Sabbath for the Social Media Manager
by Ashley Graham-Wilcox
Church communicators are masters of the multi-tab life (Current count on my own computer: 38 tabs across six Chrome profiles…). If you’re not designing the newsletter while texting the rector about a last-minute graphic, and answering a congregant’s Facebook message, which reminds you to boost the Instagram VBS post, is it even a Tuesday? And yet, we serve a God who rested.
So how do we keep digital ministry thriving and still build in sacred pauses? In honor of the end-of-school-year chaos—and every last-minute spirit day, concert, and bake sale that’s lighting up my household calendar—here’s your permission slip to rest.
TL;DR: You can’t pour from an empty coffee cup. Plan your pause. Schedule your sabbath. Let your yes be yes—and your out-of-office be holy (or wholly something else, that’s on you!).
Automate with Intention: Scheduling tools aren’t just a productivity hack—it’s a sabbath practice. Pre-scheduling allows you to step away fully, without anxiety that you’re letting things drop. Bonus: You can align your posts with the church calendar and write more thoughtful captions when you’re not in a rush.
Establish (and practice!) a “Sabbath Protocol” for Your Church: Designate a backup contact and set up auto-replies that gently let people know when you’re offline. Example: "Thanks for reaching out! I’m away from my desk for a short sabbath rest and will respond on Monday. For urgent pastoral care, contact the priest on call at…” Normalize this in your team so others feel permission to do the same. Make rest contagious.
Rethink Urgency: Not everything is an emergency. Most posts can wait. Consider creating a rubric to assess whether something truly needs immediate attention. (Spoiler: “We forgot to include the potluck in the email” is rarely a crisis.) True story: My second day at a new position, I got a 7:05pm text from the Rector that the Zoom link for their 7pm book club was broken in the newsletter (which, mind you, had been sent before I started), and I needed to send out a correction NOW. My mission for this church instantly became undoing that culture of urgency, which often brings with it a cycle of shame and resentment (And yes, I recognize the irony of undoing urgency culture becoming an instant priority.)
Build a Bank of Evergreen Content: Use slow weeks to create a library of blessings, prayers, quotes, and photos that you can post anytime. This way, sabbath won’t feel like a shutdown—it’s simply a pause in your live programming, not in your presence.
Tend to Your Own Spirit: This one’s tricky—especially for lay leaders, where the sacredness of our ministry may not be as easily named or recognized. Yet, we deserve spiritual nourishment, not just likes and click-throughs. Take the time to step back, not just from the inbox, but toward something that nourishes you: a quiet walk, a journaling practice, a slow morning without screens. Your faith life isn’t just a resource you draw from; it’s a well that requires refilling.
The work of church communication is often invisible and undervalued, and almost always unrelenting. But God didn’t design us for constant output. God designed us for rhythm—for work and rest, speaking and silence, sharing and receiving.
So this season, give yourself permission to step away. The church will still be there when you return—and so will your tabs.
For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal;
a time to break down and a time to build up…What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it; God has done this so that all should stand in awe before him. That which is already has been, that which is to be already is, and God seeks out what has gone by.
