Upcoming Release from BGAV: “Preparing The Soil of The Soul” this Lent Season
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Upcoming Release from BGAV: “Preparing The Soil of The Soul” this Lent Season

Free Lent resource to be released soon!

January 23, 2025
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Emerging from the season of Advent, pastors and all worship planners in the church look toward the season of Lent. This year, Lent begins on Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Is your church looking for a resource to use as a guide through the Lenten season? BGAV is releasing a Lenten series soon!

Keep an eye on upcoming issues of Advance Notice or BGAV's edition of The Baptist Paper for instructions on how to download the series once it’s available, or sign up to be notified when this resource is released!

Sign up to be notified when this resource is available.

Below is an introduction to the Lenten series, written by Hayden Hobby:

For most Protestant churches, Lent is traditionally a season of fasting and self-denial leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s a season that begins with the encouragement to remember that “we are dust, and to dust we shall return.” But what is the purpose of this self-denial and mortal remembrance? Why this contemplation of death and forgoing of pleasures like chocolate and alcohol?  

Jesus frequently refers to the kingdom of heaven as a seed and to our ability or inability to let that seed take root and grow as soil. In the same way that a seed will wither and die if its soil is dry and rocky, the transforming Word of God will wither away in a hard heart as well. To cultivate good and healthy soil within ourselves that will nourish the seed of the gospel, we—like  the earth itself—must be nourished by self-denial, hardship, and the death of every false and broken thing within us. As the earth—which feeds and supports the trees—is nourished by their dead leaves, the soil of the soul is also nourished by the superficial “leaves” we allow God to strip from us. During this season of Lent, we are invited to accept this paradoxical truth with our whole selves and to encourage those in our community to do the same. In so doing, we prepare the soil of our souls for the transformative work of the Holy Spirit, which leads to resurrection and new life.  

Throughout this Lenten series, “Preparing the Soil of the Soul,” we will reflect on, confess to, and worship the one, true God who desires our transformation and renewal from the inside out. This holistic resource includes everything you need to craft a beautiful series of Lenten worship services, from sermon preparation and inspiration to musical and liturgical accompaniment. Jesus’ invitation to “take up your cross and follow me” is one that we all have to wrestle with, and the Lenten season is an excellent time to do just that. My prayer is that this resource helps you and your community lean into the opportunity for growth and renewal that Lent presents by inviting us to take up our crosses together.                

If you used our Advent worship guide in 2024, we’d love to hear about it. Email us at bgav@bgav.org!

Last Updated:    
January 27, 2025