The compassion of confession

Perhaps the biggest reason the church needs to be involved on the same-sex battlefield is because the church is the Body of Christ and the best place for confessional healing. Hidden sins inhibit reconciliation and redemption. 

Andrew Comiskey, director of Desert Streams Ministries, addresses this in his book, Strength in Weakness.

“Confession requires community – the witness of trusted brothers and sisters. I firmly believe that without that witness our efforts to live honestly and wholeheartedly will not work. We as the church must be reminded of the biblical call to gather as sinners in order to be cleansed.”

Too often confession in church is the end-result of being caught doing something wrong outside the church and having to ‘fess up. It is painful and feared. Just seeing someone else go through it often causes the sinner to bury his secret more deeply.

Imagine if the church truly were a place where a person struggling with a sin of any kind had trusted brothers or sisters in a small group situation and could confess, receive prayer and know that he is not walking alone.

“Without confession, we can remain alone, skimming the surface of God’s grace in less revealing aspects of fellowship,” said Comiskey. The “powerful, repetitive responses of mercy” and a connection with others “rescues us from the domination of sin.”

Many Oklahoma church member-strugglers have found a place of compassion, correction and confession at First Stone Ministries, an Exodus ministry in Oklahoma City. Ministry Director Stephen Black would prefer churches be equipped to minister to their members, even if it means someday that ministries like First Stone are no longer necessary.

“Within the church, one in five members is affected in some way. They, a loved one or someone they know is gay. In the past, the church has seen its role primarily as condemning,” said Black. “Now we are under cultural assault. Legal and political problems are leading to churches having to deal with it. Churches are going to have to be clear.”

Black is concerned that hate crimes laws could make it punishable to express biblical views on homosexuality, another challenge for those who minister. Dealing with the same-sex issue, he believes, takes training and understanding, but churches can be equipped. He sees three levels of the homosexual struggler: the person wholeheartedly seeking the truth, the struggler who has become hardened and no longer seeks the truth, and the struggler deceived into thinking he or she can act out within a Christian gay identity. In addition, you have the person who knows it is wrong, but is close to just giving up. All must be approached with a clear-cut biblical response to the sin in their lives.