Many of the exhortations in the Bible are not popular in today’s world. But a new study by the Barna Group indicates that one of the least favorite biblical principles might well be “Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow” Hebrews 13:17, NLT.
Because the underlying theme of the Christian life is one of being transformed from a selfish and self-driven individual to one who lives for and surrenders control of one’s life to God, the practice of accountability for life choices and behavior is central to that process of transformation. Yet, a national survey by the Barna Group among people who describe themselves as Christian and involved in a church discovered that only 5% indicated that their church does anything to hold them accountable for integrating biblical beliefs and principles into their life.
As a member of a congregation with a written set of (minimum) standards, I find this to be an interesting poll/study/survey.
And I’m curious where you and your congregation would have shown up in it.
That aside, here’s a little more from the above article:
“Barna Group studies among pastors and other church leaders have consistently shown that such leaders have a distaste for initiating any type of confrontation and conflict with congregants. Another barrier is that many followers of Christ are uncertain about the difference between judgment and discernment. Not wanting to be judgmental, they therefore avoid all conversation about the other person’s behavior—except, sometimes, gossip.
“One of the cornerstones of the biblical concept of community is that of mutual accountability. But Americans these days cherish privacy and freedom to the extent that the very idea of being held accountable by others—even those with their best interests in mind, or who have a legal or spiritual authority to do so—is considered inappropriate, antiquated and rigid. With a large majority of Christian churches proclaiming that people should know, trust and obey all of the behavioral principles taught in the Bible, overlooking a principle as foundational as accountability breeds even more public confusion about scriptural authority and faith-based community, as well as personal behavioral responsibility.”
Anyway, here’s the full story: The Barna Group – National Study Describes Christian Accountability Provided by Churches
One problem with the concept of spiritual authority, is that it has been used extensively and abused by cults, to bring people under bondage to a man and to the rules of man. I am primarily accountable to God. I have sometimes been urged to do things by spiritual leaders which God clearly told me not to do. But I do wish for some accountability, some sort of Biblical albeit minimal standards in written form, in my church. As far as I know we have none, but I feel confident that should I, or anyone else get far off the track, straying from clear Bible teachings, we would be corrected, and if we did not repent, we would probably be asked not to come, and the faithful would be told to avoid us. It seems that has happened a few times in our body. I think we don’t have standards because we don’t really understand what love is.
Accountability to man is a very sticky issue, in my opinion. I, too, have been asked by church leaders to do things that I could not in good conscience do – and therein lies the problem. I don’t fault the church leaders totally, as I feel they were trying to do the right thing – but they refused to accept my explanation of why I did what I did, and find a creative solution that would be acceptable to the church without violating my own conscience.
As I see it, accountability to man is not taught in the Scripture – it is accountability to God that is important to God. Or to put it another way, it’s what God thinks of me that matters, not what the church (or any other man) thinks of me. That is the message that I received from God on this matter.
You know? This IS a tough subject. I agree with the first comment (spiritual accountability having been abused by SOME spiritual leaders). The other part is the whole concept of grace, love, forgiveness and judgment.
We seem not to be able to find the right balance. 🙁 I CANNOT agree that accountability to man isn’t taught in the Bible. It is simply NOT true! But this thinking is what gives so many what they feel is a license to sin (often times against others in the process), not apologize and walk around totally unremorseful.
People are quick to say ‘don’t judge me’ and it true that we SHOULDN’T judge others’ to hell… BUT, we know the difference between right and wrong. Especially those of us who claim to have the Comforter living in us…
A lot of times people want to live (practice) outside of God’s established way and then just expect everyone else to just ‘mind our business’ all the while these people are public figures. Singing. Preaching. Praying for people ect with NO regard to their lifestyle.
It’s really sad! 🙁 What is worse is just the arrogance that we have to be accountable to no one but God. So what should the trail of ‘hurt’ people do in lieu of this?
Accountability is often what keeps us grounded and on task. Granted (as stated above) it has to be done in balance. Part of why this is such an issue is because there will always be those of us (mostly out of ignorance) who place LAW before GRACE.
We will decide who the ‘sinners’ are amongst us by if someone has a drink… if someone smokes… if someone is (in our opinion) too vocal… if they don’t “appear” humble enough… Sometimes the measure isn’t God or His word but rather our own set of PERSONAL convictions, what our group/church teaches or based on how we were raised (I.E. to some wearing pants is actually a sin… you wear them as a woman and you were never converted in the first place).
All in all, I still feel, accountability is necessary! If more of our churches had it in earnest, we would be more prone to community and spiritual growth/maturity. We would have less repeat of detrimental choices and lifestyles and more Christians who look like Christ.
But… The other part of that is the legalism that is rooted in a lot of our communities, the religious judgment based on our OWN standards and the fact that when truth is preached, (I know! This is relative to what we view as truth), people just leave and go somewhere else! LOL! 🙂
So… It’s like how do we know who is preaching truth? We could find a church (probably within a 10 mile radius) that will preach every measure of ‘truth’ American Christians’ represent! 30 different belief sets and 30 different churches that say ‘no your belief set is right!’…
Lord help us!