2026 ABC NE Lenten Devotional
My name is Rev. Taylor Shippy, and I serve as the pastor of Gibbon Baptist Church, in Gibbon, Nebraska. We are honored that you have chosen to journey through the season of Lent with us.
This past year, I came across what may be my new favorite description of the ‘Church Calendar’—also known as the ‘Christian Year.’
In his book How to Inhabit Time (2022), scholar James K.A. Smith says that “[t]he liturgical calendar rehearses the way time curves and bends around the incarnate Christ like a temporal center of gravity…” And as the Church, Smith suggests, we have chosen “to synchronize our watches” with Jesus’ configuration of time. “Like operatives launching a mission in a spy thriller, coordinating their watches so they’re all on the same time, the people of God synchronize their soul clocks in relation to a story that cycles and repeats in the liturgical calendar. In the liturgical calendar, we are indexed to the solar time of the Son who is the light of the city of God (Rev. 21:23).”
This devotional was born from a desire to help us sense that gravitational pull of Jesus’ story—particularly during this season when it now bends toward Calvary as Jesus turns His face toward Jerusalem (cf. Luke 9:51). As Jesus intuitively knows that His “Hour” is drawing near (cf. John 13:1; 17:1), Lent invites us to feel that same movement with Him and to attend to the emotions, tensions, discomforts, and costs that accompany it.
Yet we are not merely invited to observe this journey from a distance. We are called to follow—to bravely walk with Him as He moves closer to His betrayal, suffering, and crucifixion. To retrace His steps, allowing the Holy Spirit to illuminate fresh dimensions of Jesus’ life, ministry, and self-giving love that can only come from this time of the year.
These Lenten devotionals are an invitation for all of us to slow down and, together, synchronize our watches with the rhythms of Jesus during this holy season. As the body of Christ and as members of the ABC of Nebraska, we walk this Lenten road side by side—praying for one another, listening together, and encouraging one another as we receive the lessons Jesus teaches us when we choose to journey with Him through Lent.
As always, I am deeply grateful to all those who have taken the time to contribute to this year’s collection of Lenten devotions:
Rev. Richard Crooks, Pastor at First Baptist Church of Fremont
Rev. Dr. Charles D. Gregory, Chaplain at CHI St. Francis
Susan Howell, First Baptist Church of Lincoln
Rev. Scott Jones, Pastor at United Faith Community Church
Rev. TN Praveen Kumar, Pastor at Benson Baptist Church
Rev. Andrew Mahoney, Pastor at First Baptist Church of Omaha
Rev. Dr. Greg Mamula, Executive Minister of ABC NE
Rev. Beverly Melchor-Young, Retired ABC NE Minister
Rev. Lauren Parliament, Associate Region Minister ABC NE
Mike Raasch, ABMen Bible Study Leader at First Baptist Church of Fremont
Rev. Aaron Sprock, Pastor at First Baptist Church of Chadron
Rev. Rick Wheatley, Pastor to Pastor at Sunset Hills Baptist Church
Sasha White, Worship Director at First Baptist Church of Fremont
Rev. Blake Wilkes, Pastor at Arthur Baptist Church
Jason Workman, Pastor to Pastor at Sunset Hills Baptist Church
Additionally, I would also like to offer a special word of thanks to Kay Johnson, our church secretary here at Gibbon Baptist Church, whose invaluable work compiling, editing, and publishing this devotional make this possible each year. We truly could not have done this without you.
Thank you for deciding to journey with us through Lent. My hope and prayer is that these devotionals serve as a tangible means of God’s grace for you in this season—drawing you more deeply into the story, the suffering, and ultimately the hope we find in Christ.
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11, NIV).
Grace and Peace,
Rev. Taylor Shippy
Gibbon Baptist Church, Gibbon, NE