Lent

Today marks the beginning of Lent, described by Michael G Maudlin as “a time of spiritual preparation for the day we later celebrate and welcome ‘the grand miracle’ Christ accomplished through the cross.”

As Worship Leaders, Easter and Christmas provide unique opportunities to point people to Christ. We need to give careful consideration to the songs we select for these important services, to help the church mark them with solemnity and celebration, and to present the gospel to any visitors who may only attend church at these times of year.

These can also be very busy times for those of us who serve in worship ministry, so it’s important we also prepare ourselves during these seasons. We don’t want to be so caught up with the busyness of ‘doing’ that we miss the opportunity for preparation, reflection and refreshing that the season of Lent offers us.

Over the next few weeks, we want to try and help on all these fronts. On my YouTube channel, we’ve prepared some Shorts of songs that could be useful for your Easter services – some of our own songs plus some of our favourite hymns. (We filmed these with friends – Anna, Matt and Rachel - in various places around our home!) In the Community section, there’ll be a free songbook to download, and some reflections on the events of Easter. Here as blogs, we’ll share some thoughts on preparing effective services for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We hope all of these will help you serve in this season from a fresh and inspired place.