A problem in the church: confession

Several quotes from chapter 8 of Darryl Tippen's book "Pilgrim Heart":

• From Deitrich Bonhoeffer's 'Life Together' (exposing the temptation of false piety among believers), "The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy."

• "A Christian who is not confessional is in peril - a danger to himself and to the community. An unconfessed Christian is an oxymoron, like a baker who hates bread or a fisherman who won't go near the water."

• "If we cannot see the bad news in our lives and confess it, we block the one pathway to hope. So, an essential step is truthtelling. Telling the truth about our dilemma initiates the walk towards God and opens up the path to extraordinary possibility. Yet confession is not something you do just once to get on the path to God. Truth-telling becomes an essential daily practice in the life of the believer if one is to stay on course. Rich and varied practices of confession will be embedded in our lives if we are to reach spiritual maturity."

• "Hidden sin, as Bonhoeffer observes, makes a sham of fellowship."

Tippen does warn that our confession needs to be done wisely. It is unhealthy to just blurt things out to anyone. Thus the need for a soul-friend.