Lenten Worship in the Hull house

As a family we aspire to live what we call a "prophetic life". A life that is truly seeking the best kind of life for us and for the world around us. For us that means a Christian, missional and sustainable way of life. We believe that there are some rhythms to a year, a week and even a day that are really helpful in living this kind of life. Now, I could go on and on about more of this, but let me pause here to talk about only one of those rhythms: the season of Lent.

Many know of Lent because "you give something up", as a friend of mine recently shrugged. But for us and for other Christians for thousands of years, its about preparing your heart for Christ, opening up to what he might have for you, spending extra time listening to what he might be saying. The rhythm of fasting is one where you let go of something (preferrably something that you do often or has some control in your life) and in lent for us it is also a time of picking something up (like a new discipline of prayer). This is all in efforts to draw our hearts closer to the heart of Christ.

For our family we decided together that we would give up TV one day a week specifically and replace it that day with a time of family worship with songs, readings and a Scripture story. Today was our first day (every Monday from now till Easter). We put down TV and picked up family worship for a time. We loved it! We did our little service complete with dad strumming the ol' Gibson, Meg helping to lead singing, mom praying, Jahred doing the powerpoint, and Kate and Isaiah playing special roles in the reading and then we topped it all off with some coloring! Dynamite!

I don't share this to make you like us more, to dislike us more or to "show you how its done" (that's why we have Pat Roberston on tv so often!), but just to tell you something about our lives.