I’ve blogged about PostSecret before and visiting the website is as much a part of my Sunday routine as church attendance. (Admittedly, I’ve attended services at the PostSecret website more frequently than church this year.)
At any rate, it occurred to me today that what PostSecret founder Frank Warren has stumbled upon with his site and the many books and seminars it has spawned, is something the church has known for years. Confession really is good for the soul and has a freeing effect.
It got me thinking: Why are people more willing to make such confessions anonymously over the Internet, but petrified to confess anonymously to a priest or more openly in a small group setting during “accountability” time. I think (and I could certainly be wrong,) part of the reason is the church expects you to confess your sins, which are big, scary, ominous and damning things, where PostSecret simply asks for your secrets. Most people wouldn’t call these expressions sins, though quite often some form of sin is hidden underneath these confessions.
Perhaps, such an attitude could revolutionize churches. What if a church were to ask its members to submit their secrets anonymously for a month and then on the last Sunday of the month share some of those secrets with the congregation? Wouldn’t it be freeing to know that no one else in the church is a super-Christian either? Wouldn’t it help us to see one another as real human beings with struggles and hang-ups and help us to stop putting up walls and putting on airs with one another? Wouldn’t it be revitalizing for us to come together and truly love one another without pretense and without this idea that the majority of the congregation has it together while a small minority just can’t get it right?
It might be scary to some, but I think in the long-run it could make an effective difference in the way individual churches and perhaps the body of Christ as a whole functions. I may suggest it in my church. Your thoughts?