Join us for 40 days of prayer & fasting
Wed 5th Mar - Sun 20th Apr
As we explore our 2025 theme of MORE, we want to intentionally spend a focused time with God seeking his direction and call for our lives, our church and our local communities. We believe that prayer works and that it is more than just words, so we can’t wait for you to join us on this journey and experience what God does.
What is Lent?
Lent is a season in the Christian calendar that lasts for 40 days (excluding Sundays), leading up to Easter. It is a time of reflection, repentance, and preparation, mirroring the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness. Many Christians observe Lent by fasting, giving something up, or taking on spiritual practices such as prayer, Bible study, or acts of service.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (5th March) and ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. The focus is on drawing closer to God, recognising our need for His grace, and preparing our hearts to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at Easter.
People fast during Lent because Jesus did—it’s a way of following His example and relying more on God. It helps cut out distractions and refocus on what really matters—prayer, Scripture, and a deeper connection with God. Fasting is also about humility and recognizing our need for Him. By giving something up, we’re making space for more of God in our lives, opening ourselves up to growth and transformation.
You can read more about fasting and take a look at our fasting guide at the bottom of this page.
Challenge and Invitation
As a church, we regularly gather for worship events and small groups, then scatter into our workplaces, colleges, schools, and social lives. During this season, we’d love to see an intentional increase in prayer as a gathered community. So here’s the challenge: whenever you’re meeting with your church family—whether in a small group, band practice, discipleship course, or even a social setting—consider setting aside more time to pray together. If you don’t currently have a habit of prayer in your meeting, start. If you currently pray for 5 minutes at the end, why not increase that to 15 minutes, and so on. What does a ‘next step’ of increasing your prayer times look for you?
We’d also love to invite you to join us for a dedicated prayer event each week. We know that many groups already have a rhythm of prayer, and we don’t want to overwhelm anyone by asking you to come to everything. Instead, we encourage you to prioritise attending some of these key gatherings over the 40-day period. These will be special moments to come together before God, seeking His presence and praying for His kingdom to move. You’ll find details of these events below.
PRAYER EVENTS
Join us each week for a prayer gathering that will act as way-markers on our journey together as we meet to share stories of how God is at work and to focus our prayer on particular topics.
Prayer Launch Night
Wed 5 March 7:30pm - Rising Brook Community Church
Prayer Gathering at Elevate
Rest & Reflect from 5:30 - 6:30pm, Worship and Prayer 6.30-7.30pm
Thursday 13th March - Elevate Community Centre, Stafford, ST17 9TX
Prayer & Worship Evening
Wed 19th March 7:30pm - Church at The Crossing
Prayer Gathering Evening
Monday 24th March 7.30pm - Rising Brook Community Church
Prayer Gathering with The Youth Net
Wednesday 2nd April - 7.30pm - Doxey Hub, Stafford, ST16 1UR
Prayer Walk
Sat 12th April 1:30pm - meet outside St.Luke’s Church, Cannock
Maundy Thursday Worship Night
Thu 17th April 7:30pm - Rising Brook Community Church
BUILD THE HABIT
If you sign up to our daily Prayerworks emails then you’ll get a special email every weekday morning to help us engage in prayer together wherever we are.
TUNE IN LIVE
You can also join us on Instagram Live at lunchtime each day for a short moment of prayer and reflection.
How do I pray?
Prayer is simply a conversation with God. You can do it out loud, in your head; with others, on your own; at home, anywhere else. Here’s theologian N. T. Wright explaining more about what prayer is.
Throughout these 40 days we’re suggesting a few different ways of praying:
Praying on your own - perhaps during a quiet time each day. (Make sure you’re signed up to our prayer prompt emails to help us focus our prayers together.)
Gathering to pray with others - whether in person or online, we’ll be following a schedule of different times of prayer that you can join in with. Pick whichever ones you’re able to be part of and be intentional in doing these 40 days together with others in our church family. Equally, you may want to meet up with friends or your small group to pray together too.
Trying alternative types of prayer - there’s a long history of followers of Jesus praying in different ways and it can be helpful to try new and alternative approaches to praying that expand how we pray (We’ll suggest some options in our daily emails.)
How do I fast?
In an age and a society where our streets are full of takeaway deliveries and McDonalds, and we tend to eat whenever we feel like it and whatever we want, fasting can seem quite an odd concept to get our heads around.
Fasting involves voluntarily and deliberately abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. Whatever you might choose to give up, it’s about intentionally creating time to be with God. It is not about dieting or missing meals or forgetting to eat for physical reasons or to do with eating disorders. It can be fasting from all food (but not water), or it can be a partial fast of certain sorts of food.
Or if it’s not suitable for you to fast from food due to pregnancy, a medical condition or an eating disorder then consider fasting from TV, social media, your phone or anything else that will help you create space to spend time with God.
We’re not suggesting that you stop eating for 40 whole days(!) but you may want to partial fast from something for a part of the week, or fast from one meal for all 40 days, take part in a few specific days of fasting during the time, or give up a combination of food and lifestyle things for the whole time. It’s completely up to you, and what you feel will enable you to connect with God.
If you are considering a full fast from food, please have a look at these guidelines: Fasting Guide