Kim,
As far as churches
"encourag(ing) confession of sin individually and verbally within the context of the corporate worship service" I have no direct knowledge; although from the several responses to this thread it seems like there might be a continuum of practices out there.
If the personal example I cited above, even after being balanced by the regulatory principles I both concurred with and elaborated on, still gives the impression the my church practices and encourages
unregulated, individual, open, verbal, communal confession during corporate worship, I must simply state that is not the case.
The few examples I can remember of what my church considers appropriate public confession have been both
infrequent (maybe once every few years?) and have involved offenses which had not required official discipline, but were yet known to at least part of the body as a whole.
In my own example, I had already privately confessed my carelessness to the parents of the boys in my car prior to the service; but since I knew that others had seen or heard of the incident, and also because I felt it improper to publically praise God for graciously delivering us from premature death without acknowledging my guilt in the matter, I did both.
The other instances I recall have involved: a member who had not come to church for a long time, asking forgiveness for forsaking his duty to meet with the body; individuals asking forgiveness for having behaved publically in a (non-scandalous, but) generally offensive manner to the body or to the Lord; and a teacher or elder correcting an instance of faulty exegesis the prior week. There are probably others, but the common thread has been a need--far short of calling a disciplinary meeting--where the entire body would profit by hearing a particular confession.
As I tried to emphasize in my response to Jeremy, however, the vast majority of confession should be done:
- privately, or
- to offended individuals, or
- to the more spiritual in the body, or
- to the elders (with their wives, where women are involved), or
- to the church in settings--such as prayer meetings or retreats--allowing elaboration of complex (but not interpersonal) situations
In a healthy, "open" church, especially a small, parish-model community of believers, all of the above types of confession should be functioning regularly.
