Robin, what you say rings true in my experience as well. I don't know that it was the official teaching of IVCF when I was involved with it many years ago but it was the widely accepted understanding and practice of the group to confess sins publicly. There were some where some people would actually seek to outdo one another in giving testimony to their sinful behavior. The worse it was, the more pleasing it was to the group. A weird kind of spiritual pride. This certainly did result in gossip and backbiting. Like you I learned from bad experiences the hard truth of John 2:24, 25 "But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, and because he needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man."

The Chestnut Mare