Hey Preacher,
A baptized man, after having fallen away from the church for a number of years comes to services, and after attending for several weeks, asks an elder of the church how he can place membership with the congregation. He states he has prayed for forgiveness and wants to live a Godly life. An announcement is made to the congregation that he wants to place membership and he is accepted and welcomed. Question: Is a public repentance, coming forward and asking the church for strength and forgiveness, necessary? Some in the church say yes. Your thoughts?
The details of the question lead me to believe that this is a specific situation in a specific church and not a mere hypothetical. If my assumption is correct, I want to offer a caveat. I believe that each local church is autonomous, so it’s not my intention to involve myself in a congregational matter that doesn’t concern me. I’m just a guy with a blog who is part of his own church family. Therefore, I am going to offer my answer as if the question is a mere hypothetical.
If a person sins against God alone, or if God alone is aware of one’s sin, then I know of no passage that would require a person to acknowledge that sin in the presence of others. If one’s sin involves another person, then the confession of that sin should be made to that person (Matt. 5:23-26; 18:15). If additional people are aware of the sin, they should know if the offender is penitent (Matt. 18:16-17).
The situation as described in the question is more than a personal matter between the offender and God, or a matter between the offender and a handful of people. It appears to be a matter that is commonly known by the church. In the question above, it is said, “He states he has prayed for forgiveness and wants to live a Godly life.” If that message was conveyed to the church, then I have no problem with what was done. If that was not conveyed to the church, I would counsel the person to do that. In Acts 19, Luke records that there were “believers” (i.e., Christians) in Ephesus who had been guilty of engaging in sorcery and “magic arts.” Upon being convicted of their sin, they came “confessing and divulging their practices” (Acts 19:18). That seems to me to be a good pattern to follow.
Consider this: if the faithful are to “restore” one who had been overcome by sin (Gal. 6:1), would it not behoove the penitent transgressor to let the church know his desire for restoration so they can turn their attention away from him and toward those still in need of being restored?
As far as HOW one conveys this information to the church, several options could be chosen. One could respond to the public invitation at the end of a church assembly. One might ask the elders to announce one’s penitence to the church. One could have a written announcement placed in a church bulletin, emailed to the church membership, or posted on the church’s social media platforms. It seems to me that the method of this confession is less important than the fact of it.
I have heard it said many times that the confession of a sin should be as public as the sin itself. While I can’t point to a single passage of Scripture that uses those exact words, the whole of Biblical teaching seems to me to support that idea.