GroshLink

My friend Miller's helpful thoughts on confessing to one another.

the james command "to one another" implies to me one-on-one...specific sins shared in confidence with another person for purposes of healing, repentance, restoration...in the OT the public confessions seemed more general, and were the sins of a people...i suppose that few [Roman] catholics go to confession anymore...but that could have been good...very few people have one good friend that they can share like this...someone who is not judgmental...i think john stott says that the confession should not be made to a group any wider than the ones we have offended...

so the asbury pattern goes overboard i think...saying in front of a group, i was very jealous of bob, etc. ...and i feel uncomfortable [specifics excerpted] if it becomes a spectacle to attract students to the meeting, that's too much...and the old oxford movement (eventually it turned into moral rearmament), the regular meeting of a few for purposes of confession often turned into just emotional catharsis, with no repentance..and somehow it reinforced the sin, and even aggravated it...

a friend said he was meeting in such a group, but often they just pulled each other down...and one or two of them just "got things off their chest", with no intention of going further...