Lent and Missions: A 40-Day Devotional

by Bradley Bell, Nathan Sloan

Lent is the forty days that Christians have historically set aside to prepare for Easter through repentance and renewal. It gives us space to admit the though the defiant joy of Christ’s victory is ours, it came at an unimaginably great cost; though our salvation is sealed forever, we still face mortality, indwelling sin, and a fallen world.

But there is more to this struggle.

If we who have hope are to pause for a season to lament sin and death, then should we not also lament for those who have no hope? There are billions around the world who do not yet share in the victory of Easter. Perhaps Lent and missions have more in common than we’ve ever considered.

For this reason, Bradley Bell and Nathan Sloan wrote this devotional as fellow missions pastors. Each day follows a simple liturgical a Scripture reading, a brief reflection, a prayer, and—on Fridays—a guide for fasting. They wanted their local church to experience this special season with even greater significance, to be formed even more deeply by God’s global purpose for Easter, and to be sent into Pentecost with the same passion of the early church.

And now they want that for you and your church too.
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Bradley Bell is a former missionary who serves as the lead pastor at Antioch Church and the senior editor for the Upstream Collective. He is the author of The Sending Church Defined and writes at BrokenMissiology.org. He lives among the diverse community of south Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, Katie, and daughters Elisabeth, Charlotte, Anneliese, and Madeleine.

Nathan Sloan (DMiss, Southern Baptist Thelogical Seminary) is the executive director of Upstream Sending, a missions-sending organization focused on empowering the local church to send well. Nathan is also a pastor at Sojourn Church Midtown in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the author of You Are Finding Your Place in God’s Global Mission and Multisite Missions Leadership. Nathan is married to Sarah, and they have two wonderful children, Asia and Jeremy.

91 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 18, 2023

About the author

Bradley Bell is a former missionary who serves as the lead pastor at Antioch Church and the senior editor for The Upstream Collective. He lives among the diverse community of south Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, Katie, and daughters Elisabeth, Charlotte, Anneliese, and Madeleine.

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lent can often be a time of personal reflection where believers meditate on God’s grace in light of their own sinfulness. Bell and Sloan give a wider perspective in their 40-day devotional. While it has brought individual benefit to those who believe, the story of Easter is more about God’s global purpose to reconcile all things to himself.

Each day provides a biblical text for meditation along with some thoughts to consider in light of God’s mission among the nations. The authors also give a challenge to fast each Friday to hunger in longing for Resurrection Sunday. This resource is a helpful one to introduce believers to (or remind them of) the threads throughout Scripture that display God’s heart for all peoples, all culminating in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

[Hannah Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF - had higher expectations for this one but I think I’m the problem

[Chris Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A day-by-day devotional with scripture references, a short meditation and a prayer to walk through Lent in light of God's missional purposes.

[Julianne Ging · Rating 5 out of 5]

A succinct and beautiful lent devotional that encourages fasting on Fridays. I enjoyed the few minutes I spent on this each morning and plan to do it for subsequent years.

[Bob Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time we have focused on Lent, and honestly, we missed a couple of days. While there's nothing particularly bad about the devotions, some of them seemed a bit academic.