Thought i would share what i’m reading this Lent. And i would love to know what your into!

So every year i pick one book during Lent that will help me reflect on the season as well as the things i’ve given up and taken on. Last year i dove into N.T. Wright’s book Reflecting The Glory. And it was great! This year i’ve picked up Alexander Schmemann’s book entitled Great Lent: Journey to Pascha. I read bits of this last year but i decided to make it on as my Lenten book this year… and so far it’s amazing!

Also on amazing is a free kindle version of a Lent devotional by Alexander Schmemann entitled Great Lent (with a lengthly subtitle). This looks like it’s a shorter devotional version of the book i’m reading but i’m sure it’s awesome and it’s FREE! So get it!

I’m also reading a couple little devotional guides this Lent.

The 1st is my book LENT: A Journey of Discovery by Addition, Subtraction and Introspection. My youth group as well a some friends of mine that are pastors are using this book as a resource to lead their students through this time of Lent. Excited to see what God does with these words i’ve put to paper. My hope is that it’s a helpful guide on this Lenten journey.

My Church also put together a little Lenten devotional guide that uses Psalm 119 as a lighted path for the Lenten journey. You can check that out  (free PDF) if you’d like.

I hope your Lent has started off well and that you are pondering your mortality and your need for a savior, hoping and looking forward to a resurrection but willing to take the hard, long joinery to get there.

Grace, peace and mercy
Erik

I really love the prayer that’s in the video below, i think you will too.  And as we start our Lenten journey i think it’s especially fitting.

The book i put together this Lent has a little web guide, you can find it here— www.LentWebGuide.com
I will be posting things on that site that are connected to the Lent Book you can get but even if you don’t have the book i think they might be helpful and thought provoking during this Lenten season.

Enjoy this prayer and may God disrupt your life this Lenten season!

Grace and peace

“Where do they get all those ashes?”

I always wondered where they got all those ashes on Ash Wednesday. A couple of years ago, someone finally told me that they burn the palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday service.

Maybe I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I didn’t know that. The palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday service are burned, made into ashes and smeared on the foreheads of those needing to remember “from dust you have come and to dust you will return.”

A pastor friend of mine posted a YouTube video of his church burning the palm branches.

I guess now the question is, “Where do all those Midwesterners get palm tree branches?”

I pray that this Ash Wednesday is deep and meaningful start to your Lenten experience.

Grace and peace

The day before Ash Wednesday is known as Fat Tuesday or, if you grew up across the pond, Shrove Tuesday—and it’s a day to INDULGE!

Most people know about Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, but what you may not know is that historically there has been a purpose behind this party, despite the lack of purpose that this day seems to currently possess.

The purpose of this day is to indulge a bit in all the things you are planning on giving up. Eat some extra candy, drink all the coffee you can, watch all the TV your mind can handle and most importantly, party with your friends! (I might add, in a way that doesn’t break any commandments! We are Christians, after all!)

IT’S FAT TUESDAY!

Until a couple of years ago, I had never heard of Shrove Tuesday or its traditions. While I lived in Nashville, however, I was fortunate to be in a community group with a great family from across the pond, and they introduced me to Shrove Tuesday and some of these crazy traditions.

The deal is that traditionally all the families would bring their flour, sweets and other goodies that might not keep over Lent and eat it all! During Lent, they wanted to refrain from foods they enjoyed and that gave them the most pleasure as a way to embrace the season of Lent. It’s my understanding that because the typical things they brought to purge themselves of—butter, flour, sugar, etc.—were mostly the goods to make pancakes, that’s what they made … and that’s what they played!

As you can see in the video above, we practiced some pancake games ourselves. It was such an amazing time of fun and fellowship. I miss my Nashville community group and will be looking to have some fun tonight in Texas!

Here’s is what i ate for lunch… Let the Pancake festivas begin!

I would encourage you to start a tradition with your community. Flip some cakes, have a party, do something fun because Lent is coming.

So yea, INDULGE!

What are you giving up this year?

Eat up, drink up, make it count!

Grace and peace

Erik

So it’s true, i wrote and self-published a little book. The book is a little devotional piece on Lent, which if your not familiar is the 40 days leading up to Easter. So essentially it’s a devotional book that leads and prepares the reader for Easter Sunday, the resurrection of Jesus.

Here’s what the back of the book says;

This isn’t just another devotional book. This is a guide to a 40-day journey to resurrection.

Maybe you don’t even know what Lent is. Maybe you’re thinking it’s that stuff you pick out of the depths of your pants pockets. Maybe when you hear Lent, you think it’s something only Catholics do.

Even if you’re not familiar with Lent or have a negative association with it, I think we would all agree that Easter is essential to the life of the Church. It’s the time of year when we are intentional about retelling and rehearing the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

And because Christ invites His followers to not just hear about resurrection but to participate in it, we have historically taken the 40 days leading up to Easter to prepare our hearts and minds to enter into the story of Christ.

This little book is a guide, a help, a companion on that 40-day journey of prayer and Christian practice known as Lent. On this journey, we will practice the disciplines of addition, subtraction and introspection so that we may more fully participate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We call this journey Lent.

And we take this journey because we all need a resurrection.

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I would love to offer this little devotional book to you as you as you make your way to Easter Sunday.

If you order the book by this Friday at noon i can guarantee it’s arrival by Wednesday the 22nd, which is when this Lenten journey will start for most of us.

At my church we are using this book to guide our middle school and senior high students on a Lenten journey. There are a handful of other churches that are using this resource to help their students as well.

There are themes for every week of the journey which we will all be using as preaching topics during this next 7 weeks. And if you interested, some of us are going to join a conversation to help each other as we craft messages and services for our students during this time. That conversation will mostly happen via email and i would love to include in that as well.

You can get the book here and checkout the Web Guide (an online resource to supplement the book) here.

My prayer is that this resource would help you and your ministry as you make your way through the desert of Lent to the brilliance of resurrection!

Would love to have you on this journey with us!

Grace and peace
erik

And here is the book cover if you want to see / read it all!
(thanks to Aaron VanStrien for his skills, which he donated to this project!)