Let's Practice our Faith Together!

Each week in worship during the season of Lent, Steve, Rebecca, and Sara will be preaching on a different practice of our faith (healing, dying well, hospitality, etc.) to help center you in your week to come and to also shape our Trinity community. On Mondays, a Lenten email will be sent out as a sort of devotion for you to embody a faith practice. The email will have suggested and practical spiritual practices to guide you through your week and to reflect more of how we can lean in closer to God during this season. We hope you will take full advantage of the suggestions we offer and to also be gentle on yourself, knowing God is gentle on us. This week, reflect and embody the faith practice of dying well.

About the Practice:

Death is a frightening prospect for the specter of death destroys any illusion that we are in full control of our lives. How is it, then, that some people are able to die with the assurance that death is not the final word? Even in death, we are not alone. Scripture makes it clear that in life and in death, we are God's. Likewise, in the Christian practice of dying well, Christian people do things with and for one another in response to God's strong love, translating into concrete acts our belief in the resurrection of Christ and of ourselves. Dying well embraces both lament and hope, and both a sense of divine judgment and an awareness of divine mercy.

Suggested Practices:

• Some things to do for someone who has lost a family member or friend: go visit the person who is grieving, make and send a card or a picture frame, bake cookies for a family with children, or offer to babysit, help serve a family dinner provided by the church at a funeral service, rake leaves, wash windows, mow the lawn, plan a fund-raiser to assist with medical expenses for a family that has experienced great medical expenses.

• Build a memorial wall to commemorate All Saint’s Day (November 1). Borrowing from the idea of the Vietnam War Memorial, embellish paper or ceramic blocks and write a deceased person's name on a block along with the date and age of the person's death, and cause of death, if known. Decorate with pictures or words about the person's interests or hobbies.

• Introduce older children and youth to the structure and procedures of a funeral service. Tour a funeral home and arrange for conversation with a funeral home director. Use bulletins from a recent funeral service to examine the order of worship.

To learn more, visit Practicing our Faith: Dying Well.

Click HERE to watch yesterday's Worship broadcast or click HERE to read yesterday's sermon.

Visit Lent 2023 - Practicing Our Faith - Trinity Presbyterian Church - Charlotte, NC (trinitypreschurch.org) for more information on how to worship with us during Lent.