The Sabbath We Need: Finding True Rest in a World of Counterfeits, By John Starke and Jena Starke alt

The Sabbath We Need

Finding True Rest in a World of Counterfeits

by John Starke and Jena Starke

The Sabbath We Need
Ebook
  • Length: 160 pages
  • Published: October 13, 2026
  • Imprint: IVP
  • ISBN: 9781514012796
Other Formats:

Detach from Chaos, Attach to Christ, and Break Free from the World’s Demands

Our world offers endless prescriptions for wholeness—a sense of fullness through achievement, a perfect work-life balance, the ideal Instagram feed, or the pursuit of well-being and leisure. Yet these cultural visions of fulfillment often leave us more restless than before.

There is a more satisfying path. God invites us not simply to take a day off, but to be transformed to be like him through the joy, delight, and holiness of sabbath all seven days of the week.

In The Sabbath We Need, John and Jena Starke guide you away from the world's anxious systems and into participation with God in his rest. This is not another book about relaxation or self-care. The biblical emphasis on sabbath rest isn't necessarily about recovering from the week but to be set apart like the God who rested on the seventh day.

Based on their own practices as a family of six living in Manhattan, the Starkes offer a path for detachment from the world for a deeper attachment to Christ, providing hope for a culture exhausted in its search for rest. True sabbath is formation toward divine holiness and counterformation away from worldliness.

With The Sabbath We Need, you will discover

  • The difference between counterfeit fulfillment and the true divine fullness of sabbath keeping;
  • Practical ways to make the sabbath the center of gravity for your week, reshaping your rhythms of life;
  • How to practice sabbath in different stages of life and in seasons of pain, success, struggle, and loss; and
  • How to receive the gift of sabbath as God intended and practice it in a way that leads to joy, delight, and interior rest.

Choose the way of holy rest. The Sabbath We Need leads you out of worldliness and into holiness, out of anxious systems and into the heart of rest.

"John and Jena Starke cast a beautiful, biblical vision for the sabbath that remains centered on God, not our needs. Yet as I read, I realized how much I needed this book, because I need more of God. Their example inspires me to follow them on this journey to lasting rest."Collin Hansen, editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition and author of Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation
"In a world of restlessness and exhaustion, the biblical call to Sabbath rest is more relevant and needed than ever. John and Jena Starke show us how biblical rest is more than cessation of activity—it is resisting the demands of our cultural idols. Biblical rest calls us away from constant performance, efficiency, and optimization and into a wholeness and joy we forgot was possible. Resting in Jesus brings healing and life. I need this book more than I realized."Gavin Ortlund, president of Truth Unites and author of What It Means to Be Protestant
"The Sabbath We Need is not written by people who discovered rest in theory. John and Jena Starke have practiced this in real life, with children, ministry, pressure, limits, and the ordinary demands that make Sabbath feel impossible. I have seen the fruit of it in them. They do not offer Sabbath as a life hack for getting more done but as an invitation to receive the day God has given and become more like the God who gives it. For anyone who thinks Sabbath sounds beautiful but unrealistic, this book will feel like a wise and trusted friend."Jamaal Williams, lead pastor of Sojourn Church Midtown and coauthor, with Timothy Paul Jones, of In Church as It Is in Heaven
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CONTENTS

Introduction: Something More Than Self-Fulfillment
Part I: Sabbath as Formation
1. Bricks Without Straw
2. Sabbath as Holiness
3. Growing Out of Our Coping
4. The Healing of Sabbath
Part II: The Practice of Sabbath
5. The Problem and Promise of Solitude
6. Work and Rest
7. Imagining the Day
8. Sabbath Grief and Healing
Epilogue
Notes

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John Starke

John Starke is the lead pastor at Apostles Church Uptown in New York City. He is the coeditor (with Bruce Ware) of One God in Three Persons and is the author of The Possibility of Prayer and The Secret Place of Thunder.He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Jena, and their four children.

Jena Starke

Jena Starke is the administrator at Apostles Church Uptown in New York City. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, John, and their four children.