06/03/2025
Lent is a season of reflection, prayer, and preparation leading up to Easter. The Church of England’s Lent theme for 2025 is Living Hope - exploring what it means that God is with us in everyday life, and the promise of a future where all is made new. For churches, this season is a powerful opportunity to engage and encourage your congregation and community on social media. But where do you start? Here’s five content ideas for what you could be sharing.
1. Daily or Weekly Devotional Series
One of the simplest yet most effective ways to engage your congregation during Lent is through a devotional series. Share short reflections, Bible verses, or prayers to help people meditate on the journey with Jesus that leads all the way to the cross on Good Friday – and beyond, to the transformation of Easter Day.
Post a weekly video reflection from your vicar, church leaders or volunteers. Take a look at this Ash Wednesday reflection from Rev Laura Lenander explaining the significance of the day.
Design eye-catching shareable graphics featuring scripture and prayer prompts. You could use our Living Hope design templates to help with making these graphics.
Encouraging engagement through comments or prayer requests can help build community and keep the conversation going throughout Lent.
2. Inspire Community Interaction
Lent is often a time of fasting and abstinence - whether from certain foods, social media, or other distractions. Use your church’s social platforms to encourage your congregation in their Lent commitments.
Ask your followers, “What are you giving up (or adding) for Lent?” as a post or using the question feature on Instagram stories, inviting them to share in the comments. St Mary’s Church in Bletchley posted this question on their Instagram feed as part of their #QuestionoftheWeek
Provide alternative fasting ideas that focus on positive habits, like random acts of kindness or gratitude journaling.
This can help people stay accountable and encourage one another in their Lent journey.
3. Behind-the-Scenes of Holy Week Preparations
As Lent leads into Holy Week, give your audience a glimpse into the preparations happening at your church. This helps build anticipation and excitement for Good Friday and Easter services.
Share behind-the-scenes photos or time-lapse videos of your team setting up for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, or Easter.
Feature volunteers who are helping to prepare for special services and events.
Post a sneak peek of worship and hymn setlists, sermon themes, or special elements of your upcoming services.
Accompany this content with links to your service list for Holy Week, as this kind of content not only engages your church community but also helps newcomers feel more connected before attending Easter services. To give posts more engagement why not add in background music to enhance the sentiment of the content, perhaps featuring some of the songs used in services during Lent.
Plus: Remember to have your Lent and Easter services and events listed on AChurchNearYou.com so people have the best chance of finding you.
4. Share Good News
Showcase how the church is active in initiatives benefiting the local community. Use social media to highlight ways people can take part too.
Feature stories of church members living out their faith through acts of service for the church and community. E.g. involvement in food banks, help for the homeless, support for older people or engaging with young people. St Thomas’, Newcastle created a reel showcasing the Easter Disco they hosted, where they opened the doors to their community, giving out pizza, praying for people and worshiping in the street.
Encourage followers to share good news stories from within the church. What big or little things could you celebrate?
Tip: Use the tag #LivingHope in your posts to join in with the Living Hope journey and so more people can see your church’s story. During Lent and Easter our social media pages will be re-sharing church stories using #LivingHope in their posts.
Lent is a season of reflecting on Jesus’s sacrificial life and how we can learn to be sacrificial and servant-hearted in our everyday life. ‘Good news’ posts can inspire your community to make a real impact, and showcase the #LivingHope we find in showing kindness - just as Jesus asks us to.
5. Interactive Prayer Requests
Post a weekly “How can we pray for you?” post on your pages feed or on the stories feature and invite people to leave requests in response. Requests can be sent to you via email, social media direct messaging or in AChurchNearYou.com and make sure to have a process of managing requests once submitted. You can use the downloadable social media resources and template to create on-theme story posts. These are available from AChurchNearYou.com (login required).
Bonus: Share your church’s Easter celebrations
Easter is a day of joyous celebration, marking the resurrection of Jesus. Leading up to this momentous occasion, the Lent period is a time of penitence, self-denial and studying of scripture, preparing our hearts and minds for Easter.
Easter Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to highlight the vibrant and diverse ways your church and congregation are celebrating the risen Christ. Share content from your service, capturing the joy and excitement of the day. Post photos of smiling faces in the congregation, snippets from the sermon, or short videos from moments of worship.
For inspiration, check out what St George’s in Leeds shared from their Easter service:
We hope these ideas spark some inspiration for your social media content during Lent. Remember, it doesn't have to be elaborate or perfect: just think about what would be meaningful for your church and your followers. We are excited to see how your churches are observing Lent and preparing for Easter, so please share your activities with us using the hashtag #LivingHope. Let's come together to share the message of hope and renewal!
We would also love to see photos of what your churches are doing this Lent and Easter, or what you did last year. Whether that’s pictures of services, bake sales, or your church building in spring – you can submit your photos here. Any photos submitted have a chance to be featured on our national channels to encourage other churches.
- Nozipho Dube, Social Media Officer
