Dear Glen Mar friends,

The season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, March 5 (indeed, the preparation truly begins on our Shrove Tuesday pancake supper (YUM) the night before). It t is a season of 40 days, not counting Sundays, as a time of preparation for Easter. The death and resurrection of Christ are true whether or not we prepare for Easter. However, if we prepare our hearts by spiritual disciplines, acts of worship, and service to others, Easter will be even more meaningful and real in our lives.

Join us for worship on Ash Wednesday—we’ll be having “drive through” ashes in the upper lot again this year from noon to 1:00 pm. Rev. Florence Eddins, GM choir member, Bible study teacher, great preacher and retired clergy, will be imposing ashes and praying for folks. You don’t even have to get out of the car. Then, at 7:30 pm, we’ll have our “regular” Ash Wednesday service, with Pastor Emeritus Andy Lunt bringing the message.

I’ll be back in the pulpit on March 9, the first Sunday in Lent, with our new series Meeting Jesus at the Table.

In the spirit of our Advent Invitations, I wanted to invite us as a church to three specific ways to draw closer to Christ this Lent:

1. Come to the Table – Worship, in person if possible, every Sunday in Lent. Have Communion (at the Lord’s Table) each week. (Part of regular worship on first Sundays, 8:30 in our Chapel on non-communion Sundays).
2. Table Talk – Find a table you can use this Lent, for meals, for prayer. Decorate it in a way that means something to you. Perhaps a candle to symbolize the presence of Christ or an extra chair with a cloth over it to symbolize Jesus at the table with you. Be intentional about table fellowship. Have “family supper” or otherwise dine at table, after saying grace, rather than on the run. Invite friends and/or neighbors over for a simple meal together. Name the ways God is at work in the day you have had, or in your life together. Send a picture of your table to the church so we can all see the spaces and places God is present. Every time you are at a table of any kind this Lent, remember Christ is present there.
3. Extend the Table – Give up something for Lent and give the amount you would have spent to our Pastor’s Emergency Fund at church. This fund is given away to people in need.

Here are other some ideas for additional Lenten practices that you might feel led to this year:

• Inward and Personal Disciplines
  • Spend time in solitude each day with God.
  • Read through the Gospel of John.
  • Keep a journal of prayer concerns, questions, reading. Focus on thanksgiving, rather than on asking, in prayer.
  • Make a list of people with whom we need to be reconciled. Pray for them and let Jesus guide us in our thinking and feeling toward them.
  • Go to all of the Holy Week services as an act of love and waiting with Jesus.
  • Take one hour to inventory priorities and plan how I will reorder them because I follow Christ.
  • Dance my prayers to some favorite music.
• Outward and Social Disciplines
  • Write a letter, text or email once a week to a person who has touched my life.
  • Go to coffee or dinner with someone I want to know better (at a Table!)
  • Share how God has changed my life with someone who does not go to Glen Mar.
  • Invite someone to come with me to church.
  • Clean a trail or roadway in my neighborhood.
  • Volunteer at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter.
  • Find a way to live out the baptismal promise to “resist evil, injustice, and oppression” in the power and liberty God gives us by….

Thank you for your faithfulness and commitment to Jesus, to Glen Mar and to each other.

See you in Church,

Mandy