lent & Easter at harvest

This year the journey of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, March 5, and continues for 40 days leading up to the celebration of Easter on April 20. Lent gives us the opportunity as a church family and in our individual homes to intentionally prepare our hearts for the highest celebration of the Christian year, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

As Advent led us to anticipate the coming of Christmas and celebrating Jesus’ birth, Lent (from Latin, meaning “fortieth”) leads us through 40 days of somber reflection on Jesus’ death in preparation to celebrate His resurrection on Easter.  Sundays themselves are not counted in the 40 days, as they are considered “mini-Easters,” foretastes of THE Sunday coming.

Not long ago we celebrated the joy of Christmas. But at Christmas, Calvary is always on the horizon, for Christ was born to bear the cross. Lent now takes us from Bethlehem toward Golgotha. We go from the wonder of the incarnation to the hill on Calvary.

In his birth, we experience the hope of a Savior. 

In his death, we experience forgiveness of sins.

In his resurrection, we experience new life.

Below you will find information and resources to help us engage in Lent and journey together toward Easter. 

Weekly Lent Devotional

About Lenten Lights

Lenten Lights are candles placed visibly in your home to serve as a constant reminder that we are in a season of following Christ to the cross.

As with the Advent wreath candles, the seven candles of Lent are a visible illustration symbolizing Christ as the Light of the World. During Advent, we light a candle each week, and the light grows brighter as we anticipate the coming of the incarnation of Christ dwelling among us. During Lent, we snuff out a candle each week, and the light grows dimmer, until all are dark on Good Friday, when Jesus died and the earth was covered with shadow. It seemed as if darkness had won. The Light of the World had been extinguished. But NO! Easter brings resurrection and life. The Light has overcome the darkness and on Easter Sunday all the candles are lit again as we worship Him—the Light of the World.

The Harvest Lenten Lights Guide is designed to serve as a simple, family-friendly, weekly devotional guide alongside Lenten candles in your home.

Lenten Lights Resources

  • Any grouping of seven candles (Examples)

  • Pick up a copy of the Harvest Lenten Lights Guide in the lobby or view as a PDF here.

  • Lenten Lights Songbook (pdf or pick up in the lobby). Listen on Apple or Spotify.

  • For further study on the candles’ weekly themes of repentance, humility, suffering, lament, sacrifice, and death, we recommend the devotional book Journey to the Cross: Devotions for Lent by Will Walker and Kendal Haug.

About Fasting

Lent is a season of reflecting on our own sinful lives and our need for a Savior. It’s a time of repenting, turning from anything that has kept us from God and turning toward Him. Likewise, Christian fasting is about not only denying ourselves fleshly pleasures but replacing them with that which stirs our affections for Christ.

“The Lenten practice of denying usual comforts is a means of deepening our sense of union with Jesus, and reorienting our life around the things of God. We give up that which distracts and entangles because we want to experience real joy and freedom in Christ.” (Journey to the Cross, Haug and Walker)

Before beginning a Christian fast, we first ask for the Holy Spirit’s divine revelation of the habits and things at the heart of our consumer lifestyle that most distract, and then we seek His guidance in what to add in its place that we might experience greater intimacy with and dependence upon Christ.

For Lent 2025 we are joining together as a body to fast from perhaps the most distracting entanglement currently consuming our culture - digital devices. The book, The Digital Fast, will guide your expectations and preparations before the fast and offer suggestions toward a fresh and purposeful engagement of your physical, mental, and spiritual life during the fast.

Digital Fast Resource:

  • The Digital Fast: 40 Days to Detox Your Mind and Reclaim What Matters Most by Darren Whitehead

  • The Digital Fast Message: This is the message Darren Whitehead shared with his church prior to their fast last Spring.

    If you are not able to listen to the entire message, beginning at minute  36:30, it packs a hugely practical and powerful punch that is sure to prepare our hearts for the fast.

  • Harvest, Beyond Sunday Podcast Episode: Apple Podcast | Spotify

  • Join a Harvest group for those seeking encouragement and accountability as they participate in a digital fast throughout Lent (3/5-4/20). It is facilitated by Harvest elder Drew Morrison. Join here!

About the Seder Meal 

Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter (April 17, 2025) and traditionally a time to remember the Last Supper that Christ had with his disciples which the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke indicate as a Passover meal. The main celebration of the Passover focuses on the Seder meal which is packed with messianic symbolism that points to Christ as the final Passover Lamb. Below are 2 videos that we filmed back in 2021 as resources for families and small groups who wish to share a Messianic Passover Seder meal together. 

Video 1 Seder Meal Table Setting

Video 2 Seder Meal Walk Through

Below are the songs that I refer to in video #2. As you walk through the Seder meal, there will be moments you could pause and play these songs (not necessary but fun and family friendly). 

Song #1 | Ma Nishtanah

Song #2 | Dayenu 

You can purchase a Messianic Passover Haggadah (a liturgy and script for the Seder) or simply follow along with us in the video.

Additional Family Friendly Resources

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:3-5

Upcoming Lent Season Services

  • Lent Services

    Selected Sunday nights from 6pm-7pm are as follow:

    Sunday, March 23rd

    Sunday, March 30th

    Sunday, April 6th

    Sunday, April 13th

    Childcare from birth to 4 years old will be provided.

  • Maundy Thursday

    Meaningful come and go reflective service.

    Thursday, April 17th from 6pm-8pm

  • Good Friday Services

    Friday, April 18th

    Choose from two service times at 12pm or 6pm

  • Easter Sunday

    Services at George’s Chapel & Harvest Church

    Sunday, April 20th

    Sunrise Service at 5:45am in George’s Chapel (8737 East Holmes Rd, Memphis, TN 38125)

    Worship Service at Harvest Church at 9am & 11am