"I've Got to Confess..."

Worship at Crosswinds is measured in fairly precise terms - every minute, every second COUNTS. Our schedule is laid out with an insane degree of detail - every possible element is accounted for: 6 minutes for a drama, 4 minutes for a vocal solo, 2 minutes for a prayer or announcements, 2-4 minutes for a video, 14 minutes for a song set... The elements are designed to flow seamlessly from one to another, transitions are strategically planned, musical arrangements are crafted, and heaven FORBID the speaker should go off script and overflow their 30 minute time slot for the message... Our purpose is honorable - we want to respect our guests, volunteers and families by valuing their time.

So imagine the smile that broke over my face when I read Nehemiah 9:3 this morning: "The Book of the Law of the LORD their God was read aloud to them for about three hours. Then for three more hours they took turns confessing their sins and worshiping the LORD their God."

I pictured the worship schedule for that particular event...it could have been printed on a Post It note: 3 hours of standing while someone reads the Bible out loud, and then 3 more hours of confessing our "stuff" and worshiping God. (Cool. No rehearsals. :-)

Besides being stunned with the simplicity of the experience, and the unbelievably long ATTENTION SPAN of that congregation, I was pretty impressed with the connection between confession and worship. I could picture the invigorating, honest, back and forth conversation between God and his people as they confessed their sins, He lavished his forgiveness and grace on them, and they responded with full on, joyful worship and thanksgiving.

There's a whole lot of irony in "confession." It's dead last on our list of fun-things-to-do. Many of us spend ridiculous amounts of energy AVOIDING the simple act of naming our sin before God. But the moment, the SECOND we confess our sin, we ARE fully forgiven, completely transformed, and ready to worship. Crazy, isn't it? Why does it take us so long to step one foot across the line and into FREEDOM?

It seems to me that the first and most important "act of worship" isn't in the planning, or scheduling, or staffing, or rehearsing or timing of the worship experience (although those are all very important and good). It may be in the words we speak to God BEFORE we tune up our guitars, or program our lights, or put on our mics, or check our sound levels, or proof read our slides, or step out onto the stage... what do you think?