Why is it that when I have a rough day, the last place I want to go is to church? Why, so often, is church a place you do not feel safe acknowledging your own failure?
These questions have been on my mind for a long, long time and have been quite present lately. Specifically I have been wondering why church is a place you do not feel it is okay to confess your sins, fears, failures, and needs. Isn’t that exactly why God instituted the church, so that we might love and encourage each other? What hit me is that very few pastors and teachers confess their sins, fears, failures, and needs.
Teachers and pastors are supposed to be examples of Christ. They teach and admonish and try to represent integrity. Don’t get me wrong, teachers should have integrity and be Christ like, but when they expunge their humanity and need from grace from their teaching the need for grace is lost in the eyes of those they teach. A mask of godliness covers up our deep need for help and forgiveness. Underneath that mask of righteousness great struggles, destructive habits and addictions all go unnoticed and untreated.
People can spot a fake. People see through masks.
Even more importantly, when we hide our sin, we are creating a false image of the gospel. None of the apostles ever said, “Be my disciple, I am the perfect one.” One apostle repeatedly said that he was the worst of sinners.
A ministry of teaching integrity and obedient righteousness is incomplete without being a ministry of confession and repentance. If the church is to be a place where sinners can turn and repent, if it is to be a place the mourning can find comfort, those who lead must not hide their mourning and repentance.
If the church is to change and reflect a more complete vision of the gospel, it is only you and I who can change it.
