Lent Resource Guide
This list of Lenten art, music, devotions, liturgies, books, and sermons will help you plan worship for Lent and includes resources for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday.
Worship During Lent
Lent invites us to make our hearts ready for remembering Jesus’ passion and celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. . . As a period of preparation, Lent has historically included the instruction of persons for baptism and profession of faith on Easter Sunday; the calling back of those who have become estranged from the church; and efforts by all Christians to deepen their piety, devotion, and readiness to mark the death and resurrection of their Savior. As such, the primary focus of the season is to explore and deepen a “baptismal spirituality” that centers on our union with Christ rather than to function only as an extended meditation on Christ’s suffering and death. The traditional color for the season is purple.
(from the Worship Sourcebook Second Edition, p.557-558)
The Christian year centers on the major events of salvation history, celebrating Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Lent refers to the forty days leading up to Easter. The Lenten season is set aside for self-examination, spiritual renewal, and growth. In many churches, it is seen as a time for fasting and abstinence, for alms-giving and acts of mercy, for repentance and prayer.
Planning Resources and Services for Lent
- Resources from Zeteo Preaching and Worship
- Books for Lent
- Prayers for Lent
- Practices for Observing Lent
- Ash Wednesday Worship
- Prayers for Healing
- Chapel for Lent: Confession
- Chapel for Lent: Jesus Our Shepherd
- Chapel for Lent: Morning Prayer
- Chapel for Lent: Taize Worship
- Lent- Yes & No, an article by John Witvliet
- Comprehensive worship planning guide for Lent
- Psalms for a Lenten Journey
- Walking with Jesus through Psalm 23
- Answering the Questions? Book of Job series from RW
- Growing With Peter
- Picturing Jesus: Children's bulletin ideas for Lent
- Sermon Resources for Lent and Holy Week B
Planning Resources and Services for Holy Week
Song Resources
- Songs for Lent
- Songs for Holy Week
- Resources from Hymnary Lectionary
- Top Ten Songs for Lent
- Meditations on Lenten Hymns
- In Troubled Times: Songs of Lament and Confession by John Lyzenga
Visual Arts Resources
- Introduction to Visual Arts during Lent
- Lenten images from Visuals for Worship
- Lead Me to the Rock Readers Theater
- Stations of the Cross and visuals
- Images and the Screen
- Jan Richardson Images
- Eyekons
- Virginia Wieringa
At First United Methodist Church, the cross on the left is installed in the back of the sanctuary on Ash Wednesday and then is moved further forward each week of Lent. (photo © 2010, Steve Huyser Honig)
Meditations and Devotions
- Forty by Kory Plockmeyer (Cokesbury)
- Through Tears to Joy by Stan Mast (Faith Alive Christian Resources)
- Seeking God's Face by Philip F. Reinders (Faith Alive Christian Resources)
- Books for Lent
- Short Story for Lent by James Schaap
- The Journey to Jerusalem: Devotions for Lent by MaraJoy Norden
- Fasting: A cross-cultural perspective on the season of Lent by Eric Sarwar
Children's Books
Sunday Morning, Gail Ramshaw (Liturgy Training Publications)
Confession, Joni Walker (Concordia Publishing)
The Lord's Prayer, Tim Ladwig (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)Featured Resources
The Worship Sourcebook
- Parts I through N of The Worship Sourcebook Second Edition, pp. 547-660, offer sample prayers and other worship resources for each act of worship during Lent, Passion Week, and Easter, including the Call to Worship, Opening Responses, Confession and Assurance, Prayers for Illumination, the Lord's Supper, and Blessing/Benediction.
Reformed Worship magazine
- Browse all Lent resources for worship from our ministry partner, Reformed Worship magazine.
Coop's Column
- Read about Christ's Suffering
- Read about the Radiant Preciousness of Jesus
Center for Excellence in Preaching
Browse all resources related to Lent from our ministry partner, Center for Excellence in Preaching.