Permission to Speak Freely

Author Anne Jackson wrote a book by the same name as my title after posting something on her own blog about confession and transparency. Her beef was much the same as my own. The church is supposed to be a place that ministers to the most broken people right? I mean the church is the Body of Christ and Christ's living example was one that was regularly among the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes,the blind, the deaf, the sick, the lame. The church should be a place where we call it like it is, where we can let our guard down, and love each other just like God loves us.

What are you afraid to say in church? Who are you afraid to be? I heard someone say recently that we make our Sunday worship and our small group meetings like the Christian Prom. We all dress up and have our nicest manners and exchange the usual pleasantries, but are we real, vulnerable, human beings? See if we continue to perpetuate the myth that we are these people that have it all together without a care in the world then those who would never darken the door won't. They have some misconstrued idea that they have to have it all together to be a part of such a community of people. In fact if we are each transparent about our own brokenness, frailties, temptations, other real people might want to be a part of that, but it starts with us. Someone has to go first. I confess my own ideas about who I had to be and how I had to be kept me away from any church for a long time. I thought I had to be a certain way, know the books of the Bible and where to find them, recite the Apostles Creed from memory, wear certain clothes....no wonder people don't want to come to church. Is that what it is all about?

The good news is we can all be real with each other, phew what a relief, and have the assurance that because we call Jesus Lord all that junk doesn't matter, whether it happened years ago or you are still struggling today. We can come to Jesus and come together and find real healing, and redemption, and restoration. We are all in process, in life, and relationships, in growing closer to God,in becoming a new creation because of what God has done through Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, who's going first?