Community – Yes … Accountability – No
I’m reading a cool book called So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman. Jake, the book’s main character, is an associate pastor in a church. He has several encounters with John….yes, John, one of the “Sons of Thunder,” the disciple who walked with Jesus and wrote a lot of the Bible.
It ain’t pretty, as John drops truth from his direct knowledge of Christ into the context of modern-day church world. When Jake gets up early to go to his accountability group, only to find one other guy there, he’s hacked. But John blows his circuit boards with this….
“Real body life isn’t built on accountability. It’s built on love. We’re to encourage one another in the journey without conforming people to the standard we think they need.”
He goes on to say that God uses a process to bring His truth to people AND His people to truth. God is the mentor. Sometimes God uses people and peers, but often they get in the way. While the truth is always the same, people discover that truth in different times. If we hold people accountable, we’ll reward those who are better at putting on a front and miss those who are in the real struggle of learning to live in Jesus.
Instead, we need groups where people are loved and accepted…where they’re authentic and known exactly for who they are…..where those in the group are encouraging each other to draw near to Jesus – not trying to fix each other with THEIR answers to the universe.
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I like it! The Apostle John quote is killer….. Having God as a mentor is an awesome thought. Keep up the good work Regi, I’ll be putting a group together soon.