What happened to confession?

During the course of conversation at coffee break one morning, we (a 19-year-old and a 60-year-old) got into a discussion about guilt and confession. We reflected on the fact that, in our everyday Christian practice, we talk ourselves out of the need to acknowledge guilt; to repent and confess. Many of our churches do not even have mechanisms for confession. We simply excuse our sins privately, in the quietness of our minds, with little or no public acknowledgement.

The Lord has called us to confess our sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). We are all sinners and can only be sanctified by a confession that goes hand in hand with repentance. To repent from something is to turn away from it. There is also a physical act that we can do to confirm our confession; it’s the act of making ourselves vulnerable and confessing our disobedience with a sister or brother in Christ.

Why is it important to confess our sins to others? The Bible says, confess your sins to each other . . . that you may be healed (James 5:16). There is healing and freedom that occurs when sin – disobedience to God’s voice – is exposed and dealt with. There is no room for the enemy to gain a foothold in our lives when our weaknesses and mistakes are brought into the light.

The Lord has given us the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:19). Confession has heavenly, eternal effects. It also has earthly outcomes, as it lightens our daily walk with Christ, and re-energizes our interactions with believers and unbelievers.

Why can we speak to God with boldness about our sin, while simultaneously keeping it a secret from the family of believers? Why is it so easy to confess to the Holy God Almighty, but so tough to confess to our pastors, friends, family, and church family?

Perhaps it’s a trust issue. Or, perhaps we’ve internalized our faith so much that we entirely leave the community of believers out of our lives. In doing this, we forget that we all struggle with sin and have no reason to isolate ourselves from each other.

In the Catholic Church, sins are confessed to a priest who, as God’s earthly vessel, speaks God’s words of healing and reconciliation to the confessor. These words are an audible “loosing” that brings freedom and restoration to the sinner.

But what means do we have, and what encouragement do we give, for confession within our Mennonite Brethren and evangelical churches? For Catholics, there is an accepted practice and even a facility (confessional) whereby sins can be confessed. Where, when, how, and to whom do we confess our sins?

While our ministers may hear the confessions of people, we hear little or no encouragement from the pulpit to publicly confess our sins as, biblically, we are called to do. Are we missing something important in our Christian walk?

In our not too distant past, MBs had the practice of confessing moral failure and sin before the church as a body. The practice was largely dropped due to strong opposition from parents, family, and others who felt the practice was not beneficial to the person having committed the error, or the church body as a whole.

Yet, I (Ken) know a close friend who committed an error and, although the church did not ask for it, he and his spouse-to-be confessed before the congregation. He later became a respected minister within our midst. For both, it was a time of healing and a fresh start.

It would be good to hear further discussion and teaching from our leaders. It would be good to learn how to better practice and live confession in our homes with our spouses, children, and extended family members. Perhaps we could practice public confession within our small groups at church.

Mennonite Brethren believe in the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9). Therefore, we have the freedom to confess our sins to fellow church members and hear the words of forgiveness that can release us from the guilt that so easily frustrates our daily walk with Christ.

Janelle Hume is a university student who worked at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies in Winnipeg this past summer. Ken Reddig is director of the Centre.