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Faith Formation: Small Group Studies

Resources including: Children & Family Curricula & Storytime; Confirmation/Affirmation of Baptism; Denominational Resources; Tween & Teen Mental and Spiritual Health; Sexuality & Identity; and Online/At-Home Tech

Small Group Studies

Study Packs for Adult & Youth Groups

PC(USA) Store's downloadable Lenten study packs for adult and youth group settings cover a variety of topics, ensuring that there’s an option for your group. These study packs are easily led by experienced educators or novice volunteers and are an affordable option for any sized church.

Series Theme: Unbroken: A Living Faith

When so many people identify themselves as Christian how can we spend some time thinking deeply about what we really believe? What is the what? What are the foundational beliefs and how are they living and moving with us as we change and grow? 

Faith is passed down from generation to generation - it’s an unbroken line of ancestry that connects us all the way back to Jesus. The powers of the world wanted to break Jesus and yet this faith that we rest on is strong enough that they couldn’t do it. We are a part of this great tradition that will not and cannot be broken. 

Using the seven teachings from the emerging work of A Living Catechism, through worship and practice, this Lent, explore how we are and always have been both/and people: 

  • We value both Wisdom and Innovation.
  • We are Individuals with gifts and unique abilities and we are a part of a Community that is much larger than any one of us. 
  • We are Rooted and Growing. 
  • We are Grounded in Tradition and always Reforming.

Packed with thoughtfully designed resources, Lent in a Box 2025 equips you to guide your congregation through this season with creativity and purpose. Inside this digital collection, you’ll find:

  • Sermon Prompts to jumpstart your sermon writing for Sundays, Wednesdays, and Holy Week services
  • Engaging Worship Plans with liturgy and music ideas
  • Spiritual Practice and Devotional Materials for individual or group reflection
  • Children, Youth, and Family Resources to help youth and families explore how faith is both rooted to ancient truths and also evolving and growing today
  • Creative Visuals and Graphics to inspire connection and participation

Whether you're planning for worship, small groups, or family devotions, this resource is designed to fit seamlessly into your ministry.

BONUS: The first 100 to purchase get a free copy of Joe Davis' latest book: Unearthing Us: Poems and Practices for Discovering Our Fullest Selves.

This series, inspired by the Narrative Lectionary (Year 3), allows the Gospel of Luke to guide us through Lent. Beginning with Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), the series flows through several familiar stories—the Good Samaritan, Mary and Martha, the fruitless fig tree, the Lost Sheep, Zacchaeus, and more.

This series is an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives with more faith, intention, and openness to be transformed. Each weekly sub-theme explores two supposed binaries, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief and hope.” We often consider these ideas to be opposing. However, as we explore these concepts within the scriptures, we find nuance and complexity. We might find that God is present in between. 

Resources included in the bundle include:

  1. Devotional Booklet
  2. Sermon Planner
  3. Words for Worship
  4. Curriculum for Children
  5. Children's Worship Bulletins
  6. Visual Art Collection w/ Artist Statements
  7. Branding Bundle
  8. Poetry Prayers
  9. A Creative Liturgy for Holy Week
  10. Daily Devotional Cards
  11. Bonus Resource: Theme Song & Video

Plus: Free Supplmental Resources:

  1. Hymn & Music Ideas
  2. A Content Calendar for Social Media

On Not Taking Lent out on Our Bodies

By Jodi Belcher (she/her/hers) in Building Faith on Feb 07, 2023

Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth     

A Grounded Faith is designed to be a Lenten companion to Becoming Rootedalthough it can also be used as a stand-alone Lenten resource. The devotional invites participants to reconnect with our Creator and with Creation as a core dimension of Christian practice. Journey with the authors through 40 days of exploring Lenten themes of sin, confession, repentance, renewal, the way of the cross, and the miracle of the resurrection in dialogue with Scripture and an indigenous worldview. Experience different visions of what “a grounded faith” looks like as a path towards a decolonized discipleship and a holistic, place-based worldview.

Practice Spiritual Disciplines     Practice Spiritual Disciplines     Practice Spiritual Disciplines Downloadable

Wild Hope

READ & SHARE WILD HOPE: STORIES FROM THE VANISHING THIS LENT!!!

SEE/SHARE THE TRAILER HERE.

FIND THE DISCUSSION GUIDE HERE.

2023 LENT RESOURCE GUIDE

preaching * devotion * education

An invitation to study, pray, reflect and give during ELCA World Hunger's 40 Day of Giving - for families, neighbors and communities around the world.

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The Plural Guild and The Many gathered 14 diverse writers, preachers, and teachers to compile Lent Another Way, a free downloadable ebook, which is a precursor to their daily Lenten e-course.

 Hear Matthew Fox in conversation with Alex and Allyson Grey, of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, on "Easter, Christ, and Creation Spirituality."

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An Interactive Journal on Christian Social Justice

Disabling Lent: An Anti-Ableist Lenten Devotional

Study Guides - Books

The Book of Belonging Study Guide

The Book of Belonging creators Mariko Clark and Rachel Eleanor, with the creativity of Reverend Jenny Warner, release a seven-week adult study guide for BoB. 

Rev. Jenny Warner says, “This guide was written to help adults engage the Book of Belonging in a spirit of wonder, play and curiosity. Each week you will find:

  • An opening essay that will orient you to the theme for the week.

  • A reading guide that includes several chapters from Book of Belonging. 

  • A weekly spiritual practice that is designed to take you from your heart to your soul and open you to the Spirit’s transformation.

  • Resources to go deeper. Books, podcasts, articles will be offered for you to learn more on your own.

  • A small group guide for those who are engaging this book with others. If you are on your own, you may find that some of the questions are helpful solo reflections.

The guide will be released week by week on Substack, for all paid subscribers.

 

Free Resource from Rev. Michael Mulberry (UCC):  Ash Wednesday to Earth Day Source Book available HERE.

Central to the Lenten study are three actions:

1) Ash Wednesday Action (February 22): call a fast from credit cards held by the four major banks funding fossil fuels/climate disaster: includes links to Stop the Money Pipeline materials for talking to branch managers. Sarah Lasoff, rabbi in a Florida Jewish synagogue in Florida who has spoken to over 13 bank managers provides training materials. The credit card fast lasts until Tuesday, March 21st.

2) Dis-credit Bad Banks Day of Action put forward by Third Act Day on March 21st. Again, an invitation to talk to bank managers seeking transformation. We model persistence and relationships.

3) Finally, with the possibility of no action, there is a Foot-Washing Liturgy and Jericho Walk that can be done on Maundy Thursday (April 6th) or on Earth Day, (April 22nd). 

Within the pages are also creation centered Lectio Divina and examen and creation music playlists, as well as a creation-centered baptism and communion liturgy. 

Please let Mike know if you use it (mmulberry@gmail.com ) and/or with any questions.

Wendell Berry 1.pngThe whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.  + Isaiah 14:7

In the Wendell Berry and the Sabbath Poetry of Lent devotional, biblical texts and simple, accessible practices walk hand-in-hand with Wendell Berry’s poetic vision of sabbath and the natural world. All you’ll need is your favorite Bible and Wendell Berry’s This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems (the poems may also be found online). Week by week, we’ll walk through the woods together toward Easter morning, keeping sabbath as we go — with Wendell Berry as our guide.

Courage: Jesus and the Call to Brave Faith     The Desert of Compassion     Embody Lent     Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith     Fight Like Jesus                    Making Sense of the Cross Participant Book     Meeting Jesus at the Table          A Time to Grow          Unburdened          Where We Meet

In Our Library

Blessed by Less eBook by Susan V. Vogt - EPUB Book | Rakuten Kobo United  States          Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry,... by Weber, Kerry