The 40-40-40 Lenten Challenge for 2024
This is for bragging rights.
About the Lenten Challenge
Challenge History
In 2023, the Grand Canyon Synod and the Southeastern Iowa Synod challenged one another to participate in spiritual and physical practices during the 40 days of Lent. This 40-40-40 Challenge was a good-natured way to engage each other and raise awareness of anti-hunger ministry and wellness for both synods. More than 204 individuals from more than 70 congregations pledged to participate in daily devotions, daily decluttering, daily wellness activities, or a donation of a dollar or more per day for ELCA World Hunger.
2024 Lenten Challenge: Region 2
In 2024, all of the ELCA synods in Region 2 (noted below) are challenging one another to raise money for ELCA World Hunger in honor of ELCA World Hunger’s 50th year in mission and ministry. The challenge is to pledge to participate in some spiritual and physical practices during Lent and raise funds for ELCA World Hunger. The synod with the most participants wins!
Lent is 40 days to reflect, remember our dependence on God and one another, and look forward to the ways God calls us to be. Adding one or more of these small practices to your observation of Lent might help you feel more connected. A light-hearted challenge like this might help our synods be the Church together, and to see God’s vision and invitation for us to be a church for the world and share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Participating synods:
Sierra Pacific (2A) – Rev. Jeff Johnson, bishop
Southwest California (2B) – Rev. Brenda Bos, bishop
Pacifica (2C) – Rev. David Nagler, bishop
Grand Canyon (2D) – Rev. Deborah Hutterer, bishop
Rocky Mountain (2E) – Rev. James Gonia, bishop
How does the 40-40-40 Lenten Challenge work?
There are 4 Lenten practices to consider, and you commit to 3 of the 4.
Daily Devotion ~ Subscribe to receive daily email devotions for Lent or use ELCA World Hunger pre-made devotions. Learn more.
Daily Discipline ~ Do one wellness activity every day. Maybe it’s your daily workout, maybe is a 1-mile walk a day. Maybe it’s taking an extra flight of stairs or an extra glass of water. Read more.
Daily Declutter ~ Once a day find a way to daily de-clutter, de-stress, and re-tune. It could be cleaning out the garage, cleaning your calendar, or finding some time to de-clutter a desk or drawer and donating gently used items. Get ideas.
Daily Donation ~ Pledge to give $1 a day (or more) to ELCA World Hunger for the 40 days of Lent. Ways to give.
How is this a Challenge?
This a little friendly competition for a good cause. Individuals from across the Region 2 synods will sign up to do three of four of the practices and the synod with the most individuals who sign up wins the challenge! In honor of ELCA World Hunger’s 50th anniversary in 2024, our goal is for individuals representing 50 congregations per synod to participate.
Join the Cross-Synod Challenge for Lent
The more individual sign-ups, the better.
Bragging rights goes to the synod with the most individual registrations. So if you’re a family of 4, enter all 4 email addresses, and have all 4 people commit to 3 things. And no, not all 4 need to donate to ELCA World Hunger (though it’s worth considering).
Share with your congregation
All the resources you need to spread the word in your congregation are available on the Lenten Challenge website, created especially for this challenge. Announcements in PDF and artwork in jpg format for use in newsletters, bulletin inserts, and social media can help you promote this synod-wide event. Website is https://www.lentenchallenge.org/
What do we get if we win?
The ‘winning’ bishop will play a short video with congratulatory clips recorded by the other participating bishops. This acknowledgement of the ‘superiority’ by the other synods for this one challenge is all in fun. All bishops may choose to air the video at their synod assemblies in 2024. We will publish progress updates each week.