I WONDER IF WE NEED TO REPENT ABOUT REPENTANCE
 
This booklet helps to clear up some of the misconceptions concerning real repentance. Repentance may not seem like a crucial issue for some, but if we are going to have authority to help others repent, we must be good repenters ourselves. This study may open your eyes to see just how incomplete our understanding of repentance is.
 
According to Hebrews 6:1-3, repentance is one of the most elementary doctrines of the church, yet, as a pastor, I am often surprised by how little people seem to know about real repentance. Other than being encouraged to repent, I cannot remember the last time I heard it clearly laid out in a sermon. While we have become fairly good at acknowledging our sins, we are not that great at repenting of them. I often hear Christians acknowledge wrongdoing, both to God and themselves, and sometimes even to others, but if repentance were a mile-long journey, acknowledgment would only be the first step; asking for forgiveness would be another step, but neither of these are all there is to repentance. 
I have heard people say, “so-and-so has repented,” because they witnessed a person go to the church altar to ask for forgiveness, but the individual did not have time to actually repent. As you will see in our study together, true or real repentance takes time. 
 
Christians often confuse the issue of asking for forgiveness with repentance. The proof that we have not repented lies in the fact that we repeatedly ask God for forgiveness while continuing to do what we have acknowledged as being wrong in the first place. 
 
In this little booklet, I want to explore what repentance looks like in real life. I want to help equip those who work in ministry, who are trying to meet people’s deep spiritual needs, so they know what the symptoms are, what steps are required to move in the right direction, and what it looks like when someone finally arrives at the desired destination.