Leveraging Lent

The Church year has a rhythm. For most parish communities, it begins in September at the beginning of the school year. People come back from summer travel and vacation. Attendance picks back up. Religious education programs kick back in. Energy builds from September through December in a sprint to Christmas.

After Christmas, January provides another opportunity for an uptick in attendance. Some people who came to Christmas Eve Masses might come back - if they had a good experience. As a new year starts, people want healthier habits and that can include going to Church. Then comes Lent, which people know should be a time of extra spiritual discipline. The Easter season follows. At that time, attendance starts to drop off, and many religious education programs come to a close. Then we're into summer, which is lighter in attendance and therefore lighter in opportunities to impact people. Then the cycle starts again.

Of all the seasons in our year, Lent presents the greatest opportunity to help people go deeper in their personal faith. It is also a great opportunity to move the Church as a whole into deeper discipleship. Growing, healthy parishes leverage Lent to move their communities forward in a clear direction of discipleship, while equipping parishioners for personal growth.

Lent offers such a special opportunity because as parish leaders we know the season calls us into deeper faith and other people sense it too. For example, many people come to Mass on Ash Wednesday who don’t regularly attend on weekends. In part it is the free ashes, but there is also a spiritual hunger for God.

As parish leaders, we know Lent presents a special opportunity to play into people’s spiritual hunger but we don’t always know how to leverage it. Over the years we have found that we begin by either recognizing how we want our community to move forward or identifying topics that we know our community needs to hear. Then we (at Nativity) offer a homily series that addresses those needs.

Let me share a few examples.

Nativity changed significantly, and entered a discipleship path, when we read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren twenty years ago this Lent. We invited, encouraged and cajoled people to get into small groups to discuss the book. The book, the weekend homilies and the small groups all came together to change people’s perspective on what it means to follow Christ and created a discipleship culture. It established small groups in our parish and raised the level of giving and volunteerism.

About five years ago, our parish read our book Rebuilt Faith for the same purpose. It presented the five STEPS of discipleship that we believe are key to following Jesus. Once again, it raised the level of small group involvement, serving and giving in our parish.

Another year, we wanted to help people process the disappointments people have with God. We did a homily series called “When God doesn’t make sense.” The material was so well received that Father Michael and I decided to turn it into a book called Seriously, God?. We even revisited the material another Lent with the aid of the book. Both times the series helped people delve deeper into prayer and their own personal relationship with God. You can find these homily + small group series materials within our Content Library - they align with Liturgical Year A readings. (Lit Year A Homily Series Options - When God doesn't make sense)

This year, we are doing a series with a title of “Unplug.” We are going to look at how technology and the use of our phones is forming us. We are inviting our parishioners to fast in some way from their phones. Through the course of the series, we will connect the dots between the liturgical readings and how they show us how to better handle our devices.

If you are looking to make this Lent special, identify how your parish needs to grow together and what individuals need to hear for personal faith. Choose content and preach in a homily series so that the community can move forward together. If you are looking for other ideas then check out our content library. We would love to help you, walk with you and support you and your community. Let’s leverage Lent and move people into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

Rooting for you,
Tom