After yesterday's Pruitt and Trueman double act at 'Amateur Night at the Ref21 Club', here (I hope) is a post that will possess more than a mere punctuation mark or heading and also (in a break with Ref21 tradition) prove somewhat helpful and edifying: a brilliant summary of the biblical philosophy of Christian ministry from Terry Johnson.    I particularly appreciated this paragraph:

However, there is a very, very modern sense of "honesty," or "vulnerability" that some would make a biblical norm. One will search in vain to see any trace of today's popular understanding of "openness" prior to the 1960's. Yet some wish to impose this popular meaning upon the church today. They want Facebook from the pulpit and Oprah Winfrey in the pews. I resist much of this. Most of our struggles are between ourselves and God. They are no one else's business: not the priest's, not my elder's, not my neighbor's. Moreover, little that is edifying is to be gained by you knowing what is going on in my thought life or when I'm in solitude. It's bad enough that I am exposed to my twisted thoughts and my private tantrums. Other sins should only be confessed within the confines of the family. Typically, only notorious public sins are to be subject to public scrutiny.

Thanks to the Royal House of Stewart for this lead.