Lent Challenge
The Lent Challenge
Living Off Less
for 2011 Lent starts on (Ash Wednesday) 9th March and finishes on 24th April (Easter)
Some years ago a number of us at Bristol Vineyard decided to spend the period of Lent – which runs from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday – living off less. Since we first did this, lots of people in the church have pursued this challenge, sometimes individually, sometimes as a whole house group and on one occasion the challenge was put to the whole church. Over the last few years, tens of thousands of pounds have been given away as a result of these ‘Lent Challenges’.
The aim is
1) To intentionally pursue the spiritual disciplines of frugality and simplicity (for more on these see Resources section). By intentionally living off less for this period, we invite God to change our attitudes towards money and possessions. As with all spiritual disciplines, this isn’t about trying to win God’s favour, but rather open ourselves up to being changed by God in this particular aspect of our lives.
2) To experience in greater measure the joy of giving. As a result of living off less, we are able to give more of our resources away.
How to get involved
Have a think individually if this is something you’d like to do this Lent and also talk with your house group about whether it’s something that you’d like to do together as a group. As with all spiritual disciplines, it’s both easier and a whole lot more fun to do this with others.
Here are a few ideas of what you might want to do during Lent:
1) Spend time with God seeking what (or how much) He wants you to give away and where to give.
2) Eat together as a house group once, twice, three times a week. It’s cheaper to cook for 10 than 1 (we’ve generally worked to £1.25 per head and eaten like kings!), and whatever you would have otherwise spent on food, give it away. One easy suggestion is to share a meal after church on a Sunday or just before house group begins midweek.
3) Use this time to get yourself organised – imagine how much you can save if you get ahead of yourself and plan to shop in advance to make quick healthy meals at home instead of buying ready meals or a take away.
4) Lift share on Sundays, to house group, going to work, heading off shopping… you’ll grow relationships and save petrol money which you can give away.
5) What are things that you could easily drop from your weekly spending patterns – those little ‘treats’ that you could miss out on (coffees, cds, dvds, etc)? Give the money you would have spent away – a Lent’s worth of latté money is more than you’d think!
6) Borrow a book, cd or dvd from the library, rather than buying one.
7) Walk. Save on petrol or bus money!
8) Watch a dvd as a house group and/or invite your mates over. Give some money away that you would have otherwise spent on ‘entertainment’ for the evening.
9) Talk with your kids – if you’ve got them – about what you’re doing and why, and think of ways of involving them in this and talking about generosity.
10) Talk with your mates about what you’re doing. It’ll probably crop up, and makes for a great conversation starter.
11) Do fun free stuff… there’s loads of stuff to do in our city without consuming! Living off less doesn’t equal living less…
12) Enjoy the fun of talking about what an impact our combined giving will make and having the joy of being able to make a difference!
Resources
If you want to study more about the spiritual disciplines of simplicity and frugality then look at Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines.
· Willard defines frugality as a decision to ‘abstain from using money or goods at our disposal in ways that merely gratify our desires or our hunger for status, glamour, or luxury. Practising frugality means we stay within the bounds of what general good judgement would designate as necessary for the kind of life to which God has led us.’ (p. 173)
· Foster suggests that ‘simplicity sets us free to receive the provision of God as a gift that is not ours to keep, and that can be freely shared with others…Simplicity is the only thing that can sufficiently reorient our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us.’ (p. 74)
Number Crunching
If you want to aim to live off less but don’t know where to start, you can use the Minimum Wage Calculator on Bristol Vineyard’s website. By entering in various figures – hours you work per week, number of children (if any), your normal income and any fixed outgoings - it will calculate how much disposable income you would have if you earned the minimum wage. It will also calculate how much money you will save during the period of Lent if you use this model.
The Fun Bit …
Spend some time thinking and praying about where you want to give away your money. You might decide to combine your givings with others and make a greater impact by giving your combined money away to the same person/organisation or you might decide to quietly give it anonymously to another cause. Regardless, when Easter comes enjoy giving it away and reflect on any lessons God has taught you through the process!!
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