Creative Worship Using Confessions

I am dead set against “churchianity” and dead religious rituals. However, when we visited a Roman Catholic Church for the christening of some friends’ daughter, I discovered something quite awesome. The priest led the congregation in making some confessions of the faith. Most of the people seemed to know the words without having to read them, and so, to be quite honest, it seemed mechanical and lifeless to many of them. But because I didn’t know the words, and had to concentrate hard, I found the words inspiring and deeply meaningful.

So I later went to check out different confessions, mainly by Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches. And I think many of them are stunning, and those of us who do not use them are poorer for it.

I’m definitely not advocating that all churches adopt a Roman Catholic or Anglican style of worship. In our church, Real Life Jeffreys Bay, we are constantly searching for creative ways of making worship more meaningful and relevant. I’ve discovered that even lively charismatic style worship can easily become a ritual. So doing one or two of these confessions from time to time has added a completely new dimension, and the feedback from the congregation has been overwhelmingly positive.

So I’m going to share some of these with you, complete with the power point slides. The worship leader reads the bits in white, and the congregation respond reading the bits in yellow. Have fun!!!
By the way, if you use it, drop me an e-mail to let me know how it went…I’d love to know, and it will also inspire me to develop some more.