by Sarah
Confess – To own or admit as true.
Repent – To feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one’s life for the better; be penitent.
Amen – So be it.
dictionary.com
My people, what have I done to you?
Micah 6:3-4, NIV
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
LEADERS
Father, this we admit as true.
We have exchanged your reputation
for our reputation.
We have spoken words and assumed in arrogance
that they carry the same authority in your people’s lives
as your Word.
CONGREGATION
Father, this we admit as true.
We have traded obedient loyalty to your Word
for blind loyalty to this church.
We have turned our leaders into idols to be adored
instead of acknowledging them as fellow humans
simply working in your service.
With what shall I come before the LORD
Micah 6:6-7, NIV
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burn offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
LEADERS
Holy Spirit, this we admit as true.
We have cared more about establishing our own authority
than we have about embracing a priesthood
of all believers.
Because you have given us gifts of teaching and intellect,
we have pridefully acted as though those without these gifts
cannot speak your Truth into our lives, our actions, and this church.
CONGREGATION
Holy Spirit, this we admit as true.
We have abdicated responsibility to our church leaders
by tithing, attending, blindly obeying, and thinking our work
is done.
We have cared more whether our intellect is stoked and our emotions aroused
than whether we are obediently nurturing the unique talents
you gave us.
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
Micah 6:8, NIV
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
LEADERS
Jesus, this we admit as true.
We have agonized over the number of bodies darkening our doors
and not the darkness inside our own souls.
We have abandoned your mission when we cared more about
the look of our building and the quality of our multi-media system
than we have about sheltering and providing for
the abused and the abandoned.
We are the Pharisees.
CONGREGATION
Jesus, this we admit as true.
We have agonized over the darkness in our society
while forgetting that inaction in the face of darkness is also sin.
We have abandoned your mission when we cared more about
whether our own needs were being met
than we were about seeking and serving
the neglected and the overlooked.
We are the Pharisees.
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Micah 7:8b-9, NIV
Though I sit in darkness,
the LORD will be my light.
Because I have sinned against him,
I will bear the LORD’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
and establishes my right.
He will bring me out into the light;
I will see his righteousness.
TOGETHER
Lord, this we admit as true.
You are in charge.
You are in charge from the farthest of stars to the depths of our hearts.
We have exchanged your Truths
for lies and temptations and fears that are leading us away from you.
We are tired of sin’s influence in our hearts and minds
and pray that you shine the light of your righteousness into our lives.
Convict our hearts
and give us the strength to follow through
so that your will may be done in our lives, in this church, and on this earth.
To your name, and your name alone, goes the glory.
So be it. Amen.
Who is a God like you,
Micah 7:18-19, NIV
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever,
but delight to show mercy.
You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
Author’s note: This was written while David and I were attending a church plant of the Great Commission Collective, formerly known as the Harvest Bible Fellowship. At the time, the founder (but no longer member of) the network, James MacDonald (and the church he pastored), was suing two bloggers, their wives, and a journalist who had not yet published anything about him. (MacDonald didn’t include the journalist’s husband in the lawsuit. Rude.) The suit did not end well for MacDonald (https://julieroys.com/investigations/harvest-bible-chapel-james-macdonald/).
Since then, there has been a major sex abuse scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/investigations/abuse-of-faith/), a revealing of the full scope of the depravity of Ravi Zacharias (http://thewartburgwatch.com/2020/12/30/ravi-zacharias-with-the-help-of-rzim-perpetrated-the-greatest-fraud-in-current-day-evangelical-apologetics/), and The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast (https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/), among other things.
And, personally speaking, we left the church plant we’d been attending after an elder was both deceptive and heavy-handed with us, and the associate and senior pastors stayed silent when presented with evidence of his manipulation (a-letter-to-my-friends-at-our-former-church). We returned to a church we’d formerly attended but left (in search of more explicit theological teaching, ironically) because we trusted leadership. Unfortunately, there was a leadership change, and the new senior pastor quickly took the church down a more heavy-handed leadership route, as well. When confronted (politely) with evidence that he had lied from the pulpit, he dismissed, dissembled, and invoked the devil. When presented with the evidence of his escalation, the elder board declined to act in any meaningful way.
This prayer still stands.