Accountability. What is it? What does it look like?
Two years ago, Pastor Leonard Dow was abruptly summoned home by news of a grievous incident within his church: a young, recently-married woman was discovered to have cheated on her husband with two young men. Anger gave way to sadness, frustration, and finally embarrassment as he berated himself for having failed to keep the believers in his church accountable. Not being one to simply lament over a mess and walk away, however, he immediately went about setting things right. He met with all of the parties involved, cleared up the issues, and spoke to his congregation. After careful deliberation, the two young men were asked to attend different churches for some time, each accompanied by a brother to their new church. The couple was allowed to remain, and the church paid for them to have marriage counseling. On Easter Sunday, six months after the incident, the two young men were welcomed back by the community of believers. All of the individuals involved in this affair are now active in the ministry, serving as living testimonies of the grace and forgiveness that comes from Christ Jesus.
According to Pastor Dow, accountability is about speaking out when a brother or sister goes astray. It’s about dealing with hard, messy situations. It’s about being a friend--not just a “Facebook friend,” but a real, genuinely-caring, and completely honest friend.
Pastor Dow presented an acrostic to help us better understand some elements we should expect in such a friendship:
Family - A brother or sister in Christ. Luke 8:21 was given as an example.
Respect - Someone who shows you respect as well as someone whom you respect.
Intentional - Willing to roll up their sleeves, just as the church was in Acts 4:32-35, where the believers were intentional in loving and taking care of each other’s needs.
Encouragement - The person should be your biggest cheerleader, just as Jonathan was for David in 1 Samuel 20.
Near - Near doesn’t have to mean geographic propinquity, but closeness in heart and spirit. Shared experiences foster close friendships, and inside jokes are a plus.
Disagreement - The friend should be willing and ready to disagree with you, but also desirous of mending the friendship after disagreements. According to Proverbs 27:6, “wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”
In Exodus 4, the Lord told Moses to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt. The understandably nervous Moses wasn’t too thrilled at the idea, and he kept on making excuses not to go. God performed miracles for him, but he only consented to go once the Lord sent Aaron to go with him. He needed a friend to be there for him. After large group, Nate pointed out that the Lord tells Moses that “[Aaron] is already on his way to meet you” (Exodus 4:14). In other words, God anticipated that Moses would need someone by his side and provided a brother to help! Just how great is our God, exactly? :)
We all need to be accountable to someone. According to Ecclesiastes 4:9-10:
“Two are better than one,
Because they have good return for their labor:
If one of them falls down,
One can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
And has no one to help them up.”
The question we face here isn’t whether or not we will fall, it’s what we will do when we fall. Hopefully those of you reading this blog have someone you can lean on and trust within SCF. If not, keep coming to SCF events! Let’s build a community of trust!
No comments:
Post a Comment