On Wednesday March 5th, 2025, the church enters a time known as “Lent.” The word lent means “spring season” where the days grow longer. This particular practice, and the church calendar as a whole can be a helpful guide in our following of Jesus.
Many are familiar with Advent, the time leading up to Christmas that is marked by hope, joy, peace and love. Lent is the 40 days before Easter that is meant to prepare our hearts and lives through confession, repentance, and self denial.
It is by no means required and while we want to avoid all empty ritualism, there are many resources that can help us more fully understand and enter into the story of Jesus with greater intentionality in the weeks leading up to Easter where we celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
If you choose to observe Lent this year, or simply would like to learn more, we wanted to provide you with some additional resources:
A word from Claude Atcho “Lent itself is easily shifted into a self-improvement project, a merely religious way to worship at the shrine of self. Good Morning America's reframing of Lent as a 40-day challenge named after a religious celebrity actor is one glaring proof. But so are our Lenten attempts to make the season highly personalized rather than communal, rooted in goals of self-optimization rather than attending to God. Our personal fasts can easily become a badge of uniqueness or elitism when not, at some level, shared in community. If my Lenten fasts are exclusively and highly personalized- fasting only from my favorite show or my niche hobby, there's little that unites me with Christ's body, and soon, Lent becomes "my" thing, another way to express my singular identity. Discussion about Lent with other believers simply becomes platform to compare notes on all our unique fasts rather than on our shared experience of attending to Christ. In this way, Lenten fasts can simply become another way we gorge ourselves in self-centeredness. In reality, Lent is not about self-improvement or personal uniqueness. Lent is God's gift to us meant to shatter the shrine of self and return us to his throne of grace.”
Claude also shares “A Brief Lenten Word Inspired by MLK”
Pastor Scotty Smith gives us “A Prayer for Lent”
Chuck Colson writes a blog “Why Bother with Lent?”
The good golks at “Every Moment Holy” compiled a Lenten Journal with prayers, scriptures, and writing prompts. See it here.
For families, you can download the Jesus Storybook Bible Lent Reading Plan here. (If you don’t have a Jesus Storybook Bible, we’d love to give you one for free at our gathering!)
The Village Church has developed a helpful online guide - “Lent Guide (free)”
Tim Keller and Redeemer Church provide a series of devotionals “Lenten Devotionals (free)”
Looking for a good book you can hold? Journey to the Cross is a great guide with prayers, readings and reflections.
Chuck Degroat is a professor, pastor and counselor who gives some additional resources with a more contemplative leaning. - Additional Lent Resources
A resource I was gifted this year and am looking forward to reading - A Word in the Wilderness by Malcom Guite
Playlists:
Lent Playlist by Audrey Assad on Spotify
40 Songs for 40 days - Spotify Playlist
Lent Playlist - If YouTube is your jam