Get Real! Confessions of a local church.

I recently preached a sermon in my hometown of Benton, AR entitled “Get Real!”  (The sermon from that morning is available for free download here.  divine-romance.com/resources)  In the sermon I basically shared all my “deepest darkest secrets” about my past and how God taught me to get free of my addictions through the power of public confession.  I was really worried about preaching and sharing my testimony to this particular congregation because most of them were in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s and had been attending church for decades.  I figured the content of my sermon would not be very relevant to people that seemingly “had it all together.”  I was wrong.

Before service started I had attached little yellow sticky notes to the back of all the chairs.  At the end of the sermon I invited everyone to fill out the #1 thing that was coming between them and their walk with God.  Then I had them bring the sticky notes up to the front and lay them at the foot of the cross as a symbolic gesture that they were committing to do whatever it required to get freedom, including public confession.  Here are some of the responses I received.

A large percentage of the congregation was struggling with:
Masturbation
Pornography
Sexual immorality

Others wrote responses like:
Dishonesty
Deceitful lips
Stealing
Hatred
Unforgiveness
Gluttony

And then of course there were the more “churchy” responses which I had naively expected would be the majority coming from an older “christianese” crowd.

Such as:
Not reading my Word enough
Not making God #1

However, there were very few of the “christianese” replies.  The majority of the replies dealt with a form of sexual immorality.  Namely, masturbation and pornography.  This explained to me why God had placed such a push on me to share what I did.

Everyone is pretending.

Okay, not everyone.  However I never would have guessed that response is the one that I would have received from a church where the main demographic is married couples over 40.  I think it is a window into the state of the western church as a whole.  The greatest tragedy is not people that have been Christians for most of their lives are still dealing with elementary issues, but it’s the cause of it.

Secrecy.  We’ve turned church into a costume party.

People have been trained that they have to put their best foot forward, pretending that every thing is under control.  They feel like they are a freak for going through what they are going through.  They think that they are the only ones, that everyone else has it together and that they are just a “weak link.”  They don’t know that everyone else is just pretending too.  They’re scared to be found out, scared that they’ll be rejected and ridiculed for being human.  They are scared to show their weakness fearing that it will be preyed upon rather than lovingly mended.  And you know what?  Unfortunately there have been cases where ignorant but well intending people have done just that.  Rather than helping a brother in need, instead chose to finish him off with their judgmental and critical attacks and attitudes.

THIS IS NOT RIGHT!  We are supposed to be the hospital where broken people come to be healed.  NOT THE JUDGE AND JURY!  The church is the very place where people should be running to be mended and nurtured and helped out of their pit.  Instead it has become the number one place where people fear to let their true selves be seen.  We have to turn that around!  We should be attracting the hurting, broken, lonely and scared.  We should seek out the hopeless.  Not repel them with our self righteous and holier than thou attitudes.

WE START BY BEING REAL OURSELVES!  Don’t pretend to be perfect.  If you’ve got issues be real about it.  This will encourage and help others be the same.  It will show them that they are not alone in their fight.  We can’t expect to reach people while setting ourselves up on unreachable plateaus based in deceit.  We have to be reachable, we have to be real.  And that is where we will find the ability to truly walk in purity.  “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16)  “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13)

It is OUR responsibility to make sure the lost, hurting, and broken feel comfortable coming to us for help. If they are scared to come to us it is OUR fault.  And most of them are, because we’ve done a poor job being honest with the world.  I know that when I was first coming out with my sin seeking help that I was extremely fearful of rejection.  And that is just unfortunate.  There should always be a prevailing sense of unconditional love that smothers everything we do.  And perfect love casts out fear.

I encourage all of you to check out this testimony about public confession from Pure Life Revolution. www.pureliferevolution.net/testimonies-mitchm.html

I applaud Church of the Burning Heart for their boldness and courage in confessing and taking the steps necessary to rid themselves of everything that would hold them back from Christ.

Living to touch God’s heart,
Chris Ulery
divine-romance.com