Dear Quest Family,

It’s time for us to enter into the season of Lent together. The Lenten season is set aside for self-examination, spiritual renewal, growth, a time to reflect on what Jesus did, and it’s meant to be a time of self-sacrifice, denial and repentance.​ 

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What is Lent?

Lent is a 40-day period of spiritual preparation leading up to Resurrection Sunday in which many Christians reflect on Christ’s death and resurrection. Lent invites us to make our hearts ready for remembering Jesus’ passion and celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. Although a solemn time, it is also a hopeful, expectant time of prayer and fasting before acknowledging/celebrating Jesus’ death and then His subsequent defeat of the grave.

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How do you celebrate Lent?

Lent, is a six-week period of time ahead of Easter where participants “give something up” while pursuing a closer relationship with God. One of the most common ways of celebrating Lent is giving up something significant in your life. During this is a period of time where we can strive to abandon idolatry (which is putting anything in our lives above God) as well as the “self-sufficiency of our ego, and to acknowledge our need of the Lord and his mercy.”

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What to give up for Lent?

When deciding what you should give up, we encourage you to pick a habit, food, or hobby that you may enjoy enough where it will be significantly missed throughout the period of Lent. That way, its absence is extremely noticeable (and even a little uncomfortable) as you make such a substantial shift in your typical day-to-day. Then, the yearning for what has been given up works as a reminder to turn to God and recognize how He truly meets all needs.

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The goal of Lent is not just to stop doing something you love for bragging rights. However, Lent should naturally draw you closer to God as you experience how your sacrifice of something that seems so significant (but minor in the grand scheme of things) compares to Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice on the cross sacrificing His own life for the sake of all who believe (1 Peter 2:24).

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While participating in Lent, the decision to give up one notable thing goes hand in hand with picking up a variety of spiritual disciplines in its place. Craving that snack you gave up? That’s a great reminder to pray! Battling boredom without using social media? Open up your Bible! And as you wait patiently for the end of Lent, you might find yourself anticipating the celebration of Easter Sunday in a whole new way thanks to a change of perspective and having an extended, intentional time period to really contemplate Jesus’ life, teachings, and selfless death.

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Why 40 Days?

The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan and preparing to begin his ministry (See Mark 1, Matthew 4, or Luke 4). We believe that Jesus went to the wilderness to set aside the distractions of normal, “worldly” life and focus on God and God’s will for him. So we attempt to do the same during Lent though often on a slightly less stringent scale. This 40 day period for Christians is a time to reflect, fast, and give penance in preparation for the coming of Resurrection of Christ.

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What We're Giving Up For Lent As a Church 

This year corporately as a church, we will be giving up for 40 days. 

Sweets, Meat, Fast Food, and Social Media (Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat)

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