There are a number of necessary elements that comprise the corporate worship gathering, like the call to worship, the preaching of God’s Word, and taking the Lord’s Supper. One of the most misunderstood and overlooked elements of worship is the confession of sin, where God’s people admit their sins to the Lord, ask for his forgiveness, and return to him in obedient faith. The Bible illustrates examples of God’s people practicing corporate repentance, like in Nehemiah 9:1-3:
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.
Here are five ways our church practices confession of sin as a congregation - which all happen to start with the letter “S”!
Silent Confession
One way to practice corporate repentance is to spend time silently confessing sins. During this time, one of our pastors will introduce this element from the pulpit, reminding the congregation why we confess and of our need for forgiveness. Then, instead of praying out loud, the pastor will give the congregation time to silently confess by themselves, usually about 30 seconds or so. Then, he will interrupt their time of silence with the good news of Christ’s assurance of pardon. This time of silent confession gives our people an opportunity to quietly reflect on their past week, trusting that the Holy Spirit will bring to mind those things of which we need to repent.
Scripture Confession
Another way in which we practice corporate confession is by saying God’s words back to him by reciting passages of Scripture that highlight confession of sin. Some helpful texts include Psalm 51 where King David says,
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
Or Psalm 33 where David prays,
I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
God gave us the Psalms because he intended for us to use his words to pray (and sing) back to him in precisely the way he desires to be communicated with. These passages give us a Biblical vocabulary with which to repent of our sins together. In our own church, our congregation will often recite these passages aloud together during the corporate time of confession.
Sung Confession
Another way to practice repentance as a church is to sing for your corporate confession. Sometimes the beauty and emotion of a melody make this time more meaningful than hearing or reciting words alone. While songs about repentance aren’t as common as some other themes, there are still a number of songs, old and new, that help our churches rehearse this element of worship. Some of our favorite songs of confession to sing with our church are O God, Be Merciful to Me, a lyrical version of Psalm 51 set to Stuart Townend’s melody for “How Deep the Father’s Love,” and a song called The Mountain of the Lord, taken from Micah 4:2.
Scripted Confession
Sometimes, one of our pastors will use a prayer of confession written by a past church father or from a historical liturgy as a script to lead our church in corporate repentance. One that we often turn to is an old collect from the Book of Common Prayer that simply says, “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.” Another good resource for sound, scripted confessions of sin is Jonathan Gibson’s collection of prayers and liturgies in his Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship. This allows the rich tradition of corporate worship gatherings to inform our own services.
Spoken Confession
Finally, one pastoral way to lead your church in confession of sin is to model prayers of confession from the pulpit. Many weeks, one of our elders will pray on behalf of the congregation in a spoken prayer that he has written from his own heart and mind. For some in our gathering, this will be the first and only time they’ve even considered confessing their sins that week, so these prayers can inform and instruct the congregation’s own prayers of repentance. Our elders will often weave in themes from the sermon text that week to help unite the various elements of the service, and use more language from Scripture in the prayer itself.
