Accountability

Accountability - More Than Just Confession

What is accountability?
Accountability is an intentional relationship of confession, prayer and healing.

Intentionality
In order for accountability to be healthy and biblical it must first be intentional.

For an intentional partnership both people need to buy-in to it, and have an agreed agenda. Buy-in means that you both see the value in accountability and enter in to the relationship with joy and purpose. An agreed agenda simply means that you are both in agreement on why you meet, when you meet and what you discuss when you meet. Without intentionality, accountability runs the risk of being ineffective or sidetracked by disputes.

Confession
The three pillars of accountability are confession, prayer and healing [James 5.16].

Just as having no agenda will sidetrack your accountability, so having no confession will cripple it. An accountability partnership is only as valuable as the truthfulness of its participants.

For your accountability partnership to be biblical and healthy it requires a willingness from both parties to open up and allow themselves to be vulnerable. Each person needs to know they can trust the other. For trust to be maintained, confession must be kept in confidence [Proverbs 17.27; 18.8, 21; 21.23].

Prayer
Our response to confession is prayer – for forgiveness [1 John 1:9], help [Hebrews 4:16] and healing [James 5:16]; both for ourselves and for one another. When we pray this way there is great power in it [James 5:16].

For healthy, biblical accountability we should pray for each other not just in the moment we meet, but also throughout the week. Scripture teaches us that we should pray constantly [1 Thessalonians 5.17], steadfastly [Colossians 4.2], earnestly [Phillipians 4.6], with devotion [Acts 6.4] and humility [Luke 18.9-14].

Healing
As believers our sin should convict us, but it is important to remember that it does not condemn us [Romans 8.1], and nor should accountability. Rather, it leads to healing [James 5.16], promotes love and good works [Hebrews 10.24-25] and refines us to be more like Christ [Proverbs 27.17].

As part of the healing process, we will at times need to call our brother or sister out of their sin. This should be done with love and gentleness [Galatians 6.2]. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.”

The Call Of A Church Planter

Have you heard the call?

The difference between a calling and a job is significant. A calling is something that consumes you; a job is just something that you do. As a church planter, you will need to be certain of your own call, so that when that call is tested you will continue forward because that is what God has asked of you.

But how do you identify your calling?

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church opened the recent Acts 29 Boot Camp in Seattle with a study of calling in the book of Acts.

He suggested thirteen factors to consider in identifying you own calling, the first being non-negotiable, and at least one of the final twelve necessary:

1. Have I responded to the gospel call and received the Holy Spirit? [Acts 1:8]
2. Is the Holy Spirit out ahead of me planting the church? [Acts 2]
3. Is my church planting call obvious to other godly leaders? [Acts 2:14]
4. Has God confirmed my church plant by showing up in miraculous power? [Acts 3-4]
5. Am I reaching lost people to start my plant? [Acts 8:5-12]
6. Has Jesus shown up and told me to plant? [Acts 9:1-19]
7. Has God called me to plant through a vision? [Acts 10:1-11:18;16:9-10]
8. Has God providentially relocated me to plant? [Acts 11:19-21]
9. Is God sending me to plant because my church does not much need me? [Acts 13:1-3]
10. Is God calling me to plant because I’m wasting my time in a toxic place? [Acts 14:1-7]
11. Am I called to be a catalytic church planter or to plant a church planting church centre? [Acts 14:23-26]
12. Has God called me to plant by giving me a deep burden for a city or people? [Acts 17:16]
13. Has God called me to plant by giving me a core group? [Acts 18:7-8]

You can listen to the full audio here.

We will post some more reflections from that message in the coming weeks.

Critiquing Multi-Site Churches

What will the 21st century church look like?

Following the recent launch of Mars Hill Global there has been a great deal of online debate over the merits of multi-site churches.

Much of it has been reactionary, overly critical and/or uninformed, so it is refreshing to see 9Marks tackling the issue in a balanced and informed manner with the recent publication of an eJournal critiquing the phenomenon.

For those who lack the attention span to wade through 90 pages of theology, however, Ed Stetzer has come to the rescue with a helpful summary of their discussion. It’s well worth five minutes of your time for anyone who is interested in the issue.

Changes

Change – it's as good as a holiday.

They say that change is as good as a holiday, and as we’re too busy to take a trip anywhere nice we thought we’d make some adjustments instead.

In late 2008 we set up this site it with two purposes in mind: as a vehicle for raising support, and as a means to keep the folks back home up to date with our adventures in North Carolina, and beyond. In the short time since, much has happened and it has evolved to include more general information about church planting – and that is the direction we’ve decided to take it in from here.

So you might see some changes around here over the coming weeks. To begin with, you’ll notice that our ugly mugs no longer appear [probably a good thing many of you might say]. You’ll also notice less stuff about us and more stuff about the practice and theology of church planting.

To keep track of our personal adventures, and for information regarding support, you can go here and here.

It is our hope and goal that this site would promote and share the wisdom of church planters and pastors, for the resurgence of the local church and the glory of Jesus.

Three Prerequisites For An Acts 29 Church Planter

This Gentleman Need Not Apply

Aside from calling, character and competence, I have noticed three unspoken rules for all Acts 29 church planters:

1. You have to be cutting edge cool.
2. You have to have a hot wife.
3. You have to love The Office.

I guess that makes me three from three.