Our Mission

The Sabbath Life exists to help people embrace an unhurried life, listen generously to God, and live a sustainable faith. We seek to nurture healthy Christian leaders by providing a refuge of quiet rest and renewal for people with tired souls through retreats, spiritual direction, and opportunities for learning and community-building.

Our Vision

We help leaders and Christian communities to develop cultures of contemplation. We help craft space to pause, reflect, pay attention, and listen to the work of God. Through silence, solitude, and stillness we put into practice that winsome phrase of Dallas Willard's, "the ruthless elimination of hurry.” We help leaders and caregivers of all kinds break from the cultural story of anxious busyness so they can know that a life of service is a full life of deep meaning and joy.

Our Story

The Sabbath Life first launched as an online space in September 2016 where Peter could write about spiritual direction, contemplative practices, and the ways that God is renewing the whole world. Throughout the season of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were working with so many people who found themselves exhausted, stressed, and burning out. We were seeing that people both in and out of the church were not equipped with good skills for processing the “big feelings” we were all feeling then and still feel.

We believed that ancient contemplative practices like silence, stillness, and solitude were really good antidotes to the decision fatigue, brain fog, and general weariness people carried. In April 2021, we transformed our neighbors’ house into a retreat space and opened the Abbey of the Heights—“Abbey” because abbeys were the centers of prayer within old monasteries and “The Heights” because that’s the name of our historic neighborhood in downtown Tulsa.

Since that time we have hosted pastors, ministry workers, teachers, missionaries, therapists, physicians, writers, people in career transition, people grieving—all kinds of people who generously give of themselves and who need to receive some soul care of their own. We organized as a non-profit 501(c)3 in summer 2022. Our contemplative community began receiving the Eucharist weekly on Sundays in January 2023.

Our Values

Generous hospitality

We believe that Christ encounters us when we welcome others. We anticipate the gifted presence of others. We communicate to every guest that their simple presence with us is an awesome gift.

Abundant peace

We believe that God's dream for the world is shalom—everything in its right place. Jesus reveals to us a God who is never in a hurry, never distracted, never anxious, and never busy. We are refreshed by a God who delights in rest and sabbath.

Beautiful simplicity

We believe that when God is our shepherd we have all that we need. Against a world that pushes bigger and better and faster and more, God meets us in the slow ordinary of our days with exactly enough. And we are content. Less is often most meaningful.

Beloved community

We believe that we as human beings are made by God for life-generating connections with others. Every person belongs. Every person is a gift. Everyone has a gift to bring to God and to one another.

Active wisdom

We believe that God offers us an ancient path for the good life. We embrace the wonder and mystery of being humans in God's world. We know deeply so that we might serve extravagantly where injustice has vandalized God's shalom. We treasure good questions.

Sustainable rhythms

Just as our bodies are sustained by the ever-quiet rhythms of the beating of our hearts and the air in our lungs, our souls are shaped for the long term by simple experiences much more than big events. The simple daily rhythm of prayer, of meals, of the weekly meeting for Scripture and Eucharist—these form us to be like Jesus. These are enough.