59. Burned Out or Searching for Purpose? Consider a Biblical Sabbath for Healing and Renewal - Insights with Joel and Christy Peed

In this episode, I am joined by Joel and Christy Peed who share their remarkable journey in ministry, from their early days in the campus ministry to church planting, and the invaluable lessons they’ve learned along the way. With honesty and wisdom, they discuss the challenges they faced, including burnout, people-pleasing, and the importance of prioritizing a healthy spiritual life. Joel and Christy delve into how they found balance between ministry work, marriage, and family life, emphasizing the need to stay connected with God and follow His guidance.

Some Key Takeaways:
• Understanding Sabbath: the Sabbath’s deeper purpose is to provide a time for rest, delight, and communion with God. Rather than merely a day off, Sabbath is a gift designed to nourish every part of our humanity, drawing us closer to God’s presence.
• Sabbath as Liberation: Sabbath observance helps free us from the “Pharaonic” mindset of productivity and work-centric value. By embracing Sabbath, we resist worldly pressures, find peace in God’s presence, and bring joy to our lives.


Quote to Reflect On:
• “Bible eats first.” – The importance of putting God’s word at the forefront of our day-to-day lives.


Connect with Joel and Christy:
Joel and Christy founded The Eremos Way, a ministry focused on guiding believers toward a life enriched by Sabbath principles and spiritual rest. To learn more about The Eremos Way, their books, and resources on practicing Sabbath rest, visit their website.
You may also find Joel's book A Sabbath Map HERE - for practical guidance to help Christians find rest amidst modern-day restlessness.


Call to Action:
Plan your week ahead and select a time when you will cease work and reflect on Matthew 11:28-30.

-  Email me at hello@alexandraalvarezcoaching.com to share your experience with Sabbath!

-  Ready to start living a life built on the unshakable foundation of God? Connect with me today!

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Transcript

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as a young adult, I had wanted to change the world and went into teaching. And as a teacher, I quickly became disillusioned with the impact I was not making. And right around that time, a coworker invited me to church and I became a Christian and realized. That to really change people's lives to help them, they needed to become Christians. I was completely fried, burnt out, could barely read my Bible, sleeping three hours, a night, just my life was just completely out of control and chaotic but then by God's grace he held on to me and I recovered and did some healing Welcome to curious for Christ. Do you ever find yourself lying awake at night? Wondering about God's plan for your life. Maybe you wake up with big dreams, but feel unsure where to start or what your next step should be. If you're curious about exploring your faith and finding purpose, then you've come to the right place. Hi, I'm Monica, Sandra. I too felt lost unsure of the direction my life was taking. I yearned to understand my purpose and have someone guide me. But I kept telling myself I was too busy, the timing wasn't right. And my lack of clarity prevented me from being consistent until I found Christ. He brought peace into my life and we field the way to find purpose by anchoring myself. In him. In this podcast, we'll journey together, exploring the Bible to gain a deeper understanding of him. and cultivate your own personal relationship with Christ. So open up your Bible, put in those ear buds and listen up because God is speaking to you. He is making everything new and you don't want to miss it. Let's get started. Welcome back to curious for Christ today. I have a special treat for you. A conversation with the inspiring duo Joel and Kristi peed. Jolie and Christie are passionate about helping people connect with God and live a life of purpose. They've dedicated their lives to ministry from campus outreach to church planting. They found that the Chippewa valley church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and later initiated the climb small church leadership conference in 2022, they established a Ramos. Demos ministry, a nonprofit to support churches in leadership development, family wellness, and spiritual growth with degrees in engineering, education and theology. Joel and Christie have been married for 28 years. And have four children. In this episode, we'll delve into their personal journeys. The challenges they've faced and the incredible lessons they've learned. We'll also discuss the importance of Sabbath, rest and spiritual renewal in today's fast paced world. And without further ado. Join us as we explore the depths of faith and life with Joel and Christy Pete. Hey there, before we dive in today's episode, I want to take a moment to talk about something really important. When we become Christians, God takes the lead in every decision we make. We step back and let him guide. Because we know he has the ultimate plan. My coaching program, spiritual growth coaching. Isn't just an option. It's essential. Your relationship with God is the foundation of everything, your identity, your purpose, your relationships, your family, your children, your children's children. And so on. And of course in every aspect of your business. Can creation understand a creator's plan. Remember when God asked job. Were you there when the earth was formed? Where are we. It's time to stop relying on our limited understanding and start building our lives on the truth of God's plan. God is mighty. He is. Almighty. And he is the answer to everything we're searching for. So if you are unsure of how to start building a relationship with God, Connect with me for a quick discovery call. Just go to bit dot L Y forward slash curious for Christ discovery to book a free call and start living your life on the unshakeable foundation of God almighty. B I T dot L Y forward slash curious for Christ discovery. Dear Joel and Christy, it's so nice to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for accepting my invitation. I really am excited to talk about your incredible journey in the ministry. I really think that you have amazing insight from working in the campus ministry to planting churches so can you please share a little bit how you both felt called into ministry what it looked like at the beginning, some challenges you've faced and and so on. So I leave it to you, Christy or Joel, it's nice to have the two of you today. Thank you. so much for having us. It's a pleasure to join you. Thank you. Go ahead. Christie. Today is actually my 30 year spiritual birthday. So I was baptized. Thank you. I was baptized 30 years ago in Minneapolis. I was actually a teacher at the time. And, as a young adult, I had wanted to change the world and went into teaching. I dreamed about being in the peace corps, things like that. And as a teacher, I quickly became disillusioned with the impact I was not making. And right around that time, a coworker invited me to church and I became a Christian and realized. That to really change people's lives to help them, they needed to become Christians. And so six months after I was baptized, I was asked to go into the ministry. And I jumped at the chance because like I shared I really wanted to help people and help them change their life. Yeah, that's great. Thank you What were the the major roadblocks or the challenges with starting in the ministry? I'm sure it wasn't a straight perfect road to heaven. I think the fact that I was such a young Christian obviously had brought challenges. I was caught up in doing things out of my own strength and wanting people to like me. I definitely feared criticism. Those are some pretty big challenges. Yeah, I would say for me. Yeah, thank you. I would say for me initially the calling in the ministry challenged me to let go of my desires for worldly wealth. I came from quite a bit of money and my siblings were in a lot of money. So I had to let go of that, but deeper than that was just people pleasing, and then deeper than that was just fear, I was a very quiet person, timid just petrified at the thought of public speaking, and so I just had to let go and release those things into God's hands, and then when I went in the ministry I went in the ministry as a two month old disciple and just quickly burnt out. So after about a year and a half, I was completely fried, burnt out, could barely read my Bible, sleeping three hours, a night, just my life was just completely out of control and chaotic and almost left God. All together, but then by God's grace he held on to me and I recovered and did some healing and then upon reentering the ministry the second time really decided we were going to do this differently. I was going to prioritize my walk with God. And then when Christie and I got married in 96 I was going to prioritize our marriage over the ministry, which now is fairly common. But back then you were pretty much taught to put the ministry over your marriage even. And so we just weren't going to do that. And I cut a lot of flack for that, but felt like it was the right thing to do. And it set us on a path of, Hey, maybe there's a healthier way of doing things and building things. And little did I know that would blossom and grow over the years. Yes. And I know that you, your audience and the people that you help are part of the ministry, but you both mentioned burnout or, roadblocks that definitely led to major, stopping, yourself and being redirected by God. What advice would you give to someone who is not part of the ministry, but is juggling full time jobs and family responsibilities, personal goals but still wanting to prioritize God. So what advice would you have to maintain a healthy spiritual life amidst all the daily pressures? Yeah I will share first on this one. When we. Planted the church, our kids were all under the age of five and we had three kids and we were working multiple jobs and it was through that time that God just forced me to realize. I have got to be in step with him. Like I have to remain in the vine and. Only do what I see him doing and join him in only in the work that he calls me to, and I would make a joke like, the fishes and the loaves concepts, and I would say, I have just a crumb and a tiny piece of fish to give, but if it's what, if God is at work. And this is what he's calling me to do. He's going to multiply it. So I think just keeping a step with the spirit, prioritizing your relationship with God and embracing your limits, but trusting that God can do amazing things when we're joining him. I think it can be sometimes a bit of a misnomer that people in the ministry just have all kinds of time to do whatever. And I think what, like I said, when we planted the church, we had seven jobs between us. And so I grew more sensitive to that challenge. But the principles held fast, I think. My 19 year old daughter has a saying Bible eats first. And I think it's off, when the, when you take a picture of your food before you eat it, the camera eats first, but she says the Bible eats for it, I just think you gotta, you have to succeed at putting first things first and that starts with your walk with God, I think quickly we learned about the Sabbath and having a time if, when I teach about the Sabbath, one thing I say, if you feel like you're too busy for this, that's exactly the point. And learning to carve out a weekly Sabbath time, even if it's not a full 24 hours. What can you carve out to put in the practice, those principles, and then we learned about seasonal solitude. If, for example, in America, we have holidays every X number of months in creating kind of spiritual holidays, where you can withdraw into the quiet, and then we'll get into sabbaticals later, but I think 1 of the principles is to just stop. Doing too much. Jesus was not in a hurry. And he embraced his limits as human limits and to ruthlessly eliminate hurried demands you really understand and embrace your calling. And to be careful not to do other people's jobs and to embrace margins. So, yeah, I think it's complex, but I would say the principles of. But in God first, embracing the rhythm in your life and for good hearted servants, they're just ended up doing too much, too many roles. And we have to really embrace what work does God have for me to do? Not just what does the church. The need to do right, and I really enjoyed your book talking about the Sabbath a Sabbath map. You have another book for ministers, a sabbatical map. So thank you for sending it. I've actually been reading it. On a regular basis on my Sabbath it really helped me set some boundaries a little bit more clearly. It was really interesting how you highlight the sabbatical the biblical Sabbath as the ancient solution to modern day restlessness. Based on Jeremiah 6, verse 16, there's a lot of myths surrounding the Sabbath. Could you explain what the Sabbath is, what it isn't and then perhaps leading into your ministry the Ermos way. Sure thank you for your interest in that book and hopefully it's a blessing to you. There's so much misunderstandings around the Sabbath. That it's just an Old Testament thing, doesn't really apply to New Covenant Christianity. Or I've heard that it's just a millennial New Age fad for millennials to not work so hard, I've heard. That, or a Sabbath is just a day off. It's not just a day off. Eugene Peterson called that the bastard Sabbath actually, just very strong language or just going to church or just a rule centered practice. So it's just so not those things. And I believe Satan has distorted the understanding in order to steal the life that Sabbath can bring. But it basically, my understanding thus far I'm almost learning, but is that it's a rhythm. A rhythmic sacred space in time, and God said that he blessed this space in time which means that he filled it with life to the full, a multiplying life, Genesis 1, and that he declared it holy. So the only thing that is holy throughout scripture is something that is filled with God's presence. We become holy when we are filled with the presence of God. If he declared this space and time as holy, it means that he filled it with his presence and his blessing. And those are some of the basic principles about what Sabbath is. Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, which means it was a gift designed by God for our humanity. So many of the blessings of the Sabbath are things that perfectly minister to our humanness. Fatigue, boundaries. pace, our soul, our minds and mental health, emotional health need for physical sleep, but more than just physical sleep a finish line to our week and a new starting line. So those are some of the things that we used to. Yes. It's like a rhythm of life where we get refreshed and it's interesting how in your book you mentioned that the first day of humanity falls on God's day of rest. So it does fall on a Sabbath in a way it is part of how we interact And then also you mentioned about God's delight, being in his delight, which spills over all aspects and all the other days of work that we do have. I also love in your book when you mentioned that. Yeah. Wade took the Israelites out of Egypt. But it is only in Sabbath keeping or in observing the Sabbath that he is able to keep Egypt. Out of the Israelites. Could you explain a little bit more about that? How by keeping the Sabbath were able to stay in line with God's love. Being in his delight. And, and having a life that is seasoned with these rhythms of life. Great questions. And boy, I wish we had more time. I think God quickly took the Israelites out of Egypt. But it took 40 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites, and when he redeemed them, he gave them food, water, and sabbath before the law. The idea that sabbath is just a Mosaic law thing is very wrong, and the sabbath practicing the sabbath redeems and rescues us from the world trying, I call it a pharaonic worldview. The world trying to press us into its mold of productivity, we're valued because of what we produce, what we do we find our delight, and work is a gift from God, so Sabbath is an anti work gift. It's just work and rest in rhythm. And so a time to cease work and to celebrate delight in what God is doing, who God is in our work. So it's not an anti work principle. It's a rhythm principle to be able to actually enjoy and celebrate our work and the work God is doing through us. So over time, we've practiced Sabbath for over 20 years, and we just find that over time, it has this incredible healing and joy bringing gift and peace, receiving the peace of Christ and spirituality, spiritual depth that comes into some of the Most wounded places in my soul. Yeah, I don't know, Christy, if you want to share about that. I was just thinking about practicing Sabbath and the blessings of it. I think for like Joel is a contemplative. I am not. I like to be busy. I like to do work. And so it's been super challenging for me, actually. But being married to Joel, I've had to keep persevering and learning and growing. I'm not getting out of this thing. Amen. Which is a good thing. But I think when you stick with it and keep practicing it, it causes you to dig deeper. And for me, I had to really ask myself, why is it so hard for me to stop working? And for everyone who struggles with Sabbath, it, the question could be different but I think it's so important that we ask ourselves if we don't like practicing Sabbath, if we disagree with it, if it's challenging to dig in deep into our hearts and ask why. And for me, I realized I always want things to be better. I want the house to be cleaner. I want to get things done. I want to do projects. I want, and what I realized was, no, I need this time to sit back and embrace what God has given me right now and appreciate it and be grateful and celebrate it like Joel talked about and be content. As things are right now which is I'm still learning that lesson, but it's so good. I feel so grateful that God just has kept pushing me through Joel keep trying, keep practicing. Yeah, that's great. That's really good because. Because we're so different. Even in our own house, how Christy and I practice Sabbath is so different. And that's the beauty of the New Covenant, is Jesus freed it from the rules. And I think the Spirit fills it with Himself. And we really have, we're really, In the New Covenant, we're freed into enjoying this the way we were designed to, freed from the 400 plus rules surrounding it, so. Yes, that's great. It's great to see the different personalities and how it is definitely a freer time than we than we would think, right? The way that it works. Lived in the Old Testament. So you mentioned about healing and going deeper. There's a prevalent issue with the church right now. People tend to run away from organized religion. What was a way that you saw. through Sabbath keeping that helped growing churches and making sure that they grew healthy and spiritually healthy. So how did incorporating the Sabbath contribute to the growth that you've seen in the church and foster healthy relationships and a healthy growth? I think just real quick is. It forces you to rely on God. When you embrace limits and boundaries, you have to rely on God, which then leads to a lot of other good things. And I'll let Joel take over from here. Yeah. So I studied a lot of history in grad school and the history of the restoration movement, history of our fellowship. And church history and a big conclusion was our, I believe our next chapter of our fellowship is to deepen our spirituality and understand what it means to be a church and build a church that's reliant not on ourselves, but on God. And I think historically the church, not just our fellowship, but for sure our fellowship stumbled when we got humanistic. And so going forward, I think God is calling us deeper into the aspect of faith that isn't only obedience, but reliance and not to neglect obedience. That's also a great needed aspect of faith but reliance on God in our obedience. So when we planted the church in 2006 and Eau Claire. We set out with the desire to build healthy and spiritual and reliance on God. And the first thing that produced was a house of prayer. That was just obvious, like we're going to be a house of prayer and not just a house of activity, hyperactivity, but the word heal really is the root word of healthy. And so the church should be a healing place. Healing and growth, not just growth and idolizing growth could quickly produce humanistic methods so quickly on the heels of prayer was this idea of Sabbath that Sabbath rhythm creates space, pace, and grace to usher us into the work of the spirit. Very practically, like we went from real deep there to practical, like we never have meetings on Sunday afternoon. So every great once in a while, we'll have a short leaders meeting right after church. But from that point on, we're creating space for people to have a Sabbath time. And that seemed, may seem like a simple thing, but when we learned, started to lead the church in Omaha, I had grown up spiritually with Leaders meetings from 3 p. m. till 10 p. m. every Sunday, and I announced to the Omaha group that we will have no leaders meetings on Sunday afternoon in literally the applause erupted from the leaders. I just said, I believe that Sunday afternoons are made for napping. And, it was just interesting to hear the response of the people when the leadership wanted to prioritize not just their productivity as in Jesus as the Lord of the harvest, but the Lord of the Sabbath and their wellness. And that's what we see in Yahweh and the productivity comes, but it comes in rhythm and it comes from a place of healing restfulness. Instead of. Humanistic pressure. And so the other thing besides Sabbath, I think that has produced a lot of healing and how this, the ideas of solitude, seasonal solitude, and subtenial sabbaticals that, really prevent burnout and not just for the ministers, but for the lay leaders to have rhythms and breaks in their roles of service and for the whole church to not become codependent on any leader, but to be interdependent on God and one another because of leaders role is not their identity. It's just, it's a role. It's an assignment and it can begin and it can end. And there's no shame around that our identity is in Christ. And then we all receive the roles that he has given us. At this time, as he arranges as it's time to shift or cease that move into a different assignment, that's done with grace and fluidity versus shame and disruption, very nice. And so talking about in practicality, what, how do we establish the Sabbath? What are the steps? You mentioned five key elements of Sabbath observance. You call it in your book, the Sabbath map highway, but how can we incorporate in our daily lives or in our lives these principles of rest that you talk about? Great question. Most people love the idea of Sabbath. But they just, how do I do this? And so preparation is key. If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. And Bobby Knight said that. And so preparation is huge. The Jews had a whole day of preparation and then establishing the point in time, which in which you will see Sabbath mean Sabbath means cease. You gotta have a finish line, so you see, for me, I turn my phone off 5pm Sundays. It's a non negotiable. And then to celebrate, take time to enjoy good food, enjoy. Close friends enjoy God, enjoy your life. Enjoy creation rest where your body goes to bed early. Your body's given permission to get as much sleep as it wants. We are completely sleep deprived as a country. And. We're paying the price in restlessness, in mental health, emotional health issues. So rest is a huge part of that. And then going deeper spiritually, having space to contemplate, to enjoy. Christy has these spiritual cards that are a card deck of 50 questions. Or practices that lead you into a deeper space. And those have just transformed my, our life and many people's lives. And then just the big thing I would say is learn and repeat repetition. This is not a one time thing and you're going to get it. You're going to try it and it's not going to go very well. Just learn and then try it again and look forward to next week. And that's what I would add is just don't give up. After, our Sabbath day, Joel's okay, so I'm working on it, which sounds. Ironic, I'm working on Sabbath, but what went well? What can you do? What can you change? What do you need to do different next time? And then, honestly, when you probably get it figured out, your season of life changes. Your kids graduate, or you're taking care of an elderly parent, and so you have to start over and figure it out again. Is it all on that? Go ahead. Just not giving up the whole family. Do it at the same time. Do the kids do it as well? It really varies on season of life. So when our kids were all home, we would have Sunday afternoon walk and dinner and we would enjoy that together. But yeah, some kids are at different spots, now I have three kids in college and I know they did all do it differently, but they do it and they hold to it and they benefit. Oh, absolutely. Is there something important that you'd like to share something you'd like to leave our listeners with a parting message. I would just echo the words of Jesus that to all who are weary and burdened, let the Lord of the Sabbath, your good shepherd, make you lie down in green pastures, lead you to still waters and restore your soul. That's great. Thank you. And where can our listeners find your work and learn more about you, read your books? Our books are on Amazon the Sabbath map and the sabbatical map. We're Chrissy are writing together a book this coming year on a solitude map. So we're looking forward to that. And then Aramos ministry. org Aramos, E R E M O S ministry. org. We have our books, we have Christie's cards prompts and practices, card deck, my son wrote a book on praising the Lord as a study of all the songs in the scriptures that's on Amazon, praise the Lord by Carter Pede. And then we've partnered with Sean St. Jean and his book spiritual trauma is a beautiful book on church hurt and healing in a spiritual way. We have YouTube channel the air most ministry YouTube channel, and then podcast and subscription services on the way in 2025. So great. Yes. Looking forward to that. Join you in the podcast world. Yes, that's great. I wish you the best with that. I will put all the links to the show notes so that it's easy for listeners to find you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for coming, the two of you and sharing your different views. Based on your personalities, it's great to see that the Sabbath is for everyone and not just for the contemplative one. I'm busy, I like to be busy, but I'm also very familiar with long periods of waiting time. And so I see that God really wants me to dive into that and to enjoy it, to find delight in him. Thank you so much again. Thank you for being with me today. Thank you. Hope this episode was really helpful for you. I enjoyed so much speaking with Christy and Joel peed. Here are a few takeaways that I wanted to share with you to leave you with. Number one rely on God and align with his well. To avoid burnout. We must continually rely on God and align our lives with his will trusting him as our source of strength. Allows us to live with purpose and peace. Number two, embrace the Sabbath as a healthy rhythm. God established the Sabbath to promote health healing and renewal. The sacred rhythm enables us to experience deeper joy and delight in God and his creation. Number three, experienced the Sabbath as a holy life giving space. The Sabbath is a sacred time filled with God's presence and blessings. It's more than a day off or just rest. It's a time to live life fully. Allowing God to multiply our joy and fulfillment, which spills over into the other days. Number four, celebrate work without burnout, the Sabbath isn't anti work. Instead it frees us to celebrate and enjoy our work without burning out. This rhythm helps us find balance. Allowing us to honor both work and rest. Number five. Avoid a rule-bound approach. The Sabbath is not a rigid set of rules. It's for everyone to enjoy in a way that connects them with God, his presence and his creation. It adapts to life seasons and blessings. Offering a space to encounter God personally. Number six, seek healing and renewal in God's presence. The Sabbath promotes deep healing for our souls. It invites us to slow down a line. Line with the spirit and receiving God's care for our mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Number seven. Rest in Jesus, his invitation, Matthew 11 verses 28 through 30, invites us to rest and says. Come to me. All who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. You will find rest for your souls. The Sabbath offers space to accept this invitation, to lay down our burdens and to find true rest in him. As we wrap up today's episode, I encourage you to take a moment to reflect, consider your own life and the pace at which you're moving. All the responsibilities that are all. Important. But are you feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or simply exhausted? The responsibilities will still be there. But how are you doing So I want to challenge you. To map out your week ahead, choose a specific date when you will see work and truly rest. And what that time begins. Take a moment to read Matthew 11 verses 28 through 30, as you read. I want you to journal your thoughts and feelings. Imagine what it would feel like to have your soul truly rest to know you are deeply loved by God and to live a life, knowing your creator cares for you. I'd love to hear about your experiences with Sabbath. Please share your thoughts, questions, or testimonies. you. can either email them to me at hello at Alexandra Alvarez, coaching.com or by leaving a review, your feedback helps me continue to create content that inspires and encourages. Remember. Rest is not a luxury. It is a necessity. So prioritize Sabbath this week, my friend, and experienced the peace and renewal. It brings until next time. May God bless. you. Hi, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you like to take 30 seconds and share it with a friend who may also struggle with knowing God and His purpose for their life. Also, leave a review on applepodcast. com. Podcast, and let me know what topics you'd like to hear about in the future. Your voice matters. I'll meet you back next Friday for another episode.