The last several weeks I’ve been posting about Journey Outcomes. Each outcome is the desired result of putting our mission at Wilkesboro Baptist into action.

Years ago, I formed an accountability group with several friends in my Sunday school class. We gathered and asked each other difficult and confronting questions. We needed accountability.

Nearly twenty-five years ago, I met Craig Thompson at seminary classes in Greenville, South Carolina. Since those seminary days, we completed our doctoral work together and have remained good friends. For much of the last 15 years, we’ve talked regularly and asked and answered hard questions from each other. Few people know my struggles and my challenges like Craig. More times than I can count, he’s held me accountable.

When I came to Wilkesboro Baptist eleven years ago, I remember conversations with our personnel committee about staff evaluations and leadership accountability. One of the unanswered questions then was the direct accountability for the Senior Pastor at Wilkesboro Baptist. I could hold our staff accountable through evaluations with the personnel committee. But how who was I accountable to? And how would that accountability work? Pastoral accountability is one of the reasons we are now a church with a plurality of elders.

I can’t tell you the number of churches and people who have been damaged because leaders had no meaningful accountability. I can’t tell you the number of leaders who have failed and fallen out of ministry altogether due in part to a lack of accountability.

Organizational structures and accountability practices are vital for churches, pastors, elders, staff, and leaders. In response to the podcast several years ago on the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Jonathan Leeman observed the following:

When an organization is growing and prosperous, nobody cares much about its governing structures or polity. ‘If it ain’t broke, why fix it?’ People only care when things fall apart. Then they clamor, ‘Who has the power of discipline here? And who should be holding whom accountable?’ Discipline and accountability are the first things people wonder about when leaders fail… Polity is not essential for salvation, but it’s essential for helping the saved walk lovingly and peaceably together. It’s essential for passing the gospel to the next generation. It’s essential, finally, for biblical obedience.

Jonathan Leeman, , “An Ecclesiological Take on the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill,” https://www.9marks.org/article/an-ecclesiological-take-on-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/

We have a plurality of elders in part for this reason. Every year I sit under our elders for my annual evaluation. Each time we meet, I’m asked and questioned by our elders regarding a host of leadership, personal, and ministry level issues. And I meet regularly with one of our lay elders for direct accountability regarding issues, challenges, and struggles in my life.

I write all this because I believe deeply in this Journey Outcome.

Journey Outcome #5 – Be accountable to a person or group.

Part of being a spiritually healthy church is knowing others and being known by others. I like to say it this way:

We cannot follow Jesus anonymously.

I know and understand there are people who want to attend church and remain largely in the background. Some folks just want to show up for worship and leave. Some folks come to church to heal from difficult situations or church hurt situations. Others are afraid to be vulnerable. Some just take a while to open up. People in all these situations have showed up at our church over the past several years. Time, patience, and healing are all ok.

But at some point, if we’re going to follow Jesus faithfully, we can’t do that anonymously.

We need to know others and be known by others. We need to be accountable to a person or group. Accountability has different layers and levels. The most straightforward level is practicing the previous Journey Outcome and sharing regularly with a group what you’ve been reading from Scripture. Discipleship groups offer accountability regarding Scripture reading, prayer for each another, Scripture memory, church attendance, or supplemental reading. One-on-one accountability gets more detailed with in-depth questions about struggles, sins, challenges, and prayers.

Here are a few ways to foster accountability in your life:

• Integrate into a group to pursue accountability. The starting point for accountability is the next layer or level of relationship and growth. If you’re at Wilkesboro Baptist and you’re worshiping, then find a Sunday school class. If you’re in Sunday school, join a Bible study or discipleship group. If you’re in a discipleship group, consider asking a member you trust to be your accountability partner. Think about our mission as a process and take the next step for growth.
• Foster relationships that could become accountability relationships. Good accountability relationships require a sense of mutuality. My one-on-one conversations happen with a lay elder at our church and a pastor friend. These relationships bear a measure of equality. A mentor is great, and a mentee is also great, but those relationships are weighted with one person receiving more than they’re giving. Healthy accountability is mutual and generally equal in shared weight. Finding that person will mean relational investment.
• Develop a list of questions and/or struggles that would be good accountability areas in your life. Questions could relate to use of time, screen or viewing content, consistency of Scripture and prayer, relationship health, etc. My partners ask me hard questions when we talk. These questions have changed over the years as my struggles have changed.
• Imbed accountability layers in your groups and friendships. For example: I’m accountable to my discipleship group for Scripture reading; to my family for provision and time; to the elder body for church work and leadership; to my accountability partners for honesty and prayer. Accountability may not look the same for everyone, but everyone of us should pursue accountability because we cannot follow Jesus anonymously.
• Accept the benefits, but understand the limitations of accountability. I’ve known pastor friends who had accountability partners, yet they still sinned morally. Accountability is not a surefire solution to keep you from sin. It serves as a part of the solution. Accountability relationships function like fences to guard us against sin and temptation, but they won’t transform our hearts or our will. The pursuit of holiness demands that God reform and transform us. The more we love God and want to seek him and pursue him, the less our hearts will drift toward or desire sin. The collaboration of healthy accountability relationships and spiritual disciplines partner with the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and character.

If you read this post and know you need accountability, pause. Pray. Ask God for a person you can trust with whom you can find mutual accountability. If you’d like more guidance on this outcome, let me know. We’d be happy to help you find accountability in your life.