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    Just in Time! Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance
    Just in Time! Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance
    Just in Time! Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance
    Ebook192 pages1 hour

    Just in Time! Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance

    By Rev. Kenneth H. Carter JR.

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    In a brief introductory chapter, the author addresses the question of why we need to confess our sins, and offers three reflections in response: Sin as Pride, Sin as Violation of Boundaries, Sin and the Possibility of Forgiveness. The book includes seventy prayers of confession and words of assurance, with accompanying liturgies and music suggestions (Scripture and hymn indexes included!). The prayers are offered in three sections, confession and pardon related to: The Human Condition, The Holy Scriptures, The Liturgical Year. The Just in Time! Series offers brief, practical resources of immediate help for pastors at an affordable price.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateSep 1, 2010
    ISBN9781426727061
    Just in Time! Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance
    Author

    Rev. Kenneth H. Carter JR.

    Kenneth H. Carter, Jr. is resident bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Along with the Cabinet, he gives pastoral and administrative leadership to almost 800 congregations, fresh expressions of church, campus ministries and outreach initiatives in an episcopal area that stretches from Tallahassee and Jacksonville to Miami and the Keys. He came to the Florida Conference in 2012, following a ministry of almost thirty years in Western North Carolina, twenty-nine as a local church pastor. Bishop Carter is the immediate past-president of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, and he was one of three moderators of the Commission on A Way Forward, the commission authorized by the General Conference in matters of unity and human sexuality. He is author of a number of books, most recently Fresh Expressions of People Over Property and Fresh Expressions: A New Kind of Methodist Church (both with Audrey Warren) and Embracing The Wideness: The Shared Convictions of United Methodists. He travels extensively across the state, preaching in local churches and encouraging lay and clergy leaders. Bishop Carter and his wife, Pam have been married for thirty-seven years. Pam is also an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, and was previously a regional team leader in disaster recovery for the Florida Conference. They are blessed with two adult daughters: Liz lives in Los Angeles, where she is a PhD. student at U.C.L.A., and Abby is on the staff of Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tennessee. Abby and her husband Allen are parents of Paige, the bishop’s granddaughter. The Carters consider it a great blessing to live and serve in Florida.

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      Book preview

      Just in Time! Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance - Rev. Kenneth H. Carter JR.

      JUST IN TIME!

      PRAYERS AND

      LITURGIES OF

      CONFESSION AND

      ASSURANCE

      Kenneth H. Carter Jr.

      Abingdon Press

      Nashville

      JUST IN TIME!

      PRAYERS AND LITURGIES OF CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE

      Copyright © 2009 by Abingdon Press

      All rights reserved.

      Prayers and liturgies may be reproduced provided the following credit line and copyright notice appear on each copy: "From Prayers and Liturgies of Confession and Assurance by Kenneth H. Carter Jr. Copyright © 2009 by Abingdon Press. Reproduced by permission." No other part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Abingdon Press, P.O. Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801 or e-mailed to permissions@abingdonpress.com.

      This book is printed on acid-free paper.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Carter, Kenneth H.

      Prayers and liturgies of confession and assurance / Kenneth H. Carter, Jr.

         p. cm. — (Just in time!)

      Includes indexes.

      ISBN 978-0-687-65489-5 (binding: pbk., adhesive perfect : alk. paper)

      1. Confession (Liturgy)—Christianity. 2. Confession (Liturgy)—Texts. 3. Church year. I. Title.

      BV845.C37 2009

      264'.13—dc22

      2008021163

      All scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      09  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18—10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

      MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Chapter One: Reflections on Sin: Why Do We Need to Confess?

      Sin as Pride

      Sin as Violation of Boundaries

      Sin and the Possibility of Forgiveness

      Chapter Two: Confession, Assurance, and the Human Condition

      Dependence on God

      Seeking Guidance

      In Response to World Hunger

      In Response to Apathy

      In the Midst of Despair

      Self-sufficiency and Pride

      Disobedience

      Judgmentalism

      Exhaustion

      After a Natural Disaster

      Confusion

      Acknowledging Brokenness

      Rebellion

      After a Senseless Tragedy

      For Renewal of Life

      For a Renewed Sense of Purpose

      Seeking Clarity

      Seeking God’s Will

      Depletion

      For Increased Compassion

      Discouragement

      Weariness of Soul

      Unfaithfulness

      Estrangement

      Lack of Dedication

      Chapter Three: Confession, Assurance, and the Holy Scriptures

      Genesis 1–2

      Genesis 3

      Exodus 3

      Exodus 13

      1 Kings 19

      Psalm 23

      Psalm 46

      Psalm 51

      Psalm 119

      Isaiah 6

      Ezekiel 1

      Micah 6

      Matthew 4; Luke 4

      Matthew 5

      Matthew 6

      Luke 15

      John 6

      Acts 2

      Romans 6

      1 Corinthians 11

      1 Corinthians 13

      2 Corinthians 5

      2 Corinthians 12

      Ephesians 3

      Philippians 1

      Chapter Four: Confession, Assurance, and the Liturgical Year

      Advent

      Christmas

      Epiphany

      Baptism of the Lord (or Baptismal Renewal)

      Transfiguration

      Ash Wednesday

      Lent

      Palm/Passion Sunday

      Maundy Thursday

      Good Friday

      Easter

      Sunday after Easter

      Ascension Sunday

      Pentecost

      Trinity Sunday

      Sunday after Pentecost

      Ordinary Time

      World Communion

      All Saints

      Christ the King

      Resources

      Scripture Index

      Hymn Index

      INTRODUCTION

      We practice ministry and gather as Christians in the midst of worship wars. In the last century, the patterns and rituals of our worship were passed, uncontested for the most part, from generation to generation. And while warfare might be too strong a word to describe our conversations and debates about worship, particularly in a time of warfare around the globe, worship practices are no longer uncontested. This is true for styles of music, oral communication, the presence or absence of visual images, and the structure of the worship service itself.

      There is a real question, in the midst of these debates, about the need for confession of sin within the service of Christian worship. Some see confession as a set of rote expressions, sometimes disconnected from human behavior. Others view confession as a downer in the midst of more upbeat praise experiences. Yet others view worship as the reconstruction of the self-esteem of the individual; confession is an unnecessary detour on that journey.

      Some congregants have insisted to me that they do not feel that they have sinned; others do not quite see themselves in the words of confession. As a pastor I take these conversations very seriously. And yet, my reading of Scripture, my sense of the tradition, and my pastoral experience is heavily weighted in a different direction.

      The reality of sin is deeply embedded in the biblical witness: from the first saga, of Adam and Eve, through the lineage of the patriarchs and matriarchs to the enslavement of Israel by Pharaoh—and that’s just Genesis. Sin is pervasive throughout Scripture: from the social environment that called forth the rebuke of the prophets to the religious leaders who resisted the ministry of Jesus to the conflict and immorality that existed in early Christian communities.

      The teaching of the Scriptures across the centuries in the church, especially in the context of worship, led to the need for a formal recognition of confession of sin, often as a response to having come into the presence of a God who is worthy of our praise and adoration. These confessions were sometimes corporate, sometimes offered by the priest on behalf of the church, and sometimes related to the liturgical calendar.

      The tradition of confession serves God’s people best when it is in conversation with the rich diversity of human experience: personal and structural sin (see Reinhold Niebuhr’s classic Moral Man and Immoral Society), recurrent moral failure, remembrance of past horrors (as in the confession of complicity in racism or genocide), or attempts to discover meaning in human tragedy.

      Biblical faith teaches us to hold in tension our need to confess sin with God’s gracious offer of forgiveness. Without confession, we are not honest in examining our own lives before God or others in the human family. And yet confession itself, apart from assurance, leads to a demoralized condition and a downcast spirit. At the same time, assurance without confession (and repentance) results in cheap grace. The pastor and the laity are also aware that all of God’s people are in need of both confession and assurance; as the Apostle Paul wrote, "All have sinned and fall short of

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