{"id":1274,"date":"2021-12-30T06:50:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T11:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1274"},"modified":"2021-12-30T06:50:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T11:50:01","slug":"confession-booth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/30\/confession-booth\/","title":{"rendered":"Confession Booth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Reed College in Oregon is widely regarded as one of America\u2019s most socially progressive campuses.

Its annual springtime student festival, Renn Fayre, is, to put it mildly, faith-averse.  The campus is shut down for three days so the students can come together and do some serious partying in the spirit of revisiting Renaissance England. 

Participants are far more likely to trip out on drugs than contemplate the validity of trusting God.

That\u2019s why author Donald Miller, one of the few practicing Christians on Reed’s campus, was joking when he suggested that he and his friends should put up a booth at Renn Fayre with a big sign that said, \u201cConfess Your Sins.\u201d  There would be lots of sinning going on, after all.

But one of his friends thought it was a brilliant idea.

\u201cHere\u2019s the catch,\u201d he said.  \u201cWe\u2019re not actually going to accept confessions.  We are going to confess to them<\/em>.\u201d

As Miller explains in his book Blue Like Jazz, <\/em>he and his friends would \u201cconfess that, as followers of Jesus, we have not been very loving.  We have been bitter, and for that we are sorry.

\u201cWe will apologize for the Crusades, we will apologize for televangelists, we will apologize for neglecting the poor and lonely, we will ask them to forgive us, and we will tell them that in our selfishness we have misrepresented Jesus on this campus.  We will tell people who come into the booth that Jesus loves them.\u201d

The results were surprising, to say the least.

Miller describes a conversation he had in the booth with a Reed student who identified himself as Jake.  \u201cSo what is this?  I\u2019m supposed to tell you all the juicy gossip I did at Renn Fayre, right?\u201d Jake asked.

Donald explained that this was a place where Christians <\/em>were doing the confessing.  \u201cExplain,\u201d said Jake.

\u201cJesus said to feed the poor and take care of the sick,\u201d Miller began.  \u201cI have never done very much about that.  Jesus said to love those who persecute me.  I tend to lash out, especially if I feel threatened, you know, if my ego gets threatened.  Jesus did not mix his spirituality with politics.  I grew up doing that.  It got in the way of the central message of Christ.

\u201cI know that I was wrong, and I know that a lot of people will not listen to the words of Christ because people like me, who know him, carry our own agendas into the conversation rather than just relaying the message Christ wanted to get across\u2026 I\u2019m sorry for all of that.\u201d

Jake was moved.  \u201cI forgive you,\u201d he said.  Miller was amazed at Jake\u2019s sincerity.  \u201cThanks,\u201d he responded.

Jake was quiet for a moment and then said, \u201cThis is cool, what you are doing.  I\u2019m going to tell my friends about this.\u201d

More grace and truth were experienced at Reed College because of one weekend of humility and vulnerability than any number of sermons or programs.

I know a pastor whose unchurched friend once said to him, \u201cI\u2019ve got to tell you, looking at the church from the outside \u2013 it\u2019s a real mess.\u201d  The pastor replied, \u201cOh, yeah?  You should see it from the inside<\/em>.\u201d

If you\u2019ve ever been on the inside of the movement Jesus started, you know it can be a real mess.  It can break your heart.  It can break God\u2019s heart.

But there\u2019s one piece of exceedingly good news.

Jesus himself still shines through \u2013 perhaps especially when we\u2019re honest about our own failure to be his representatives.
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Reed College in Oregon is widely regarded as one of America\u2019s most socially progressive campuses. Its annual springtime student festival, Renn Fayre, is, to put it mildly, faith-averse.  The campus is shut down for three days so the students can come together and do some serious partying in the spirit of revisiting Renaissance England.  Participants are far more likely to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[131,376],"class_list":["post-1274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-humility","tag-vulnerability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1276,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions\/1276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}