Do we need to confess?
confession as a method of connection
Start
Confession
When you think about confession in the context of the church (either private confession before God, or confession to another person) what is the underlying feeling that tends to drive it? What is confession supposed to accomplish, in your opinion?
follow-up
NEXT
The transactional problem
Here's a question worth sitting with: if forgiveness is what you receive at the end of a successful confession, what happens to the forgiveness if the confession feels incomplete? What if you forget something? What if you don't feel sorry enough?-- The transaction model makes forgiveness conditional - not on Christ, but on the quality or at least the existence of your confession. That's a heavy thing to carry. And it turns a practice meant to be liberating into a performance with uncertain results.
NEXT
‘'
“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
Romans 4 (quoting Psalm 32)
Learn More
NEXT
Confession
If confession and absolution work the same way (as signs that declare a reality rather than mechanisms that produce it) how does that change what confession is for?
follow-up
NEXT
Confession brings us home.
If we're already forgiven (if that's the ground we stand on) then what is confession actually doing?Here's one way to think about it: confession is less like applying for something and more like returning to something. It's the act of a person who has drifted, perhaps in their own awareness, in their relationship with others, or in their appreciation of it, coming back to what is already true. The prodigal son, on the road home, rehearsed his speech: "I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned.'" But the father ran to him before he said a word. The confession didn't produce the welcome. The confession was how the son re-entered a welcome that had been waiting for him. Does that change anything about how you approach confession either with God or with someone else?
NEXT
Absolution welcomes us in.
When we confess to one another and speak absolution (when we say, in effect, you are forgiven, you are loved, you belong here) we aren't granting something we have the power to give. We are reminding someone of something that is already true. We are being, for that person, the voice of the grace that surrounds all of us.We talked earlier about the community being a hiding place. It's an extension of the shelter that Psalm 32 says God provides. Absolution is a mechanism of this. This is how it works. We become that shelter for each other not by dispensing grace from above, but by bearing witness to the grace we all already have. So the question is: what does it take to be that kind of community? What makes it possible to confess to someone - and what makes it possible to receive a confession without turning it into a transaction?
NEXT
the practice of confession and absolution between people is, at best...
NEXT
Thank You
You can move on to the next portion of the Spotlight.
1_15_2-3 Discussion
Kent Reeder
Created on May 10, 2026
Start designing with a free template
Discover more than 1500 professional designs like these:
View
Smart Presentation
View
Practical Presentation
View
Essential Presentation
View
Akihabara Presentation
View
Blackboard Presentation
View
Florida Neon Presentation
View
KPOP Presentation
Explore all templates
Transcript
Do we need to confess?
confession as a method of connection
Start
Confession
When you think about confession in the context of the church (either private confession before God, or confession to another person) what is the underlying feeling that tends to drive it? What is confession supposed to accomplish, in your opinion?
follow-up
NEXT
The transactional problem
Here's a question worth sitting with: if forgiveness is what you receive at the end of a successful confession, what happens to the forgiveness if the confession feels incomplete? What if you forget something? What if you don't feel sorry enough?-- The transaction model makes forgiveness conditional - not on Christ, but on the quality or at least the existence of your confession. That's a heavy thing to carry. And it turns a practice meant to be liberating into a performance with uncertain results.
NEXT
‘'
“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
Romans 4 (quoting Psalm 32)
Learn More
NEXT
Confession
If confession and absolution work the same way (as signs that declare a reality rather than mechanisms that produce it) how does that change what confession is for?
follow-up
NEXT
Confession brings us home.
If we're already forgiven (if that's the ground we stand on) then what is confession actually doing?Here's one way to think about it: confession is less like applying for something and more like returning to something. It's the act of a person who has drifted, perhaps in their own awareness, in their relationship with others, or in their appreciation of it, coming back to what is already true. The prodigal son, on the road home, rehearsed his speech: "I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned.'" But the father ran to him before he said a word. The confession didn't produce the welcome. The confession was how the son re-entered a welcome that had been waiting for him. Does that change anything about how you approach confession either with God or with someone else?
NEXT
Absolution welcomes us in.
When we confess to one another and speak absolution (when we say, in effect, you are forgiven, you are loved, you belong here) we aren't granting something we have the power to give. We are reminding someone of something that is already true. We are being, for that person, the voice of the grace that surrounds all of us.We talked earlier about the community being a hiding place. It's an extension of the shelter that Psalm 32 says God provides. Absolution is a mechanism of this. This is how it works. We become that shelter for each other not by dispensing grace from above, but by bearing witness to the grace we all already have. So the question is: what does it take to be that kind of community? What makes it possible to confess to someone - and what makes it possible to receive a confession without turning it into a transaction?
NEXT
the practice of confession and absolution between people is, at best...
NEXT
Thank You
You can move on to the next portion of the Spotlight.