Session 3: Being His People (4/4)

A quick aside about genders here. This level of sharing creates emotional attachments, and I've seen so many romantic relationships that are initiated via that just crash and burn. So single gendered groups please. You can have co-ed prayer meetings, co-ed bible studies, just not co-ed DG level sharing. The co-ed groups I've seen either really struggle to be open or authentic, or get so close and so attached and so misunderstood that people really get hurt. So you have been warned. If you value your heart, just don't do it.

5) Accountability

Being open to being caught.

And they devoted themselves.......

Devotion is more than a once a day event, it's a constant habit of yielding to God's love, yielding to God's hand, yielding to God's will. Accountability is when the reminder of that comes not only from the God-head, but also from the body, your brothers and sisters.

A very wise elder once told me a phrase that really sums up accountable living: “being open to being caught”

Now the word "open" has a double meaning here:

1. to be open about your life, laying out your life 100% for others to examine (the openness and authenticity that we already takled about)
2. to be open to the truth that your group speaks into your life when you might not recognize you're aiming off a cliff

If you are just going to be offended and defensive every time someone connects the God's voice to something awful you're planting in your life, and you don't accept or consider anything your brothers and sisters say to you, soon people will stop saying anything to you, and what's the point then? Again, if you want to keep your darkness, what's the point of walking with people?

This is the important bit, often sparks fly in accountable relationships because people feel judged, so I have to warn all of you, this isn't a license to go around shouting at other people’s junk. I repeat, this is not a license to go around shaming people, which somehow has become the popular theological thing to do. All of us have a lot to learn and practice in terms of being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry, to become a safe person to share with, to speak in the love of our Abba Father.

Story: "A brother walked into another brother"

Sorry girls that a lot of my stories are about porn. When I was younger to honor the hearts of the girls I used to mainly deal with guys and this is pretty prevalent with them. Working with girls more nowadays and I'm realizing unforgiveness is their #1 destroyer, eating disorders way more prevalent than I thought, and that girls aren't exempt from sexual temptation, so I hope you girls can appreciate this story as much as the guys.

Accountability is not about the more spiritual person helping the less spiritual one or stronger person fixing the weaker one. We're all in the same boat, but we're all rooting for each other towards our destinies in Christ. We are all calling on Jesus' victory for each other.

We want each other to grow to be whole, for each other to become all that God destined us to be, and walking together towards that will require us to learn to gently ask the hard questions when we see someone aiming towards a pit, and for us to trust that those walking with us speak for our own good.

What now?

Meet, pray, read, share, walk. Not rocket science right? Who thinks you can find some brothers, or some sisters and do this once a week?

What I've shared is the root of biblical community, and only from here does everything else spring out in due time: missions, social justice, evangelism, etc.

I'm sure you guys have some questions, and again this term I'll be running some DG leaders training sessions to help you current and prospective DG leaders walk in this and give you guys a place to take up those questions, get more equipped in people leadership, and get help with specific situations.

Right now I'm going to break you guys off into your DGs to start practicing this. Challenge yourself to be more open about the dark spots, be quick to listen slow to speak, and pray over one another.