+ What is Lent?
+ Why participate in Lent?
+ Lent Guide
+ Weekly Fasts
+ Ash Wednesday Services
+ Good Friday Services
+ Holy Saturday | 24 Hours of Prayer
+ 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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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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LENT GUIDE
To help you engage in the Lenten season, we are providing you with a guide as an easy to use resource. The guide has seven weekly Scripture readings to correspond with the seven weeks of Lent. Every weekly section also includes space for prayers, and what God is teaching you throughout Lent. The guide is not cumbersome but simply prompts us to be intentional rooted in the Word.
You can also pickup a copy (limited quantities) at your campus - available from Sunday, February 19.
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WEEKLY FASTS
While we are not placing an emphasis on fasting corporately this year, below you will find the fasting schedule we have utilized in the past. Each weekly fast represents a common comfort to which our culture runs for distraction. Giving these up models Christ’s reign in your life and provides added time to commune with Him through the Word and prayer.
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: MUSIC, RADIO, PODCASTS | Feb 22 - Feb 25
WEEK 2: FOOD* | Feb 27 - Mar 4
WEEK 3: TV & MOVIES | Mar 6 - Mar 11
WEEK 4: CAFFEINE & SWEETS | Mar 13 - Mar 18
WEEK 5: SOCIAL MEDIA & INTERNET BROWSING | Mar 20 - Mar 25
WEEK 6: SHOPPING FOR NON-ESSENTIALS | Mar 27 - Apr 1
WEEK 7: SLEEP** | Apr 3 - Apr 8
*Week 2: Consider fasting one meal per day for the week or season, one whole day for the week or season, or the week itself.
**Week 7: Wake up an hour or two earlier or stay up an hour or two later and devote that time entirely to Jesus.
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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ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICES
Join us for our Ash Wednesday (45 minute) services to mark the start of the Lenten season. Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of ash being placed in the shape of the cross on the participant’s forehead (in our Ash Wednesday services in the past we have placed it on wrist), as the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” are spoken. This vivid imagery represents the heart behind the service and entire season of Lent: We are sinners, life is short, and we desperately need gospel grace. We hope you will join us for a time of worship, prayer, silent reflection, and confession. All ages are welcome.
Please note: There is no childcare for these services. Activity sheets will be available for all children.
Wednesday, February 22
+ Chilliwack Campus | 6.00pm
46100 Chilliwack Central Road | MAP
+ Harrison Campus | 6.00pm
514 Lillooet Avenue | MAP
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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 7
+ Chilliwack Campus | 9.30am & 11.00am
46100 Chilliwack Central Road | MAP
+ Promontory Campus | 11.00am
Promontory Elementary, 46200 Stoneview Drive | MAP
+ Harrison Campus | 11.00am
514 Lillooet Avenue | MAP
Please note: On Good Friday our grade school kids will stay in family worship for the entire service. Central values children worshipping along side their parents, having the opportunity to observe, learn, and participate in the larger church family, preparing for when they too will be in there one day.
Childcare will be available for kids 5M - 5Y.
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HOLY SATURDAY | 24 HOURS OF PRAYER
As Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”
Prayer matters. Prayer makes a difference. And faithful, fervent prayer is the first and greatest ministry God has given us.
We invite you to participate in Central’s 24-hours of unceasing prayer as we approach Easter Sunday as we make much of Jesus and lift up the cause of Christ in our lives, church, city, and world.
Please select 1 or more half-hour time slots.
Prayer Focus (30 minutes)
We invite you to pray in the following ways:
+ PRAISE
Begin your time of prayer by praising God. "Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 117:1-2)
+ PRAY SCRIPTURE
Pray this passage with gratitude for the cross and with resurrection hope! “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins…. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20)
+ INTERCEDE
- Pray for yourself: That you wouldn’t miss the power of the cross and sufficiency of Christ this Easter (Colossians 2:6-15)
- Pray for those who are suffering: That those who are suffering ailments or discouragement would experience encounter with Jesus and hope in Jesus (Philippians 4:7)
- Pray for those who need Jesus: For prodigals to come home; for the lost to be found; for salvation and revival (Luke 15:1-32)
- Pray for our church: That we would celebrate our joy in the resurrection together and live gospel-shaped lives (Matthew 28:1-20)
EASTER SUNDAY SERVICES
On Easter we celebrate the fact that Jesus saves: He defeated sin on the cross and conquered death when He rose from the grave.
Come join us as we rejoice & focus on the implications of the resurrection.
Sunday, April 9
+ Chilliwack Campus | 9.00am & 10.45am
46100 Chilliwack Central Road | MAP
+ Promontory Campus | 10.45am
Promontory Elementary, 46200 Stoneview Drive | MAP
+ Agassiz Campus | 10.45am
Ag Hall, 6800 Pioneer Avenue | MAP
+ Lake Errock Campus | 9.00am
43745 Lougheed Highway | MAP
+ Harrison Campus | 10.45am
514 Lillooet Avenue | MAP
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