New Lenten Activities and Suggestions for Using Them

I have added two lenten activities to the Lent page making a total of  10 downloadable handouts of lenten activities for you to pick from during Lent.  The two newest ones are:

  • Faith P.E.G.S. In the spring of 2009 I was inspired to take time everyday to Prayer, Encourage, Give and Study; hence, the acronym P.E.G.S.. You can read the original post about that by clicking here. I found that a little work in each of these areas daily strengthened my faith and relationship to God tremendously.
  • The Examen. The examen is a nearly 500 year old practice of reflection at the end of the day that originated with the monk, St. Ignatius. This model of reflection gives you serious pause to consider where God was in your day and how you were response to God. I find that practiced regularly this will make you much more conscious to actively looking for God in the day and being more faithfully responsive.
  • A word to Pastors and people wanting to share these disciplines.

    I have no problem with you reproducing these materials for non-commercial purposes.  Set them out in your church, Sunday school classrooms, youth ministry areas or hand them to strangers.  It doesn’t matter to me as long as these lenten activities handouts are used to help people grow in their faith.  I hope that if you do not use them as they are published here, but adapt them, that you will give credit were credit is due and list the URL for The Practical Disciple on the materials, not because I need credit, but so that people will be directed to even more resources to help them grow in their faith.

    In the spirit of wanting to see these materials used more broadly I have edited many of them to eliminate any first person language. When I originally drafted these exercises it was for my congregation and they knew who “I” was.  I realized the other day that I need to strip that language out for those of you who are reproducing them for another context.  I think I have adapted all of the handouts with the exception of the “40 bags in 40 days.”  I will get to that one when time permits.

    Encouraging One Another

    Communicate–At my church I will be setting out handouts one week prior to Lent and I will briefly introduce each of those opportunities verbally in a Family Night Supper Event and the Sunday prior to Lent.  We will have handouts available in three different locations around our church, as well as plugging these opportunities in our bulletin, newsletters, and website.

    Partner up–You may want to encourage your whole church or a Sunday School class to adopt a common discipline regardless of what other disciplines they may do.  Last year I distributed small prayer “tents” and asked every member of our church to participate in at least doing that one discipline together.  If you are in a small group, then you may want to ask everyone in your small group to covenant to do one together.  A shared discipline can be a powerful experience.  My experience has been that people are far more likely to succeed if they are not going it alone. I would love to hear lenten activities that are going on in your church.

    Blessings from The Practical Disciple

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