The practice of regular confession is largely lost in our religious circles. Protestantism, during the breaking away from the Roman Catholic church in the age of the reformation, rightly departed from the idea of penance, but lost with it the institutionalization of confession in the life of a church. We did away with the priest, the confession box, and in turn we lost the practice of confession.
And yet we find in James 5:16, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (NLT)
How Healing Comes Through the Practice of Confession
It’s in confession and prayer that we find healing. Healing cannot take place without confession and prayer for one another.
It’s about time that he practice of confession is reinstated in the life of the Church. I shudder to think of the countless moral failures that will happen from a lack of personal confession. The marriages that will fall apart because of private sins. The job loss, the interpersonal pain, and the damage to one’s own soul.
And yet, as small group leaders, we have been given a wonderful privilege to lead our group and our friends into a safe place, where healing can take place…maybe for the first time. Here are…ways to Leverage your small group time on a regular basis for the practice of confession.
#1. Be Up Front (Lay the Roadmap). Come out with it. As the host or leader, don’t surprise your group with this information. Don’t show up on Wednesday and announce that everyone will be confessing their sins tonight. Take 15 minutes to unpack some teaching around confession. Unpack James 5:16, 1 John 1:9, Hosea 14:2, Psalm 32:3-5.
Then let them know that next week we’ll be practicing confession as a group. Then, give them a roadmap. Detail how things will work. Here’s some ideas.
#2. Split the Group. If you’re a mixed or married group, you shouldn’t be surprised that guys will share things they wouldn’t normally when their wife is in the room. Or that girls simply share things differently when guys are absent. Go ahead and split the group for confession. Go to separate places in the house, create safe and quiet spaces.
