BE TRANSFORMED - LENT 2026
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Lent is a season of remembering the suffering and death of Jesus—and practicing a small, honest kind of dying to self so that Christ might be formed in us.
This year our theme is Be Transformed (Romans 12:1–2). We are constantly being shaped by the world around us, but Lent invites us to step into intentional rhythms where the Holy Spirit renews our minds, reorders our loves, and forms us into the image of Jesus—for the good of others.
SEASONAL DISCIPLINE
For Lent, our personal and communal discipline will be fasting.
Fasting is the voluntary abstinence from something good (often food) for spiritual purposes. It is not dieting, punishment, or earning God’s favor. It is a way of making room—and turning ordinary hunger and desire into prayer cues that lead us back to Christ.
Fasting has a way of revealing what controls us. What we often cover with food, comfort, and distraction can surface—so that Jesus can meet us there with mercy, freedom, and renewal. In the guide provided below, you will be encouraged to choose a personal fasting path as well as be invited to a corporate fast we will engage in together as a family.
This is how we’re practicing transformation: letting hunger become a pathway back to Jesus—again and again.
A Guide for Fasting & Prayer ›
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“More than any other discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately…Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear–if they are within us, they will surface during fasting.”
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- richard foster
additional resources​​
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Kids & Family Resource
StoryMakers NYC Holy Week Zine & Guide -
In Sunday School, our 1-5 graders will be going through Storymakers Lent adventure (New Testament stories leading up to, but not including Holy Week), but you can grab the zine & guide for Holy Week and go through that as a family!
This resource includes 4 sections covering Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. Storymaker resources are colorful and engaging and easy to implement at home!
Grown-Up Resource
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The Word in the Wilderness: A Poem a Day for Lent and Easter -
Bestselling poet and Anglican priest Malcolm Guite chooses a favorite poem from across the Christian spiritual and English literary traditions and offers incisive reflections on it. A scholar of poetry and a renowned poet himself, his knowledge is deep and wide and he offers readers a soul-food feast for Lent.
Year-Round Resource
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Prayer & Practice Book - A City Church book of common prayer.
With short daily liturgies, planner pages, and collections of breath prayers, blessings, and more, this is intended to be a daily resource to help us integrate the many pieces of our lives.
Download PDF here or email us for a printed copy.
liturgical year
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The liturgical calendar follows the life of Christ and, in its cyclical rhythm, invites us to enter the movement of his life on a yearly basis. As we observe each season, we can observe Christ. We pray that as you allow the seasons of the church year and anchor your life to the life of Christ, you’ll discover that a fuller joy and vitality marks your days.
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Lesslie Newbigin writes, “the business of the Church is to tell and to embody a story, the story of God’s mighty acts in creation and redemption and of God’s promises concerning what will be in the end. The Church affirms the truth of this story by celebrating it, interpreting it, and enacting it in the life of the contemporary world.”
Each Sunday we see the arc of God’s story rehearsed and embodied (God is Holy, We are Broken, Jesus Saves Us, Jesus Sends Us)... but how do we “enact it in the contemporary world” of our homes, where we can create culture and habits that form us.
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The church calendar, much like Sunday Service, moves us through a story. Specifically the story of Jesus with his incarnation in Advent all the way through the sending of the church in Pentecost.
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ADVENT - the future hope of Christ
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CHRISTMAS - the joyful birth of Christ
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EPIPHANY - the perfect manifestation of Christ
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LENT - the temptation and death of Christ
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EASTER - the world-changing resurrection of Christ
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PENTECOST - the renewing Spirit of Christ