Prayer of Confession

Recently I got a really cool birthday gift from a great aunt of mine. They are A Man Called Peter and The Prayers of Peter Marshall. Peter Marshall was a pastor back in the 30's and 40's who was known for his amazing prayers. He was eventually asked to be the Senate Chaplain and served Republicans and Democrats alike. The books were originally owned by my great grandmother (Maude Clemons). She and my great grandfather (Thomas Lincoln Clemons) loved Jesus a lot and gave their whole lives in service to him.

Below is one of the prayers by Peter Marshall. It is a prayer of repentance that I plan to use this Sunday as a way to start the season of Advent. I've edited out the Thees and Thous to make it a little easier to read.

"Confession" by Peter Marshall O Lord, I come to you out of my great need. You have pledged your word that whosoever comes to You shall in no way be cast out.

I dare to pray something will happen to me in Your presence. Lord, I know I need to be changed! For the visions that once swept across the leaden skies of monotony, like white-winged gulls, have dimmed and faded, and I would see them again. Open my eyes.

Shame fills my heart as I remember the aspirations that I have breathed before You, the vows I made, the resolves that were born, the seedlings of consecration that were planted in my heart. I blush to remember the withering blight that touched them all – my failure, my shortcomings.

Lord, I confess before You that: I have had longings and nudges from You which I did not translate into action;

I have made decisions without consulting You, then have blamed You when things went wrong.

I have said that I trusted You, yet have not turned my affairs over to You.

I have been greedy for present delights and pleasures, unwilling to wait for those joys which time and discipline alone can give.

I have often sought the easy way, have consistently drawn back from the road that is hard.

I have been fond of giving myself to dreams of what I am going to do sometime, yet have been so slow in getting started to do them.

Forgive me for all the intentions that were born and somehow never lived. These, Lord Jesus, are sins, grievous in Your sight, grievous even in mine.

And now I claim Your promise to change me. Do You for me what I cannot do for myself. Lead me into a new tomorrow with a new spirit. Cleanse my heart, create within me new attitudes and new ideas, as only You can create them.

For these good gifts, I thank You, Lord. Amen.

The Marketing of God

MERCYhouse made the news this week, or should I say The Buzz (click for article). If you live here in the Pioneer Valley, you've probably seen newstands with "The Buzz" in big red letters. It's an entertainment/news monthly that has been around a couple of years.

I had a blast talking to their executive editor Greg Saulmon. He planted the newspaper from scratch as one of several target specific papers distributed by the Sunday Republican. He and his counterpart did something you don't often see these days - journalism. They actually did their homework and wrote a stellar article about church in the valley.

What gave them the idea for a story about church was seeing the oldest Congregational church in Springfield close its doors because of dwindling funds and membership. At the same time they were seeing (and hearing) advertisements for the new Vineyard Church plant in Northampton and the new MERCYhouse site also in Northampton. This got Greg to thinking, "What's the difference?"

Their hunch was that it was marketing. That newer, growing churches are using more modern means for getting "the word" out. To some degree, they found what they were looking for. Growing churches seem to have websites and advertising. More modern worship environments and loud music. Even those that they interviewed from dying churches disdainfully confirmed that growing churches were selling out to Madison Ave.

I'd say that relevant marketing and communications are more than some slick technique to keep the church growing. They reveal something deeper about the ancient message that the church has held to for 2000 years. Usually referred to as "The Gospel" which means good news, it's the story of how God became a human in order to reconcile human beings to himself. It is God's cosmic marketing strategy for getting His product (himself) to his customers (human beings).

God, who is all knowing, all powerful, and all present considers his potential target - human beings. He tries thunder and lightening at Mt Sinai, appears as a low lying cloud in the Jerusalem temple, he even sends out 100's of salesmen (aka prophets) all with little success. He then unveils his most brilliant marketing approach yet. He becomes a little Jewish zygote in the womb of an unwed mother in a backwater village called Nazareth.

The fusion of God's bend over backwards accomodation with his unchanging message of a need for humans to reconcile with God is not only the source of salvation for the church, but also the model for how they are to go about proclaiming this good news. As Jesus is readying the disciples for his earthly departure, He gives them these instructions, "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you."

As the church, our job is to continue to search for ways to communicate the ancient message of the gospel in ways that make sense to our culture. To dress it up in those neutral elements of the culture that serve as bridges to those who are seemingly far from God.