Ash Wednesday Service

This will be a short service with worship, homily, communion and the imposition of ashes.

Using the historical church calendar as a helpful tool to help us focus on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, we are gathering for worship on the day of the year, commonly known as Ash Wednesday. A day to begin the Lenten season and to prepare our full, anxious, and often busied hearts and minds for the Easter celebration in seven weeks of the resurrection of Christ.

Why are we acknowledging Ash Wednesday and Lent as a congregation?

The vast part of our culture acknowledges Easter and Christmas, and in so doing, acknowledges the church calendar. Lent, which means “springtime” is the season most-often trivialized. Consequently, many churches do not observe the season. There have been, however, two good reasons suggested for keeping this tradition:

First, this is a wise tradition. God, as revealed in history, has always told His people, both ancient Israel and His modern followers, that the totality of their lives should be characterized by repentance, a word used all through the ancient scriptures. (Often, as a sign of repentance, a person would apply ashes to their body; thus - Ash Wednesday). This word, repentance, means to change in our attitudes, words, and lifestyles – something for which all of us recognize our need if we are honest with ourselves.

We acknowledge that this humble and acknowledged need for change is often not visible among us today. All the more reason to set aside times for a particular focus on our need for change, the grace God extends to us, and His provision to make it happen.

Second, we think it is profitable to honor the ancient wisdom that has preceded us for centuries in those who have earnestly sought such personal change for the honor of God.

Simply put, we acknowledge we are needy and that our hearts desires are often bent out of shape, so just as a baseball player may work at staying in shape year round but still give special attention to conditioning before spring training (the word, Lent, means “spring”) so we may find great benefits in setting aside a few weeks to give special attention to the state of our souls before Passion Week.