From the Ashes: Lent at C3 Fort Worth
From the Ashes: A Season to Restore and Renew
What has this last year held for you? What’s left of the past couple of years? As things have inched closer to normal life, what has come with it that is unexpected? Maybe you, like many of us, are walking with some surprising baggage or still fighting old foes. Maybe there is a sense of emptiness or frustration that you can’t seem to shake. Or possibly you are just tired. The last couple of weeks, months, or years have worn you down.
On the opposite end, maybe you’re walking into this next season with expectation? You have a new vision for who or where God has called you. This Lent time becomes a time of preparation and strengthening your trust in Jesus.
The season of Lent is a season to come back to what brings you life. To return to the very core of your creation. To remember your identity and be renewed in life. Jesus. His cross and resurrection.
As we enter this Lent season, God is going to restore, rebuild, and renew our hearts toward Christ’s supremacy and sufficiency, toward his church and its people, and towards our vision in this city.
Why Lent?
On March 2nd the Lent season starts with Ash Wednesday. A day we are reminded that we are the created and there is a creator who brought us from the dust. We are made in his image and even when we turn from our humanity, he can remake us again, a new creation in Christ.
Lent is where followers of Jesus remember Christ's temptation in the wilderness, marked by a period of fasting, repentance, and renewal for the 40 days leading up to Easter.
As we journey for the second year through the church calendar we have discovered some new rhythms and the importance of particular seasons. How we can better orient our pace and patterns toward the story of Jesus and in doing so be made new in the power of the Holy Spirit as we lift up Jesus in our hearts and minds.
Below is an excerpt from Pauses for Lent that will give any idea of why we are participating in this church season. We would love for you to grab a copy and read through it with us.
The Christian calendar contains different seasons. These seasons are “time-gifts” that the church offers to help us participate more fully in what God has done in human history.
The first mention of Lent in a church document appears in the Council of Nicea of 325 CE. This council produced one of our most important creeds: the Nicene Creed.
Eventually all Christ followers were encouraged to participate in Lent as a forty-day journey leading up to the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The number forty was not chosen randomly. Forty is a number associated with the times of intense spiritual preparation and significant transition in the Bible. Think of the forty years Moses spent in the desert before God called him to the tasks of liberating the Israelits and building a new nation. Think of the forty days Jesus spent in the desert, wrestling with temptation before he embarked on his public ministry.
How We Are Participating
There are a few ways that we will be participating together in this season. First and foremost we will continue to establish the pattern of Temple to Table. Each Sunday we’ll gather as the church to worship Jesus and we will meet each other at the table during the week to love one another. But here are a few special things we’re doing to really see Jesus like never before through healing, restoration, forgiveness, renewal, and new life.
Ash Wednesday Service | March 2nd
Traditionally Lent starts with what is known as an Ash Wednesday service. While we will not be doing the typical order, we are going to come together to worship, pray, and set our eyes on Jesus. Join us at 7pm on Wednesday, March 2nd, for a one-hour service at College Ave Baptist Church Southside.
1400 College Ave
Fort Worth, TX 76104
Childcare provided for 5 and under
Morning Prayer | Weekdays during Lent
Every weekday morning at 6:30am during Lent we will pray for 15-20min together via Zoom. The prayer times will always center around a particular scripture. The hope is that as we make room through prayer God will fill our hearts with joy, peace, and hope. Click the button below to receive the zoom link.
Sundays We Feast | Each Sunday
While most people focus on the fasting done during Lent, one element that is crucial is the Sunday feast! Fasting on Monday, Feasting on Sunday. So each week during Lent we will be picking a different restaurant that we can all head to after church to eat, laugh, and enjoy the day!
The first Sunday, March 6th, we will be bringing Black Cat Pizza to The Skinny park just west of our Sunday venue. We’d love to have you join!
Easter Weekend | April 17th
What cannot be lost in this season is what we are journeying towards. The entire purpose of Lent is to prepare our hearts for the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus! So make plans to join us April 15th for our Good Friday service as well as Sunday, April 17th, for our Easter Sunday celebration.