Confessional Community - In The Bigger Picture

You’re aware that I’ve talked before about confessional community (there was this one, then that one before the other one). It is something that I desperately desire and there have been experiences where I’ve caught a glimpse of what that life might look like. This evening I had the chance to talk with a dear friend of mine about how some of our church experiences actually prevent that level of confession and transparency to take place and how some of the leadership junk we take on board further alienates us from getting the help we so need when the way of Christ actually promoted brotherhood.

I love that honesty and vulnerability not just to satiate the therapeutic side of me, but to really deal with what it will take for Christ to be formed in me. That is a love for someone else to enter their hurt and pain on the understanding that it likewise leaves you open to someone else entering your hurt and pain in a bid for presence and love to help heal that hurt and pain however long it takes.

Today was another one of those highly compressed, potentially mega stressed scenarios. It didn’t all work in my favour and I was frustrated at times and it was so easy to get absorbed in my own problems to the neglect of others. God as ever though stopped that self-indulgent rubbish almost immediately. Another friend of mine came to see me today right in the middle of all the busyness and shared with me how his marriage is on the rocks and he’s currently separated from his wife.

This guy is a Christian. This is a man who has shown a tremendous servant heart in helping others not the least of whom is me. Here is a guy who I know makes every endeavour to follow the path that God has set for him. Yet here he is facing such a heart-rending and painful period. Not only that, rather than hide it in religiosity and busyness, he’s choosing to share the issue with a brother, who himself in going through the wringer albeit in another area of life.

So what are we supposed to do just keep it to ourselves, just muddle through on our own? No. Are we meant to get into a group huddle and sob over our issues as if we’re a self-help group? That’s not what fellowship is about – that’s not what confessional community promotes. Bearing each other’s burdens, confessing our faults one with another is submitting ourselves to each other and to Christ in that effort to leave ourselves open to His mercy and slowly but surely having our characters conformed after His own.

That at times requires challenging each other to holiness as well as compassionately walking with brethren through some very difficult decisions.

I am glad that following Jesus is not about getting the right answers, or having things work out as we would like them. I am glad that following Jesus takes us through valleys as well as mountaintop experiences. I am glad that following Jesus is just as much about living in my weakness and pain as it is about rejoicing in victories.

This song has ministered to me in terms of what our loving Father does and how our anguished cry to Him in those dark nights of the soul has to be for our precious Lord to take our hand and lead us home. Remember my friend in your prayers. Remember me in your prayers as well, so that this amazing love that we experience every day may swell our hearts with a desire for His presence and a passion to see the broken-hearted healed by sharing this amazing love.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Remembering Love

I’ve been on a weekend conference. Now that sounds posh doesn’t it? What other phrases can I chuck in there? We did lunch and cracked the deal that should see millions flooding in. Not true, but it sounds right in the context of a weekend conference.

In any case, you may remember the talk I’ve been making about confessional community and I had a glimpse of what that looked like this weekend with a group of people I don’t know. They were more than happy to share aspects of their lives that were hard to share. Really confessing some deep stuff that they have struggled and overcome and in some cases yet to overcome all in an atmosphere that celebrated the freedom that we have to share these things and more importantly, that which brings it above self-help, our complete dependence on Jesus to help us in these things. Funnily enough that was not the sole point of the weekend, indeed it was looking at some interesting aspects of the time to come.

So I enjoyed the weekend. I enjoyed it a great deal and one of the highlights of it was the opportunity to share in communion. Now that’s a whole topic in itself in terms of my position on that in comparison to some other approaches. I won’t go into it now. What I will go into is the run-up to it. There was talk about the importance of love as the motive for all we do. A love that forgives our enemy. A love that endures all things and believes all things. A love so rooted and grounded in being loved first that we no longer love for what we want from others or a self-indulgent desire to be loved, but knowing we are already loved we give.

Nothing typifies this greater than the three crucial images of a follower of Christ – the cross, the empty tomb and the right hand of God. The journey all disciples take in their realisation of the greatest love there has ever been. This love is only possible because of what Jesus has done for us to be reconciled to the greatest lover in the universe. On realising this again and remembering this I recall the most moving expression my dad ever had about love through tears and thanksgiving and likewise I burst out in tears of thanksgiving.

So I see how love makes me appreciate my family and other loved ones. I see how love set me free to be one who loves. That is my heart’s desire and privilege one day, one conversation, one relationship at a time.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Creating Confessional Community

I love Jesus. I don’t love Him because I’ve always loved Him – I have not. I don’t love Him because I recognise all of His goodness – I do not. I love Him because He first loved me. That love superseded any love I’ve ever experienced and was amazing considering what I’ve done to deserve it and what is on offer.

Part of the journey in exploring His love has been this intriguing word – confess. I’m not going to go into great detail in this blog on it, maybe I’ll develop on it further. Confess, though, is as much positive as it is negative. Confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is not a negative thing. (Unless this is the end and you’re in a position to confess His lordship even if you’ve denied it in your lifetime.) On the whole, though, confession is usually linked with bad stuff, and bad stuff that you own because you gave it birth, raised it and got it married to action and not good consequences.

I’m having a real thought about the importance of creating confessional community because of this verse:

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (James 5:16)

Sure, check the context. Yeah, go ahead consider the content. Indeed by all means reflect and contemplate on the concept to be found herein. See what conclusion you come to and how you should live. What I get from it, however, is the need to be a part of a confessional community of grace. That level of vulnerability and intimacy is scary stuff and I’m not sure if this is something that your life is meant to be expended on en masse – that surely is not going to happen among hundreds and thousands. It can happen though and that loving community of grace wherein we can support each other in becoming more Christ-like can take place as we’re real about ourselves and each other. We’re real, we are as vulnerable and transparent as we can be within reason.

I am on a journey then to discover more about what a confessional community lives like. I’ll let you know how the journey goes as I go on. In the meantime remembering that our priest now is Jesus and we’re called to a priesthood of believers, this communal expression of confession is crucial to the health of the body of Christ – consider how you practice it.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd