EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on March 1, 2024.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
I love our church’s Wednesday Lenten services. Six short weeks of something very special each midweek from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week.
That may sound silly, right? … I mean, I can hear you asking, “Pastor, why wouldn’t you love a bonus service each week to bring more people into the church?”
But what I’m talking about is not just the fact that I get to see folks in the pews one more time. What I’m talking about is that our Lenten services take on an entirely different vibe than Sunday worships.
I know that several intentional factors play a role in that different vibe.
The first being family style meals served by our church’s youth group before the evening service gets everything started in a friendly tone. Neighbors sitting next to neighbors, breaking bread in the middle of the week, seeing how each other is doing. Wonderful! … And that neighborliness inevitably spills over into our worships held upstairs in the Sanctuary. … It’s lovely!
Additionally we treat our Lenten services differently than we do our Sunday services. Quicker paced, and always a different worship style.
Many years all we do is the Holden Evening Prayer, with a smattering of announcements at the beginning of service and a blessing at night’s end.
This year, however, we decided on a teaching series about Moses. And each week’s service has included light-hearted skits, selected scriptures corresponding with Moses’ life and interesting sermons written by some pastors out Bismarck, N.D., way. … Personally, I think it's been a refreshing break from what we normally do in service!
But all that said, in addition to the intentional decisions about our Lenten services we make, I also know that the presence of the Holy Spirit just hits differently during these services.
The worship is stripped to its bare minimum: a couple of songs, a tiny bit of liturgy, a short scripture reading or two. And with no sunlight streaming in the stained-glass windows of our sanctuary, the room feels more cozy. Like the outside world temporarily doesn’t exist.
And so, on Wednesday nights, it’s just the parishioners and I in this warm, dark cocoon, and you can feel the actual spiritual presence of the Holy Spirit all around!
Oh, I know the Spirit is definitely present in our church on Sundays too. But during the less frenetic Wednesday night Lenten services, when we have reduced the “noise,” I am far more in tune with the Holy Spirit!
I feel her warmth, compassion and love enveloping our faithful congregation. And I almost feel as if I can see the little fires dancing upon the heads of those in the pews looking back at me, a la the gathering at Pentecost!
Yes, Lenten services in our church offer a wonderfully different feel than Sundays. And I am grateful for these divine Wednesdays we get only a few weeks a year. Amen!
Devlyn Brooks is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and serves Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.
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