Lutheran churchgoers ‘do,’ not just ‘don’t,’ for Lent

Give up goodies, or do service for Lent? Some Christians do both. And some are finding more ways to give meaning to the period from Ash Wednesday to Easter, traditionally observed as a time of penance, prayer, sacrifice and good works.

Take Denise Puhl, hooked up to make a donation in the United Blood Services bloodmobile parked on campus at Good Samaritan Lutheran Church and Good Samaritan Christian Academy, on a recent Wednesday. Although she had given blood before, it was the first time she had participated in the church’s Lenten service projects.

In past years, she has given up something.That hasn’t changed this year, either. The vice she’s temporarily relinquishing?

“Pizza,” she said.

Thirty-year-old Amy Brown and 61-year-old Donna Snover had not met before but chat away in the back of the bus. For both, participating in one of the church’s service projects is a first. Brown also gave up drinking and sugar for Lent — and is munching cookies now because of the bloodletting. She has passed out before from giving blood. But she was 18 then, and has since given birth, making her “a little more adept at pain,” she notes.

Although she was nervous, she did it this time because “I like doing something besides just going to church. It gives me more of a sense of community. It’s Lent. It’s a good time to sacrifice your time for others.”

“I just feel like you need to give back to the community,” adds Snover, who moved to Las Vegas last September. “There are so many people who need things, and I feel blessed that I have lots of nice things. I found this church to start with.”

Lutheran and other mainline churches often have midweek Lenten services, usually Wednesday nights, beginning Ash Wednesday, according to the Rev. Don Lorfing, senior pastor at Good Samaritan. Last year, his church began to offer the option of service projects instead.

“We just decided our catchphrase is, ‘Rather than do church during Lent, let’s be the church,’ ” he explains. The move fit in with Good Samaritan’s mission statement: “Be the church. Love God. Love people. Make a difference.”

Last year’s service projects began with volunteer work at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission and Three Square food bank, a nursing home visit and Easter baskets for charity. Lorfing estimates that about 120 to 150 church members participated. The 30-year-old church’s congregation hovers at 700 to 800 members.

This year’s five project opportunities, extending from Feb. 26 to March 25, featured two return visits to Three Square. At the outset, church members redistributed 5,000 pounds of produce in two hours — transferring onions from 50-pound bags to 5-pound bags for families in need, according to Lori Soukup, this year’s service project volunteer coordinator.

Also on the to-do list: serving, wiping tables and cleaning up plates at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, greeting the elderly with devotion books and flowers at Acacia Springs Independent and Assisted Living in Las Vegas, donating blood on campus and writing letters of appreciation to the Metropolitan Police Department. And, through it all, conducting a congregation-wide food drive for delivery to Christ Lutheran Church’s food pantry.

Soukup, a retired college professor and a church member for 10 years, estimates that 20 to 25 people signed up for each event this year — ranging from Cub Scouts to seniors. She sees the events as “a wonderful opportunity to see everyone, meet someone new, talk with those who they do already know and have a good time doing something for others.”

One revelation that struck her at this year’s first service event was the education she and others might not have gotten otherwise about Three Square.

“Those of us who went really didn’t know what the organization did,” she observed. “We learned an awful lot about how they get the food, and then they distribute it to other agencies, who then distribute it to those in need.”

When it comes to a lack of knowledge about service opportunities and organizations, “a lot of people would like to serve, but they don’t know where to go,” Lorfing says. “Their lives are busy. They don’t take the initiative to go and find out. If you give them clear opportunities to serve, a lot of people do take advantage of that.”

Those projects don’t merely do “good.” They also develop an attitude of service and giving in the people who attend, he explains. Positive feedback last year — whether from someone commenting that the experience was a great lesson to teach their kids, or that their family had fun participating — helped bring the church back around to service projects this year.

As for abstinence versus service, Lorfing says there’s nothing wrong with giving up something for Lent in the spirit of humility. But, “in your mind, what’s more valuable? Giving up chocolate, or going and packaging food? What will probably be more valuable to God?”

He himself has played a major role in organizing and lending a helping hand on the spot. He also takes along his family.

“Jesus is very clear in the Bible that faith isn’t an intellectual exercise,” he emphasized. “It is a doing exercise.”

For Soukup, the best-kept secret is what happens to the heart when the task is done. “For me, it’s a level of, ‘I contributed to something that’s much bigger than what I can ever do alone.’ ”