual things. Or maybe share the work load a little better where one deacon unlocks the church and another takes the offering and another adjusts the AC and another one locks the church at the end of the day. We could have a set up team for the stage and a separate tear down team and a person to make powerpoint and a different person to print music and another person to bring coffee for everyone.

I love just about everything about church work and I think people leave touched in part because of the whole production of it, but I am getting sick and tired of waking up to an alarm for work early every weekday morning and then having to do the same on my day of rest.

The next thing: night church!