The Lenten Walk – A Six-Week Journey to Mature Faith

The Lenten Walk

A Six-Week Journey to Mature Faith

By Philip Garside

Reimagine Lent as a transformative spiritual journey, through honest reflection, sacred storytelling, and radical love using this digital resource.

Click here to: Download the first session as a free sample

This Small Group Study Resource will help you:

• Explore Lent as a journey towards spiritual maturity
• Engage deeply with scripture through inclusive, insightful reflections
• Lead meaningful group discussions using prepared sermon summaries and questions
• Reflect on personal and collective grief with compassion and hope
• Embrace a spirituality grounded in justice, humility, and self-awareness
• Reframe biblical narratives to affirm human dignity and agency

Features

• Six week-by-week Small Group Study sessions based on selected Revised Common Lectionary readings
• Full sermon texts and summaries for each session
• Engaging discussion questions and opening/closing prayers
• PowerPoint slideshow and publicity images included
• Suitable for in-person or online (Zoom) study groups

You are buying a zipped file containing:

• A 54 page A4 PDF Study Guide
• A PowerPoint slide show with all the content you need to lead each of the 6 sessions in person or on Zoom
• A 1024x1024 pixel .jpg image for each week for your website or weekly bulletin

Philip Garside Publishing Ltd (2026)

After purchasing a copy of the course package for your church or group, you are welcome to share, copy or email extracts among course leaders and participants to help run the sessions.

Video Introduction

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a six-minute video introduction to this study resource

• • •

Audio Introduction

Click for a 10-minute audio podcast
interview introducing this Study material

Description

Lent doesn’t have to be about giving something up for the sake of it. The Lenten Walk invites individuals and groups into something deeper – an intentional, reflective journey towards a faith that is honest, courageous, and fully grown.

This study guide reframes Lent as a walk of discernment rather than guilt, responsibility rather than rules, and spiritual maturity rather than childish certainty. It is written for people who sense that their faith has grown more complex with time – and who are ready to engage with Scripture in ways that honour doubt, curiosity, grief, and hope.

Across six carefully structured sessions, The Lenten Walk traces a clear and compelling progression. The journey begins with the inner life – how we understand ourselves, our stories, and our spiritual inheritance – before moving outward to examine relationships, community, power, and hope in a fragile world.

• Weeks 1–2: The Inner Journey
  Participants are invited to re-examine familiar stories through fresh eyes. The story of Adam and Eve becomes a narrative of awakening and responsibility rather than shame, while Nicodemus models the courage required to ask honest questions when certainty feels safer.
  
  
• Weeks 3–4: Encountering the Other
  Attention shifts to the way faith reshapes our engagement with others. Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman reveals vulnerability as a source of transformation, while the healing of the man born blind challenges assumptions about power, truth, and worth.
  
  
• Weeks 5–6: Hope and Power
  The final sessions face the hardest realities head-on. Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones offers a slow, realistic vision of restoration in times of collective despair, and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem exposes a radical contrast between the power of empire and the power of humility, love, and self-giving protest.

Here's a more detailed week-by-week summary

Lent 1 – Awakening to Maturity

The Bible readings for this session are Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11.
These texts are explored not as stories of inherited guilt but as an invitation to grow into moral responsibility and spiritual maturity.
The session reframes the Eden story as a necessary awakening rather than a catastrophic fall, challenging shame-based faith.
Jesus’ wilderness testing is presented as a model of mature discernment – choosing trust, service, and integrity over power and control.

Lent 2 – Questions in the Shadows

The Bible readings for this session are Psalm 121 and John 3:1-17.
The focus is on Nicodemus’ nighttime search for meaning and the courage required to ask difficult questions and seek a new beginning.
Psalm 121 offers assurance of God’s constant, non-controlling protection while we wrestle with uncertainty and change.
The session explores spiritual rebirth as a gradual, risky process shaped by trust in the Spirit rather than rigid certainty.

Lent 3 – Subversive Grace at the Well

The Bible reading for this session is John 4:5-42.
Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman is explored as a radical crossing of social, gender, and religious boundaries.
The session highlights how grace flows through vulnerability and relationship, transforming an outsider into the first evangelist in John’s Gospel.
Participants are invited to consider what it means to lay down old labels and burdens and to drink deeply from the Living Water that renews life.

Lent 4 – A New Way of Seeing

The Bible readings for this session are 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and John 9:1-41.
These stories challenge human assumptions about power, leadership, suffering, and worth.
God’s way of seeing prioritises the heart over appearance, compassion over rule-keeping, and truth-telling over social safety.
The session calls participants to courageous faith that speaks honestly, lives patiently into calling, and places people ahead of tradition.

Lent 5 – Hope Beyond the Grave

The Bible readings for this session are Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 11:1-45.
Together they address collective despair and personal grief without rushing to easy reassurance.
Restoration is shown as a slow, layered process that requires waiting, honesty, and the breath of God’s Spirit.
Jesus’ tears at Lazarus’ tomb affirm that faith allows lament and that hope can emerge even in the longest valleys.

Lent 6 – The Way of the Donkey

The Bible readings for this session are Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 and Matthew 21:1-11.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey subverts expectations of power, triumph, and political dominance.
The session explores the contrast between spectacle-driven leadership and the humility of God’s reign.
Participants are invited to reflect on discipleship as a commitment to nonviolence, courage, and faithful presence rather than applause or control. 

Designed specifically for contemporary study groups, The Lenten Walk is practical and ready to use. The resource includes:

• A PDF study guide for each participant
• A complete PowerPoint slideshow for all six sessions
• Flexible formats suitable for in-person groups or online gatherings

The guide doesn’t rush participants towards neat answers. Instead, it creates space for reflection, discussion, and growth, inviting people to sit with complexity and discover what a faith for grown-ups might look like in their own lives.

The Lenten Walk is ideal for churches, small groups, and individuals seeking a Lent that is thoughtful, grounded, and transformative – a walk that begins within, reaches outward, and equips faith for the real world.

About the Author

Philip Garside is a writer, publisher, and worship leader based in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Through his company, Philip Garside Publishing Ltd, he develops thoughtful Christian resources that blend progressive theology with cultural sensitivity.

His Worship at Hand series supports clergy and congregations with engaging liturgies and reflections, rooted in social justice and compassionate faith.

Contents

• About this Study Guide
• Instructions for Group Leaders
• Lent 1 — Awakening to Maturity
• Lent 2 — Questions in the Shadows
• Lent 3 — Subversive Grace at the Well
• Lent 4 — A New Way of Seeing
• Lent 5 — Hope Beyond the Grave
• Lent 6 — The Way of the Donkey