Home Pastors Articles for Pastors 3 Surprising Authenticity KILLERS in Your Church

3 Surprising Authenticity KILLERS in Your Church

Failure #3: When accountability partners forget the gospel.

Whether you slide toward being sincerity-centered or obedience-centered, both tendencies have ignored that the gospel is the capstone of good accountability.

When we make our groups all about sincere confession with no expectation of change, we trivialize the very sins that were nailed to Jesus on the cross, and we forget to challenge each other to fight sin in light of the motivations God provides in His word.

When we make our groups all about obedience, we only reinforce our tendency to center our identity on our own performance, we become more self-absorbed, and we are robbed of the joy of building our identity on Christ’s obedience on our behalf.

Gospel-driven accountability is a responsive accountability. After being honest about our temptations, sins and the state of our heart, we are to spur one another on with the gospel of grace.

Good accountability partners hear your confession and remind you that God is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you (1 John 1:9).

Good accountability partners speak to you about the grace of God: a grace that both covers our sins (Romans 5:1-2) and empowers our obedience (Titus 2:11-14).

Good accountability partners help us to set our affections on the things above, trumping the power of sin in our lives (Colossians 3:1-4, 16).

Good accountability partners hold us accountable to trusting and relying on God’s grace, even more than they hold us accountable to our behavior.