Oh the Joys of Accountability

In today's post, I've adapted a prior article that I wrote for my church so that we could dialogue about it a little bit. So here you go:

Though I have experienced the joys of accountability, my title for this article was written a bit tongue-in-cheek. The Lord has given me opportunities in the past couple of years to rethink the practices that we typically consider as a normal part of accountability. Let me paint a picture of accountability for you.... In effective accountability, honesty abounds. Members experience Christian community by living out James 5:16, "Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” This is a safe place where the sinner can be set free from shame through the opportunity to be honest with trusted friends, and where those friends get the opportunity to extend Jesus’ love, accepting support, and forgiveness in spite of the entangling sin. Beautiful, isn’t it? This is one of the true joys of accountability. However, this is not the whole picture....

Honesty in accountability is wonderful. However, loving, supportive, acceptance of one another in the midst of our sin gives us a distorted, one-sided view of accountability. Accountability members are reminded in Ephesians that they are to “speak the truth in love”. So, effective accountability is not just honest and loving; it also involves both rebuke and forgiveness. In Luke 17:3, Jesus says, "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him." So what happens when in weekly accountability the same sins keep coming up? What happens when your accountability partners choose the bondage of repeated sin and then mouth the words of repentance? Better yet, what happens when you choose the bondage of repeated sin and then mouth the words of repentance? If an accountability relationship is at the point where we’re frustrated and asking these questions, then we are missing the greatest joy of accountability. Let me explain.

God has really reconfigured my thinking on accountability. Here is my epiphany: Accountability is not primarily about our sin; accountability is primarily about our pursuit of God. During a wonderful evening a little over a year ago, my best friends and partners in ministry at the time (Ben and Josh) and I were afforded the tremendous opportunity to have dinner with one of our favorite couples, Jim and Sue. That night God struck me, again, with what God has intended accountability to be. Jim and Sue recounted to us their then recent spiritual retreat, where Larry Crabb had challenged them to, as Jim said, "draw out the gold in people." What does that mean? It means that we are to encourage one another in our walks with Christ first—not focus on sin first! Our focus on putting off sin must come as a response to our deep personal desire to pursue God and honor him with who we are (Romans 12:1). In accountability, this could look like focusing on, “What did you do this week to pursue Jesus?” or “How did you meet with God this week?” rather than, “How have you sinned this week?” When the focus of accountability is sin, then sin will continue to abound, and when the focus of accountability is Jesus and our pursuit of Him, then He will abound in our lives. It reminds me of a statement that God impressed upon my heart in college and something he continues to teach me still today: “Sin breeds more sin, and holiness breeds more holiness.” When our focus is on our pursuit of Jesus, it is only natural that we will change sinful habits in our lives and throw off anything that hinders (Hebrews 12:1). Holiness does truly "breed" more holiness. I’m convinced that we need to draw out the Jesus in one another and experience the greatest joy of accountability.

Care to join me?