Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Accountability
The main point of this article is that accountability is one of the tools pastoral leaders can use to keep them from experiencing a moral failure. I liked how the author focused on accountability just being a tool not the solution. He used the example of two of his pastor friends who had just recently had moral failures. He talked about how one of these pastors was involved in an accountability group. I know that I have been involved in accountability groups and have found them dull and boring. They do not really challenge me and I know that I can lie and cover my tracks so that they have no idea what is really going on in my life. In other words, the group cannot truly hold me accountable which is the purpose of the group. When I have been involved in accountability groups I have been left questioning the validity of this accountability and wondering, "Surely, there is a better way than this?" The author then lists five basic steps to help achieve a healthy accountability group. The fourth step I found the most interesting. He says that we should lie to our accountability groups to see if they will press us further and ask questions about the deep and private parts our lives. He believes that this will train the members of the group to ask hard questions and be relentless in their pursuit of honesty. I see the author's point but I do not know if a good way of building trust in a group.
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I think that his second rule was also good: Find men who have regular contact with you and observe you life closely. I visited a friend of mine’s accountability group when I was in high school and it was pretty clear to me that no one was friends with each other outside of that group, that they only saw each other once a week. If no one is around you making sure that you are doing or not doing what you are saying, then that is not accountability. Another part of that group is that it had over ten guys in it. I don’t know about you, but I am not going to tell ten different guys a list of my sin each week. In college, I found a much better situation, where two close friends and I met weekly and talked about our spiritual lives and where we were struggling and encouraged each other. Though this group was not perfect. They didn’t always ask me the hard questions, and often showed grace a little too quickly. I think if an accountability group is going to work: it needs to be small, overly invasive, and able to risk the relationship in order build the spirit.
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