Accountability

Here are a couple of recent posts about accountability: the one from Philip R. Gons, Matthew C. Hoskinson, and Andrew David Naselli, and one from Stephen Altrogge. The post by Gons, Hoskinson, and Naselli includes lists of benefits and potential pitfalls of accountability:

Benefits of Accountability

1. Motivation
2. Safety
3. Consistency
4. Specificity
5. Thoroughness
6. Community
7. Intensity
8. Reminder

Potential Pitfalls of Accountability

1. Heartless participation
2. Impressing God
3. Impressing ourselves
4. Impressing each other
5. Impressing others
6. Comparing ourselves to each other
7. Lying
8. Appeasing ourselves
9. Rationalizing
10. Lack of transparency
11. Fearing man
12. Avoiding face-to-face conversations

The guys also write about a scriptural basis for accountability, drawing from commentaries of John MacArthur, Thomas Manton, and John Calvin.

Altrogge shares a list of suggestions for "awkward questions" to ask your friends (and have your friends ask you):

Have you been consistently pursuing the Lord through scripture reading and prayer?

Have you diligently pursued your wife/husband this week?

Have you seen any persistent patterns of sin in your life recently?

Last week you confessed struggling with [insert sin]. Have you taken steps to fight it this week?

When you gave into [insert sin], what were you believing about God in that moment? What were you believing about yourself?

What is the truth that you need to believe in this situation?

When you had the conflict with [insert person], what were you craving at that moment?