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Online Confession Website Draws National AttentionEDMOND, OK (September 1, 2006) - The online confession website of LifeChurch.tv has drawn national attention with an article in today’s edition of the New York Times.Life Church is a multi-site campus with nine locations in several states and an online worship service. Drawing 18,000 attendees each week collectively at the different sites, the congregation is the largest in the Evangelical Covenant Church. Pastor Craig Groeschel says the mysecret.tv confession website has attracted 150,000 visitors and 1,500 confessions so far. Confessions include people telling their stories of adultery, thievery and abortions. Years of hearing people confessing secrets led Groeschel to believe an online site would be an important part of ministry. “I realized that people are carrying around dark secrets, and the website is giving them a first place for confession,” he tells the Times. Visitors confess not only sins, but also past pain that continues to haunt them. “I am a male in my early 30's that was molested by a family member when I was an adolescent,” one writer recalls. “The abuse went on for about five years off and on. For years I never told anyone and have just recently started to deal with it. I am hoping God will give me the strength to continue on my journey of healing, and set aside my feeling of shame and guilt.” The church has drawn criticism from those who believe confessing online is not the same as confessing to someone in person – also questioning that forgiveness can be found over the web. Groeschel tells the Times, however, that “there’s no magic in confessing on a website. My biggest fear is that someone would think that and would go on with life. This is just Step One.” The online site is not a confessional, Groeschel says, because that would involve absolution. Although there is no way for the church to know who logs onto the site so that they can extend a helping hand, the website does include Christian resources for helping people to work through their sin and pain. The website also encourages people to attend church, including Life Church’s own online worship service. The mysecret.tv site includes a link by which people can share their stories of healing. Accounts of people recovering from abuse and families being restored after confession of adultery and pornography populate the site. Scott L. Thumma, professor of the sociology of religion at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, tells the Times the website is important for giving people the opportunity to realize they are not alone. To read the full account in today’s newspaper, visit the New York Times. To read an earlier account of the online confession website, please see Virtual Confessions. Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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