Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Accountability Groups?!?!?!?
Yesterday, I commented on a Cerulean Sanctum post about men and confession. I think this post from Reformation Theology strikes at the heart of the issue much better than I did yesterday.
Which brings me to the second important issue in this discussion. When we place ourselves into accountability with the other, the other MUST accept that accountability not in his own name, but in the name of Christ. That person IS NOT the one holding us accountable, rather God is using that person to hold us accountable to Him.
Oh how often is it that the failure is not in placing ourselves into accountability, but in those to whom we entrust that accountability? How tempting to make ourselves lord and master rather than act as agents of the true Lord and Master? But even "agents" misses the mark, we are called to act of our own volition in the name of God, we are called to submit and let God act through us.
Which I think strikes at the true heart of accountability situations - they are a two-way street, and we tend to manage them like a one-way ticket. Let us say I ask you to hold me accountable on my eating habits - to help me not to consume at levels that cause weight gain. Given my life-long struggle with this, it is not enough to simply act as "refrigerator guard" (lord and master). My mother's proclivities towards that role reinforced early in my life food as "forbidden pleasure" something which enhances its power over me. If you are holding me accountable in this unproductive fashion, I need to be able to say to you, "That's not the right way to do this." In other words, I am holding you accountable about holding me accountable. It is, in fact, a two-way street.
This also reflects back to the pop-psychology model, where there is therapist and patient - leader and group. We suffer no such roles in our faith - There is one Lord and a very large group of sinners. Let us remember that and act accordingly.
Related Tags: accountbaility, sanctification, Christian growth, mutuality
I'm talking about the tendency of people in AGs [ed: Accountability Groups] to prod each other toward apparent holiness by unbiblical, non-Christian, anti-Gospel methods. These methods are not just unhelpful, they're actually harmful to true holiness.There are two essential questions here. The first is the incursion of pop-psychology into so much of what we do in the church. There is much of value in psychology, but we need to remember that it is a pseudo-science developed form a scientific perspective in that it operates from a distinctly un-Christian worldview. Psychology assumes that we can heal ourselves, it stays strictly natrualistic. Christians hold that we cannot fix ourselves, only the redemptive power of the cross, combined with the minstrations of the Holy Spirit can truly fix us.
For a common example, take an AG that appeals to Pride in order to subdue Lust (Fear of Man being the negative flipside of the Pride Coin). Someone in such an AG would feel pressure not to slip into lustful behavior, so that he wouldn't have to embarass himself in front of the others in the group. If the group meets on a Wednesday night, the only thing keeping him from looking at pornography on Tuesday night is the fear he has of telling his friends the next night. They'd obviously think less of him if he has something to say during confession time, and his Pride being stronger than his Lust, he controls his lustful behavior. [Hasn't this become the very definition of accountability??]
Which brings me to the second important issue in this discussion. When we place ourselves into accountability with the other, the other MUST accept that accountability not in his own name, but in the name of Christ. That person IS NOT the one holding us accountable, rather God is using that person to hold us accountable to Him.
Oh how often is it that the failure is not in placing ourselves into accountability, but in those to whom we entrust that accountability? How tempting to make ourselves lord and master rather than act as agents of the true Lord and Master? But even "agents" misses the mark, we are called to act of our own volition in the name of God, we are called to submit and let God act through us.
Which I think strikes at the true heart of accountability situations - they are a two-way street, and we tend to manage them like a one-way ticket. Let us say I ask you to hold me accountable on my eating habits - to help me not to consume at levels that cause weight gain. Given my life-long struggle with this, it is not enough to simply act as "refrigerator guard" (lord and master). My mother's proclivities towards that role reinforced early in my life food as "forbidden pleasure" something which enhances its power over me. If you are holding me accountable in this unproductive fashion, I need to be able to say to you, "That's not the right way to do this." In other words, I am holding you accountable about holding me accountable. It is, in fact, a two-way street.
This also reflects back to the pop-psychology model, where there is therapist and patient - leader and group. We suffer no such roles in our faith - There is one Lord and a very large group of sinners. Let us remember that and act accordingly.
Related Tags: accountbaility, sanctification, Christian growth, mutuality
