charity campaign of the month: a Lent campaign round-up

The Christian festival of Lent has had a recent reinvention. It’s no longer just the annual opportunity to forgo chocolate or caffeine. These days you can give up chocolate and give out free hugs, or plant trees, or cut your carbon footprint, or ask the big questions, or read a section of the Bible alongside hundreds of others online.

Lent has become a time for generosity and thoughtfulness. This month, we celebrate the charity campaigns that have helped thousands of people to reconnect with Lent in a meaningful way.

Christian Aid: Count Your Blessings

What it is:

This brilliant campaign from Christian Aid has encouraged thousands of people to help end poverty this Lent. Last year’s campaign raised over £300,000 for the charity, and this year they launched an android app to help people connect and give on-the-go.

Why we love it:

With daily suggestions such as ‘give 10p for every light in your home’ and ‘give 20p for every time you have accessed free healthcare this year’, the Count Your Blessings campaign uses simple stats to highlight exactly how blessed we are.  And we all need a reminder of that from time to time!

Tearfund: Carbon Fast

What it is:

Tearfund’s Carbon Fast campaign asks us to consider what effects our energy-intensive lifestyles have on God’s creation. Again taking a daily action approach, the Carbon Fast focuses on environmental tasks such as buying energy monitors, creating a compost-heap, and walking or cycling to work.  

Why we love it:

It offers a good amount of flexibility, and the daily actions are achievable. There’s also the option to simply do an ‘Action of the week’. A great campaign for the environmentally-conscious among us, and they’ve put together a nice promo video too.

BigBible: Big Read 2012

What it is:

This year’s Big Read focuses on the gospel of Mark, with material written by Profession Tom Wright. It is put together by BigBible – a project that promotes bible reading in a community setting, whether online or offline.

Why we love it:

It’s primarily an online-driven campaign, making use of Google+ Hangouts, online homegroups, blogging and twitter hashtags to keep up momentum, as well as downloadable resources. BigBible are traditionally great at making connections with other organisations and initiatives, and we love their ability to reach out and promote other campaigns as well as their own.  

Stewardship: 40acts

What it is:

40acts has returned for 2012, and this year we’re encouraging people to ‘do Lent generously’. With daily inspirational contributions from likes of Nicky Gumbel (Alpha course), Rob Parsons (Care for the Family), and Andy Frost (Share Jesus International), 40acts gives subscribers 40 nudges in a generous direction. So far 5000+ people have signed up to take part.

Why we love it:

Our 40acts challengers never fail to surprise us. Whether they set up daily blogs to chart their 40acts journey, or anonymously send Easter eggs into the office, or nearly get arrested for offering free hugs: all of them remind us of the transformational nature of generosity.

Consumer Detox: Lent 2012

What it is:

Mark Powley’s book, ‘Consumer Detox’ offers practical solutions to combating the consumerist culture we live in. The Lent campaign is designed for small groups and churches, and takes a week-by-week approach. There are also daily blogs and online talks.

Why we love it:

There’s a great emphasis on doing Lent alongside others with this campaign. That sense of accountability and honesty makes for an interesting journey, as the group travels together into the heart of the difficult questions: ‘How can we prevent our stuff from choking our faith?’, ‘Why do we find it so hard to set limits on our consumption?’, ‘If God is so generous, why does He ask us to surrender everything?’

So there we have it, a round-up of Lent 2012. What have your favourite Lent campaigns been this year? What would you like to see next year? Let us know in the comments.

40acts - thank you!

“We’ve crossed social divides in the playground, and bought cups of tea for the homeless. We’ve sent thank you notes by the hundreds and prayed for our enemies as well as our friends. We’ve bought fair-trade chocolate from local shops, switched off our TVs, and left our comfort zones for the sake of spontaneous kindness.

Why?

Because we believe that what we do during Lent, and beyond, should reflect the incredible generosity of the Easter message.”

We hope that taking part in 40acts has been a real blessing to your Lent experience this year, but more than that – we hope that it has ignited a spark of God-inspired generosity that will last a life-time.

It doesn’t stop here!

40acts will be back again in 2013, but you can continue to journey with Stewardship throughout the year.

We’ve got three final acts for you:

• Get more of the same - sign up for the Extra Mile, our monthly generosity email.
• Take our super-quick 40acts survey - let us know what you thought of this year’s campaign.
• Find out how you can give generously with a Stewardship giving account

Thank you for taking part in 40acts 2012. We hope it has inspired you to do life generously.

With love,

The 40acts Team