How Many?

While I agree that we must pray for one-another, this discussion went way off topic. Our Synod's (LCC) position regarding confession is this:

The whole document can be found here: https://www.lutheranchurchcanada.ca...tor-and-People-Together-in-Christs-Church.pdf

While our Churches still share enough in common to remain in the closest of fellowship, the fact remains that the LCMS has not only retained, but reaffirmed "Walthers Kirche und Amt" as accepted dogma. If you are willing to learn more, please read Pastor and People Together in Christ's Church linked above.

Private discussions, unless one is confessing to one that they have wronged do not constitute "Confession", nor does the forgiveness given back by the one who was wronged constitute Holy Absolution. Likewise, discussing ones sin with another who is not your Pastor, does not constitute the office of Confession.

Such opinions, personal or proliferated by the Church are at odds with our Confessions and Scripture.

I have always called things as I see them, and I have not always been right. In this particular discussion, I think that from this point on I will let Scripture, our confessions and the cloud of witnesses that have reiterated these truths from the inception of Christ's Church.

MarkRohfrietsch said:

While our Churches still share enough in common to remain in the closest of fellowship, the fact remains that the LCMS has not only retained, but reaffirmed "Walthers Kirche und Amt" as accepted dogma. If you are willing to learn more, please read Pastor and People Together in Christ's Church linked above.

Private discussions, unless one is confessing to one that they have wronged do not constitute "Confession", nor does the forgiveness given back by the one who was wronged constitute Holy Absolution. Likewise, discussing ones sin with another who is not your Pastor, does not constitute the office of Confession.

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A discussion of Church & Ministry, if it can be kept free of ad hominem, might be interesting.

Hope1960 said:

I’m a member of LCMS BUT my church is very contemporary. Might my pastor not respect the seal of the confessional, and blab my sins?

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No, you missed the point. Only your Pastor can announce Holy Absolution. Read our confessions.

Haven't done Confession in the strictest sense, but I have had several one-on-one discussions with the local pastor about issues bothering me.

These have been considerably more helpful than discussing such things with family or friends because 1) I'm married to an unbeliever, 2) my father isn't concerned with issues of morality (he leans toward Antinomianism), thinks people can be saved after they die and that hell isn't eternal (thus we should be happy all the time and not worry about stuff like sin), and that I need to resolve all issues by having audible conversations with God and "hearing His voice" and coming to my own conclusions (he doesn't care much for church or human authority), 3) my mother is dead and probably would have said similar things to my father, 4) my sister doesn't believe much (if at all), 5) my brother is bipolar and unstable, and 6) I don't have outside friends right now due to autism; further, my old Calvinist friends were legalistic patriarchal sorts who also put far too much stock in the Jungian 16 type system, and some of the discussions I've had with the pastor have helped put all that past baggage into perspective as well.

So in my case, I probably have as much understanding as any as to the necessity of pastoral intervention. When you're a woman who has been through as much bad doctrine from close associates, as I have, you tend not to trust yourself or anyone close with spiritual matters, because you've seen too much nonsense, even from the most well-meaning (being sincere, still means you can be sincerely wrong and deceived -- as I believe has been the case with most of my family and former friends).

Hope1960 said:

We don’t have confessionals so we’d have to confess face to face.

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I did confession at a Lutheran church near St. Louis where there was a small chapel off the pastor's office, with a thick black curtain set up so it could be drawn around to make an enclosed "cubicle". No chair, though; confession was done kneeling!

Resha Caner said:

I've only done it a few times. I've done it much more frequently with my family.

Again, you have to understand that a Lutheran pastor's role is different than a Catholic priest. You are forgiven - always. It's not something that happens in the moment when the pastor announces it. Rather, he is helping you to understand the extent of God's grace and helping you to work through whatever guilt may remain or whatever consequences you're going to face when you leave the confessional.

So, if you have someone in your life who shares your faith and with whom you are comfortable sharing the deep stuff, that person could be your confessor. It doesn't have to be the pastor.

As ViaCrucis explained, what the church has done is make sure there is someone who is always available to you for those purposes (if you don't have anyone else), and in whom we can have confidence that church practice will always adhere to the Lutheran confession. That person is your pastor.

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At the LCMS church I attended in my university days getting a science degree, the elders were trained to hear confessions. Every member chose their elder. Elders passed serious issues on to the pastor, though that wasn't common. The form of confession varied from elder to elder; mine preferred long walks.
BTW, the elders didn't pronounce absolution; they "announced" forgiveness, absolution was given by the pastor.