+ What is Lent?
+ Why participate in Lent?
+ Study Guide
+ Weekly Fasts
+ Good Friday Services
+ Easter Sunday Services
+ Songs for the Season
WHAT IS LENT?
The word Lent derives from an Old English word for spring and lengthen. Lent was originally a preparation period for those pursuing baptism but quickly became a season for the church as a whole to symbolically follow Jesus into the wilderness. Lent is a time of disruption — to break from our normal routines — to go into the wilderness ourselves in self-sacrifice and self-denial. We do this, not to earn anything from God, but to empty ourselves of lesser things in order to fill ourselves with the greater things of the gospel.
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STUDY GUIDE
To help you engage in the Lenten season, we are providing you with a guide as an easy to use resource.
The weeks of this guide can be used for personal reflection and will also function as our Life Group Study Guide throughout our Lent: Vice+Virtue series. Each entry includes the sermon text, a brief explanation, reflection questions, a corresponding weekly fast, and suggested additional reading to meditate on throughout the week.
You are invited to embark on the well-worn path of historic, biblical Christianity by mediating on, wrestling with, and addressing the capital vices and replacing them with kingdom virtues through the season of Lent, following Jesus into the wilderness, resisting the devil, being ministered to by God’s Word, and filled with the Holy Spirit
Pick up a copy at your campus Welcome Desk from Sunday, March 2 or download a copy today.
WHY PARTICIPATE IN LENT?
Lent might not be something you’re familiar or overly comfortable with. So why are we making a point of emphasizing the Season of Lent at Central?
Two words: The Gospel.
Lent affords us an annual opportunity to laser our focus on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, to contemplate the cost that Jesus paid for our salvation, and the sufficiency of His sacrifice. Whereas Advent is a season of ever-increasing light as we await the incarnation of Jesus. Lent is a season of ever-increasing darkness in approach of the crucifixion of Jesus. Observing Lent affords us an intentional opportunity to remind ourselves that the resurrection only came after the crucifixion. Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus begins with embracing His suffering—and Lent is the opportunity for the church to do both.
Some think that Lent strikes an unnecessarily somber tone. But when practiced rightly, it actually invites us into a deeper hope (this has been referred to as bright sadness) and culminates in deeper joy. When we prepare ourselves for Easter by entering the sorrow and pain that preceded it, the celebration will be all the sweeter and more joyful.
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WEEKLY FASTS
Each fast corresponds with a vice and virtue and creates a formative opportunity to put the vice to death and foster the Kingdom virtue.
Ultimately, the goal is to give up comforts, or in some cases, vices that we are prone to run to for distraction, control, and meaning, in order to focus on and have our lives formed by the greater thing, God and His Gospel.
We see Lent as a gift, not a Law, and weekly fasts throughout the season of Lent as an opportunity to commune with Jesus more intentionally. Fasting isn’t only the neglecting of something but replacing it with a filling of a better thing, the best thing: Jesus.
This Lent we invite you to participate in our weekly fasts.
- WEEK 1: PRIDE // HUMILITY
Fast from glory & status seeking.
Practice the Kingdom Virtue of Sacrificial Service. - WEEK 2: GREED // GENEROSITY
Fast from Non-Essential Purchases.
Practice the Kingdom Virtue of Generosity. - WEEK 3: LUST // CHASTITY
Fast from Media & Triggers for Lust & Sexual Temptation.
Practice the Kingdom Virtue of Chastity through Self-Control. - WEEK 4: WRATH // PATIENCE
Fast from Words & Actions that Tear Down.
Practice the Kingdom Virtue of Patience through Prayer & Reconciliation. - WEEK 5: GLUTTONY // TEMPERANCE
Fast from Excess.
Practice the Kingdom Virtue of Temperance by Forging Patterns of Self-Control. - WEEK 6: ENVY // CHARITY
Fast from Social Media.
Practice the Kingdom Virtue of Encouragement & Providing Help to Others. - WEEK 7: SLOTHFULNESS // DILIGENCE
Fast from TV, Movies, Scrolling, and Procrastination.
Practice the Kingdom Virtue of True Rest.
Consider building each week upon the next. For example, by week 7 you will find yourself fasting from everything listed above.
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GOOD FRIDAY SERVICES
Our Good Friday (1 hour) services are crafted to help us contemplate, revere, and even embrace the cross. As we approach Easter, it can be tempting to rush past Good Friday or turn away from the cross in discomfort. But we must see the cross as the precursor of joy, an inseparable part of the triumph that we celebrate at Easter.
Come join us!
Friday, April 18
+ Chilliwack Campus | 9.00am & 10.45am
46100 Chilliwack Central Road | MAP
+ Promontory Campus | 10.45am
Promontory Elementary, 46200 Stoneview Drive | MAP
+ Harrison Campus | 10.45am
514 Lillooet Avenue | MAP
Whether you’ve attended our services before or this is your first time, we invite you to be a part of this special time of remembrance - Christ's profound love and the hope that His sacrifice brings to all.
Let us come together to reflect, repent, and prepare our hearts for the joy of Easter
EASTER SUNDAY SERVICES
Join us this Easter Sunday for a day of worship, joy, and reflection as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Easter is a time of hope and renewal, and we would love for you to be a part of this special occasion. Whether you're joining us for the first time or are a long-time member, there’s a place for you to experience the love and grace of God.
Sunday, April 20
+ Chilliwack Campus | 8.30am, 9.45am, 11.00am & 5.15pm
46100 Chilliwack Central Road | MAP
+ Agassiz Campus | 10.45am
Ag Hall, 6800 Pioneer Avenue | MAP
+ Promontory Campus | 10.45am
Promontory Elementary, 46200 Stoneview Drive | MAP
+ Lake Errock Campus | 9.00am
43745 Lougheed Highway | MAP
+ Harrison Campus | 10.45am
514 Lillooet Avenue | MAP
Come as you are and bring your family and friends—let’s rejoice together in the gift of new life!
We look forward to celebrating with you this Easter Sunday.
SONGS FOR THE SEASON
Classic hymns and recent originals to help you engage in Lent, a season that exposes our sin and reawakens our need for the grace and love found only in Christ Jesus.
Got questions? We'd love to answer them!
Please contact Tyson Beesley | Worship Pastor - tyson@centralcommunity.ca