Accountability-That Dirty Little Word

Recently I've had to deal with some situations in my ministry that required me to hold some people accountable for their actions & for their continued growth in their faith. Needless to say, it's never fun to have to do this. Even those of us who love confrontation probably cringe at actually having to do this. The more often I have to deal with these kinds of situations, the more I'm convinced that the discomfort comes from the fact that true, biblical accountability is a lost art in most ministries.

The reason I'm beginning to believe this is because I can't ever remember seeing biblical accountability handled correctly. When it became evident that someone had slipped the common action was either to ignore the person (also known as shunning them right out of the church) or to blast them by telling the story to as many people as would listen. As a result accountability & judgment became synonymous. While these two concepts are very similar, it seems there's one big difference. Accountability implies a sense of mutual submission between believers to Christ & to one another. However, judgment implies a sense of superiority & of course self righteousness. The problem is that most people can't tell the difference anymore, no matter how appropriately they are approaced.

The answer? First, people need to be taught the difference. People need to understand that sometimes the most loving thing to do is to judge(Andy Stanley quote). As long as the judgment that we are making is handled in a biblical way (and there is one), we can approach a fellow believer not to hurt them or belittle them but to help them restore their walk with Christ to its proper place in their life. When restoration is the goal, accountability/judgment is not only a good thing, it's a necessary thing. The second thing we need to do is to hold one another accountable. We can't hide from our responsibility to one another as followers of Jesus. It's true, that we are not perfect, but that doesn't absolve us from our responsibility to lovingly correct & encourage one another in our faith. We can't avoid accountability because it's uncomfortable or at times messy; we have been called by God to pursue a life of holiness & that takes place both as an individual & in the context of a community, the church. The worst thing we can do is ignore our brothers or sisters who are struggling.

How have you seen accountability fleshed out in your own experience? Have you seen it done right? Have you ever done it wrong? If the church doesn't begin to shift more & more toward holding one another accountable, she will be crippled in her mission to bring God glory & to extend His Kingdom to every corner of the earth.

Momentum Conference This Weekend

I'm really pumped about a conference I get to be a part of this weekend. I'll be at the Momentum 3 Conference sponsored by Global Youth Ministry. For those of you who aren't really that familiar with Global, they are a ministry that has a vision to reach the world by reaching the world's teenagers. They're all about developing youth ministry leaders & student leaders to reach other students for Christ. They do all the stuff like a lot of ministries, like weekend conferences & camps during the summer, but here's where they are different. They also take students overseas to do mission work. While those students are there they will take on leadership roles in leading a camp similar to the one they may have attended through Global in the past. They also get to work, in some cases, with a "Global Mentor" who has gone to live on the ground to develop youth ministry leaders in places where youth ministry either doesn't exist or it's in its infancy. They have a global vision that they're inviting local churches to get involved with.

This weekend I get to head up to their mountain top retreat center to spend some time with Roger Glidewell & a bunch of other youth ministry leaders. During the weekend we'll not only be taught & challenged by Roger & other conference staff, but we'll spend some time really talking about what we are doing as youth leaders all over the country. It's unlike anything I've been apart of. Usually it's about going & hearing "somebody" teach you about youth ministry & leadership, & that's great, but this looks like it's going to go to another level. I'm really pumped about what I'm going to hear, not only from Roger, but from all the other leaders who will be there sharing what God is doing in & through their ministries in their churches.

If you don't know much about Global, check them out at http://www.globalyouthministry.com/ . I would encourage any youth ministry leader to investigate them & get involved in what God is doing through Global Youth Ministry.

Moving My Blog Back Here

After trying out the blog features of the new pastors.com website, I've decided to move my blog back to the blogger.com site. First, the traffic & user friendly nature of pastors.com has seriously declined. It's just not the network that it once was. The updates they made to the site to me is good example of how change isn't always the best thing for an organization. Secondly, I wanted my blog to be in a place where it might be stumbled upon by just about anybody, & that wasn't going to happen at pastors.com.

However there are some really good posts (of course I am a little biased) on the pastors.com blog so I want to give you a link to those blog posts: http://pastors.com/blogs/bowman/default.aspx
I would really encourage you to go by there & read through some of those posts.

Thanks

My blog has moved. Check it out at http://pastors.com/blogs/bowman/default.aspx

Are Our Churches Stuck In The Old Testament?

Our church has been going through Spring Renewal Services this week. We have had a special emphasis on "lifestyle evangelism" this week as we have met together. It is our desire to see all of our people become part of God's movement in the community. During the course of these studies I learned something very profound, at least to me. Many of our churches have taken on an Old Testament model of evangelism. For much of the Old Testament the way the Jewish people shared God with the rest of the world was through the temple. Think about it, the Jews very rarely sent out missionaries. The one guy most of us have heard of who was sent out from Israel was Jonah, & he went kicking & screaming. Then he was used to bring a tremendous spiritual revival to a brutal, savage society & how did he react? He went outside the city & pouted! The primary way that non-Jews were introduced to a relationship with God was through worship at the temple in Jerusalem.

I'm afraid that many churches today have adopted the "if we build it, they will come" model of evangelism. Churches believe that if they build an amazing building & produce stellar worship services, then the lost will come. Now don't misunderstand me. I believe we should take pride in our places of worship & in our times of corporate worship. However, to think that is the key to reaching "all the nations" is a delusion. Jesus' command to His disciples was to "Go!". When the disciples of Christ received the Holy Spirit, they were mobilized to take the Gospel worldwide. That's really the only explanation for the way Christianity spread & has survived. The entire paradigm was shifted when Christ gave His "Great Commission". No longer did people have to come to the temple to encounter God. God's people were now going to go to the people. Interestingly enough, the first place they went was the temple because that's where the people were. From there they moved out through neighborhoods, villages, & ultimately into all the world.

However, today we have slipped back into expecting people to come to church just because it's there. Question: Why would a lost person come to church? Seriously, why would a lost person just independently decide to come to church? We like to think that it happens a lot but the fact is that many of the lost people who come into our churches either come because of a personal connection to one of our members or because our churches have a great reputation in the community in an area that appeals to them (divorce care, recovery/rehab ministries, etc.). If we want people to come to our churches, we must first go to the people! I have done my time in traditional outreach methods too. You know, the ones that have you knocking on some one's door on Monday night at 7pm. Most of the time no one was home. You know why? Because they were at the Little League field or at the soccer field! We have to realize that going to the people sometimes means going to unconventional "outreach outposts". It might mean enlisting a team to serve in the concession stand at your local Little League field so that those parents can watch their kids play ball rather that sweat it out in the concession stand. Let's go to the people, minister to them where they are with no strings attached. When we do, we gain the credibility that we need to actually reach out to them when they are in need or to reach out to them at some point with the Gospel of Christ.

If you are a church member or even a pastor, ask yourself if your evangelism model is actually going out to the people or is it over 2000 years behind the times. If you're behind, seek God's will as to how you can "go" to the people in the power of Christ. After all, "all power" has been given to Him. When we go out, we go in His power & authority.