Lent at OCC: Prayers, Podcasts, and Paperchains!

By Lois Fulton

Lent is an amazing opportunity to commit to God in a new way. Some people choose to give something up (or ‘fast’) during Lent, others choose to try something new to enrich their devotional lives. Whatever God leads you to do, we wanted to provide some suggestions for how we could approach this season together as a family.

 

Prayers

At the start of this year, Steve Jones called on us as a church family to be ‘praying for rain’ – and there really is such power in our joining together to cry out to our loving God!

During Lent, we want to be praying with ‘one voice’ for the following things in particular. So why not use these as a starting point for your own personal times of prayer, or even meet up with others to pray together?

  • Monday: Pray for our church leaders as they cast vision for the church and seek God’s direction on how to lead us forward as a community. You might like to pray for different leaders each week. You can remind yourself of who is on the leadership team here.
  • Tuesday: Pray for growth in the 'life' of our missional communities, youth and children's groups. We want to grow stronger in family relationship together, and also see that love we share with Jesus become known amongst our wider communities and friends. You might like to pray for a different community each week – find them here.
  • Wednesday: Pray for our city to be impacted with the love of Jesus. Pray for Edge housing, for ‘Engage’ health and social care conference, for Tyndale Community School, and for other ways that we as a church can bless our city.  You might like to pray for a different aspect of city life each week.
  • Thursday: Pray for our missionary families overseas as they share the love of Jesus, whilst experiencing many challenges. Pray for strength, faith, blessing, and fruitfulness!
  • Friday: Pray for the UK government as it seeks to lead this nation in a time of great uncertainty. Allow God to lay particular political leaders or groups on your heart each week.  

You can download a printable reminder of this pattern here.

 

Podcasts

If you love a good podcast, why not join us in listening to 24-7 Prayer’s podcast series “Walk With Us” each weekday during Lent? The series goes through a small portion of the gospel of John each day with a simple question to reflect on as you pray.

The podcasts are short and easy to digest (just a 5 minute clip), and will provoke and inspire you to pray in a new way each day as we approach Easter together. So we encourage you to get involved!

Why not watch/listen to the clip with your morning cup of coffee as you prepare for the day ahead? You could even link up your own personal Bible reading to be in line with the podcast.

You can find them here on YouTube or here on the 24-7 website.

 

Paperchains

If you’re a hands-on creative sort, or if you’re looking for a way to pray together as a family, why not consider creating a Lent paperchain?

Everyday over Lent, cut out a strip of coloured paper. Use the theme of the prayers above to inspire your praying. Write on the paper to personalise your prayer, decorate it if you would like, and then add it onto your prayer chain. Enjoy seeing it grow over Lent!

On Sunday 3rd March we’ll be handing out packs of coloured paper for this very reason – look out for these after the morning meeting!