Repent

Well I have a questions
When we admit we are sinners and accept Jesus Christ into our life, we will be born again with new life because our sins are washed way by blood of Jesus Christ who died for us on the cross. For repentance, is it just a
is it necessary to openly repent for the all our wrong doings? I know for some churches, their members will come forward every week to openly repent? Is this really necessary ?

We are a kingdom of priests. We come before the Father with our confession of sins privately as per 1 Jn 1:9. This is the mechanism for returning to fellowship and regaining the filling of the Holy Spirit, and we have the privilege to do so moment by moment as necessary.
Our sins are really no body else's business. I believe it is harmful for a church to practice confession before the congregation. It only stirs up more mental attitude sins in the congregation. Our confession is made directly to the Father not to the congregation. It is the Father's righteousness that has been offended not the congregation's. You may decide to apologize to someone you offended but that is for maintaining a human relationship.

There seems to be a confusion between confession and repentance. If I am confessing to a sin and continue to commit the same sin then I am not actively repenting. Repentance goes beyond words and feelings. It is a verb and needs to be treated that way. I am not saying that we don't struggle and sometimes fail but to go forward every week about the same issue would give pause to call it repentance. (This is a very generalized response as there are many variables and i don't know the people involved.)

Hello @Snowball28, I have family members who are part of the Nazarene church. They do what you have described during every service, and sometimes more than just once (as many, if memory serves, head up to the front of the church as soon as they feel convicted of a sin they may have committed, but not confessed/repented of properly). They do this because I believe the Nazarene church teaches them that they actually lose their salvation whenever they harbor an unconfessed sin, which simply is not Biblical, just FYI .. e.g. John 5:24, 6:37-40, 10:27-28; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 5:13.

Also, as Protestants, we follow what the Bible says, rather than the system created by the Roman Catholic Church (called "Sacerdotalism") that necessitates confession to a priest if they want to have their sins forgiven. We are, however, admonished to do so with our fellow believers for each other's well-being (but it is not ~necessary~ to do so). As @Pemican already mentioned above, we are a kingdom of priests, a "royal priesthood" of believers .. e.g. 1 Peter 2:9.


At my church, all are welcome to come forward to meet with our elders at the end of each service, and we do have what is referred to as "altar calls" on occasion (and at every Good Friday service). Going forward is never mandatory, and we never confess our sins before the congregation, only to God (or to our pastors/elders if we choose to for some reason, but privately, so that they'll know how to guide us and pray for us).

When we sin as Christians and are convicted of that fact by the Holy Spirit, we confess our sins to God and repent (we stop sinning/turn away from sinning again). If we do choose to sin again (even the same sin) the Lord is always there ready to forgive us again, as often as necessary, in fact .. e.g. Matthew 18:21-22; 1 John 1:9-2:1. (@laughingheart did a great job of explaining this above )

God bless you!

~Deut

Let me ask you this:

How did Christ teach us to pray?

Was part of that prayer: "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us...."

Do we JUST do this one time?

Its tricky to respond to this because i would not recommend casually doing this but i used to it myself. Its good when there is someone that can strengthen us when we repent and give good advice, but at the same time i believe repentance should be emphasised to God and not others. The point is there is no shame in repenting secretly.