Confession & Prayer

We are created to be in relationship with God the Father and God the Son. This fellowship also includes relationships with others (see 1 John 1:1-2:2). To be in fellowship with others in an authentic community requires us to step into the relational discomfort and awkwardness that is Christian community, a place of vulnerability, love, and mercy – not judgment or condemnation. 

Fellowship (koinonia) is a uniquely Christian word that means “sharing in common, communion.” A shared community involves deep, close-knit participation among its members. In the fellowship of the Christian community we are invited into authenticity, honesty, and genuine humility before others. The fact that we all sin requires honest confession, which means "to say the same thing as." Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains how this happens. “In confession the light of the Gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be openly spoken and acknowledged. All that is secret and hidden is made manifest. It is a hard struggle until the sin is openly admitted.” 

Sin’s power is greatest in isolation. Christ’s power is greatest in communion with Him and those known by Him. The heart of true fellowship is an open and honest relationship with others in an authentic community. Our need for one another is as desperate as our need for Jesus. Fellowship in the community of faith happens as we walk in the light of Christ, not in the darkness of sin. To live in the light is “to have nothing to conceal” – to be an open book before others. In the context of God's transforming love, we can be known and loved – by God and one another!