New Confession 1

As part of my worship leading duties for the past several years, I have taken up writing new confessions for the church to use in congregational worship. I grew up in a church that didn't do much congregational reading, much less confessions, but since college I have learned to greatly value proclaiming belief and confessing sin as a corporate body. Here is a confession that we are using this Sunday in our service.

Scriptural basis: Mark 10/Isaiah 55

Congregation:  “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  We confess that we are often anything but childlike when we come to You.  We demand signs and wonders before we will trust in You.  We expect You to work within our plans.  We have a hard time just letting you be God.  Forgive us of our arrogance, impatience, and forgetfulness and give us a childlike faith. 

Pastor:  God said through Isaiah, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 

Congregation:  Recognizing our limitations and smallness, we come to you as children in need of a father and trusting that you hold all the mysteries and unknowns in your hands.

Pastor: God is a great God.  As His ways and thoughts are greater than ours, so are His mercy and forgiveness greater than we can fathom.  Because of his grace in Jesus Christ, and not because of your goodness, you are forgiven and cleansed of all your sin and unbelief.