The Power of Confession

For a long time now I have been fascinated with the practice of confession - specifically the practice of confessing one's shortcomings and failures to a trusted friend or pastor.  Some denominations consider confession to be a sacrament (such as Roman Catholics), while others ignore it altogether (such as Nazarenes, Wesleyans, and others).  And of course, there is a spectrum of views in between.

Growing up in a non-confession church, I have always been told that confession to another person is unnecessary because I only need to confess to God.  Since God is the one who forgives, the argument goes, God should be the one to whom I confess.  If I desire to do so, I may confess to another friend, but it is by no means considered a sacramental act and is often not even encouraged.

As I've been reading about spiritual direction and guidance over the last several days, though, one particular thing has stood out to me.  In more than one religious tradition, confession is seen as an integral part of spiritual direction.  Sharing with a spiritual director the struggles that one has is seen as crucial to experiencing full awareness of God's presence in one's life.

Initially, that idea made me uncomfortable.  After I thought about it, though, I began to wonder if my discomfort is rooted in a misunderstanding of the power and purpose of confession.

For many Christians, confession is seen as a punitive and preventative act.  The shame associated with telling another person our sin becomes a driving force to keep us from doing it again and can even be used as a deterrent for others.

As a case in point, let me share a story.  There is a young couple I am friends with who, before they got married, found themselves expecting their first child.  The man attended a large baptist church and was quite involved in ministry.  When the couple confessed their "sin" to the pastor of this large baptist church, the pastor insisted that the man needed to confess his sin in front of the entire 3000 person congregation.  Without going into how wrong and offensive the pastor's actions were, it is clear that in this situation confession used as a tool for punishment.

No wonder so many Christians fail to practice the discipline of confession.

What if, though, confession was not a punitive thing?  What if instead it should be seen as an act of healing?  This is the view of confession that I ran across in my reading.  In Gary Moon & David Benner's Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls, Father Gregory Rogers describes it like this:

Confession is seen as an indispensable means for making new the grace of forgiveness, providing an opportunity for the penitent to find direction in order to overcome the passions and sins that easily beset the believer.  The emphasis is not on the legal aspects of sin but on the healing of the heart that has been damaged by sin.


We have all experienced the relief that comes from "getting something off our chest."  There is something powerful about baring our souls to another that is apparent to all of us.  It is why we seek out close friends and confidants when we are going through a tough period in our lives.  We know - deep in the recesses of our soul - the value of talking to another.

Yet for too many of us there is a line in those conversations that we seem unwilling to cross even with our closest of friends.  We would rather struggle alone with our sins and shortcomings than allow another to come alongside and offer us assistance on the road to healing.

I am absolutely convinced that the church needs to recapture the discipline, the sacrament of confession if it is to be effective in living out God's Kingdom in the world today.  That will only happen, though, when we begin to recognize that the purpose and power of confession lie not in punishment but in healing.