Holy Week is here Engage Church!
This week we are commemorating the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. There has not been a more important week in all of human history that has transformed not just the lives of millions but yours as well! As a family we want to take the time to connect with God and each other through fasting/prayer. Our church-wide fast will begin Tuesday, April 16th and we will end our fast together as we gather at Engage for our annual Family Dinner, Thursday, April 18th at 6:30pm. Family Dinner coincides with Maundy Thursday, better known as the Last Supper of Jesus with his followers.
During our Holy Week fast we will focus on three themes: REVIVAL, REFORMATION and REMEMBRANCE. Each theme will use Engage's missional framework of engaging God, People and Culture. To help you we have provided an outline for your convenience. Though you can take every liberty to use this time of fasting/prayer for other purposes, we would ask that you use the outline throughout Holy Week in unity with the rest of your Engage family.
A BRIEF WORD ABOUT FASTING
Fasting and prayer are disciplines we see instructed by God and/or His leaders in Scripture. Both are to be done together. Simply put, fasting is the withholding of food for a specific length of time in order to replace those meal times with other disciplines like reading scripture, prayer and serving others. The point is to use time to seek God. So during this fast use specific times such as meal time or other personal time in your schedule to pray. Simply going without food without seeking God could have great benefits. However, we would just call that some form of dieting and not fasting. For those who are new to this discipline, you will feel hunger pains. This is not punishment but part of the point. Its the RECOGNITION of trust in God that He sustains the mind, body and soul. It's also the deeper REALITY of our need for Him.