E-Confess and some other thoughts
I was chatting with a friend yesterday and we were sort of laughing about the idea of having a website where people could sign-in, confess their sins, and somehow leave seeing them all erased...receiving that visual representation of how God forgives us and wipes the slate clean.
Well, I did a some googling for sites using this idea and actually found a few. I'm not going to list them here but if you're interested you can do your own research. Reading some of their homepages and trying to figure out who was sponsoring the sites was pretty sad. Really I didn't find any denominational or even religious affiliations...except one that said that confessing online could not take the place of confessing officially to a priest (I've got a good guess who's behind that particular site). One of the sites even asked for visitors to help them build their "sin database". Interesting.
Some might argue this, but I feel like we're living in very uncertain times. The term stability seems like a word that is far from most people. Especially the younger generations move so much, take different jobs every few years, sell existing and buy newer/bigger homes. Things inside many churches aren't even "stable". Ministries come and go, ministers come and go, people are always moving around looking for churches with bigger this and better that. I don't even have to expound on the instability found on the global scene.
We Christ followers really need to think about things like this, understanding that the world is looking for answers. So many people are looking for ways to understand their lives, how they fit into the bigger picture. And when I say "many people" I'm not just talking about people on the other side of the world (where we live). I'm also talking about your friends...the people next door that you keep talking about going to meet...maybe someone in your family that you feel so burdened for yet so afraid to approach.
Don't know about the e-confess idea. There actually might be some cool things that could happen through such a site. What I do know, especially after looking through a few of these sites, is that there are a ton of people out there looking for answers and for ways to feel comfortable (sometimes anonymously or otherwise low-key) to explore the things that are going through their minds.
I want to be...I try to be the kind of person that people can approach and talk to about the spiritual questions they might be having. Of course I've come to realize that before we get to those conversations a lot of relational groundwork must be done...trust must be established. And sometimes it takes A LONG time before folks come to the point where they find answers to their questions.
Just felt like talking a bit about this today. Just another way to think about our role in peoples' lives. It's awesome to be used and to be a part of peoples' journeys of discovering who God is and who they are in His eyes.
Well, I did a some googling for sites using this idea and actually found a few. I'm not going to list them here but if you're interested you can do your own research. Reading some of their homepages and trying to figure out who was sponsoring the sites was pretty sad. Really I didn't find any denominational or even religious affiliations...except one that said that confessing online could not take the place of confessing officially to a priest (I've got a good guess who's behind that particular site). One of the sites even asked for visitors to help them build their "sin database". Interesting.
Some might argue this, but I feel like we're living in very uncertain times. The term stability seems like a word that is far from most people. Especially the younger generations move so much, take different jobs every few years, sell existing and buy newer/bigger homes. Things inside many churches aren't even "stable". Ministries come and go, ministers come and go, people are always moving around looking for churches with bigger this and better that. I don't even have to expound on the instability found on the global scene.
We Christ followers really need to think about things like this, understanding that the world is looking for answers. So many people are looking for ways to understand their lives, how they fit into the bigger picture. And when I say "many people" I'm not just talking about people on the other side of the world (where we live). I'm also talking about your friends...the people next door that you keep talking about going to meet...maybe someone in your family that you feel so burdened for yet so afraid to approach.
Don't know about the e-confess idea. There actually might be some cool things that could happen through such a site. What I do know, especially after looking through a few of these sites, is that there are a ton of people out there looking for answers and for ways to feel comfortable (sometimes anonymously or otherwise low-key) to explore the things that are going through their minds.
I want to be...I try to be the kind of person that people can approach and talk to about the spiritual questions they might be having. Of course I've come to realize that before we get to those conversations a lot of relational groundwork must be done...trust must be established. And sometimes it takes A LONG time before folks come to the point where they find answers to their questions.
Just felt like talking a bit about this today. Just another way to think about our role in peoples' lives. It's awesome to be used and to be a part of peoples' journeys of discovering who God is and who they are in His eyes.
posted by Michael Shattuck at
9:41 AM
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