Wait...What...More Church?

During this season of Lent, there are lots of opportunities in addition to our usual weekend services, including:

· Monday Noon Worship
· Wednesday Evening Worship at 7:00 p.m.
· Small Groups throughout the Week

“Wait...What...More Church?” you might be thinking to yourself. Yes, more church!

Lent is about turning back to God by refocusing our lives on our relationship with God. There’s no better way to do this than by intentionally engaging in worship, prayer, scripture reading and study with other people of faith. So, here at Abiding Presence we offer a lot more opportunities for church during Lent.

In the midst of our busy lives, I often think that adding something for Lent is harder than giving something up. Giving up chocolate or social media for six weeks—while good—doesn’t impact our schedules much. While it can be hard to fast from these things, I’m not sure it always does much to draw us back to God.

Adding a weekly small group meeting or midweek worship service, however, is really inconvenient. As a mom, I know that Lent falls during the busy spring season of children’s sports and activities. Yet, something inconvenient is often exactly what we need during Lent. We need to be interrupted from our usual lives in order to refocus on God.  It takes an interruption for us to reexamine our priorities.  

So, I want to invite you this Lenten season to dig a little deeper in your disciplines to add something that will intentionally draw you back to the God whose arms are reaching out to you. Sign up for a small group even though you have never done one before, or don’t really like this kind of thing, or don’t know anyone else who is doing it, or don’t have time, or…(add your favorite reason not to do it here). Pick one of our midweek services and come to it every week. Come even when you are tired after work, the kids are grumpy or you prefer more contemporary rather than traditional worship. If none of these things really are possible in your schedule, then find something else to add—maybe daily Bible reading—that has to be worked into your schedule. Add an interruption that makes these six weeks different from all the other weeks of the year.