Ash Wednesday

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Lenten season. As a college group we are going to celebrate the beginning of Lent with an Ash Wednesday service. I am well aware that the Evangelical Church has not typically celebrated Ash Wednesday (or even Lent for that matter), but as a staff we wanted to do something to make the Easter season more impacting this year. The past few years I have felt like Easter has just flown by with a one hour long service on a Sunday morning. So, if you are curious about what Ash Wednesday is all about from an Evangelical perspective, I have included a link to Mark Roberts' blog where he wrote about Ash Wednesday. I think he does a good job of giving a summary - and he is a reputable scholar and pastor.

Let me know what you think about the Evangelical church celebrating Ash Wednesday. Have we gone too far in distancing ourselves from some of the "high church" holy days? Not too far in the sense that any of the days/celebrations (like lent and Ash Wed) provide salvation, but that we are missing out on something that could potentially help us tend to our spiritual lives in a greater manner? I'm interested to know what you think.

http://markdroberts.com/

Lent

I can remember I encouraged students at my old church to celebrate lent and I had parents come to me and ask me if I was catholic. I remember thinking that was sort of funny. I grew up Presbyterian and can remember going to chruch on Ash Wednesday and getting the ash mark on my forehead. I never knew I was catholic.

The more I think about, the more I am pursuaded that the people who walked before us were onto something. Lent has been celebrated by the Christian church since around 300ad. It's a time of repentance, fasting, and confession - all in preparation of Easter and the risen Christ. Unfortunately, many evangelical churches are afraid of traditions. I get it, we don't want to be rligious just for religion's sake. We want to follow the Bible (and Lent is not expliciately in the Bible). But I wonder if we have lost something significant. I wonder if we have lost the sense of connection to story larger than our own - the fact that we are jumping into a stream that has been moving for 2000 years. I just want to throw this out there... maybe our celebration of Easter should be more than a service on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Just a thought.

This year I didn't give anything up for Lent, I decided to take something on instead. During lent this year I am going to try to memorize Galatians (per my pastor's challenge to us). For me its just a way to center my thoguhts and focus more fully on the one who gave himself for me.