Lent Rant
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. It's on my radar for the first time since I've been a pastor. Maybe this reveals my ignorance (yes, I'm guilty), but I suspect I'm not the only pastor who doesn't know much about the season of lent. We know it's the period before Easter but for many of us that come out of the church growth movement, we haven't paid much attention to Lent. We were too busy doing demographic targeted sermons before Easter, like "Being A Team For God," or "The Expansionist Vision." Yawn.
Many pastors are shifting their personal focus from their calling, to who they are in Christ. We have been left empty and have left many others empty after seasons of trying to ramp-up, launch, leverage, birth, results-oriented, and multiply. After picking ourselves out of the hole of burnout, we are now looking to get back to the heart of Christ.
This shift has many of us looking at the Bible with a profound yearning that longs for more of Jesus in our souls. We have done church without much Jesus, making growth our priority, and we are now lining up with other followers of Christ looking for ways to get back to the very heart of it all -- which is best shown on the cross. We are in a religion of death and resurrection. And this gives us hope in this shattered world.
For a few weeks I have been at a loss. Here I have been a pastor since 93' and I don't know much about lent or where to look. I have searched denominational sites that show the sequence of the lectionary for lent, I have read catholic sites on stations of the cross, I have looked at the church.com sites for help, but there isn't much out there.
Many of us are trying to dust off this cherished time of the year and reclaim it for our own souls and the souls of those we shepherd.
Any readers (there is only about 5 people who read this blog, including my brother and one of his kids) have resources or experiences you'd care to share with the rest of us?
Some Resources Found:
Reflecting the Glory, by N.T. Wright
The Heart of The Cross, by James Montgomery Boice
Spurgeons Sermons On The Death And Resurrection of Christ, by Spurgeon
The Season Of Lent
Lenton Links And Resources
Many pastors are shifting their personal focus from their calling, to who they are in Christ. We have been left empty and have left many others empty after seasons of trying to ramp-up, launch, leverage, birth, results-oriented, and multiply. After picking ourselves out of the hole of burnout, we are now looking to get back to the heart of Christ.
This shift has many of us looking at the Bible with a profound yearning that longs for more of Jesus in our souls. We have done church without much Jesus, making growth our priority, and we are now lining up with other followers of Christ looking for ways to get back to the very heart of it all -- which is best shown on the cross. We are in a religion of death and resurrection. And this gives us hope in this shattered world.
For a few weeks I have been at a loss. Here I have been a pastor since 93' and I don't know much about lent or where to look. I have searched denominational sites that show the sequence of the lectionary for lent, I have read catholic sites on stations of the cross, I have looked at the church.com sites for help, but there isn't much out there.
Many of us are trying to dust off this cherished time of the year and reclaim it for our own souls and the souls of those we shepherd.
Any readers (there is only about 5 people who read this blog, including my brother and one of his kids) have resources or experiences you'd care to share with the rest of us?
Some Resources Found:
Reflecting the Glory, by N.T. Wright
The Heart of The Cross, by James Montgomery Boice
Spurgeons Sermons On The Death And Resurrection of Christ, by Spurgeon
The Season Of Lent
Lenton Links And Resources
posted by mike vanderkwaak at
1:32 PM
1 Comments:
Sorry, I don't know much about Lent either, but I wanted to re the note about 5 pple reading ur blog: I do; and I know a good friend of mine does. How she found it is a mystery... :)
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