Christian Leadership Alliance

Where Does the Money Come From?

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Level Five Accountability

Michelle serves in the finance department of a large ministry. One of her duties is checking staff expense reports, and she's noticed something unusual about the CEO's travel expenses. The new CEO spends three times as much as the previous CEO did to go to the same cities. It wasn't just her imagination because she went back and checked the figures herself. She questioned some of the items being reimbursed but her boss routinely signed his approval without mentioning anything to the CEO. So, she was surprised when the CEO gave a talk to the staff about the importance of accountability.

"Everyone needs to be accountable," he asserted. "For example, I'm held accountable by our board of directors." Michelle wondered how a board that only met three times a year could ever provide the kind of accountability this leader needed in his life.

Michelle has also been concerned for her friends in the development department. The director, Richard, has been talking more about the importance of accountability and pressuring his staff to be more accountable to him. Her friends felt this was unnecessary and intrusive.

One day on her break, Michelle sat by Sally, the receptionist. Sally said, "I'm in an excellent small group for singles. We all enjoy being together but I'm frustrated because they won't go deeper. I need help with some issues in my life and I can't seem to find any help from others in the group. I don't know where to turn."

"What is it with accountability?" Michelle wondered. "Those who need it aren't being held accountable by anyone. Those who offer it don't have any takers. Those who are seeking it can't seem to find it."

Getting Past the Negative Connotation

There's a lot of confusion surrounding accountability. Is it something that happens naturally in a relationship, or do you have to set up a structure to make it happen? Is this something you do one-on-one or in an accountability group? It's clearly a biblical concept. In Romans 3:19, Paul says, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God."

This is the ultimate accountability. Everyone will have to give an account to God one day. So we seek to be accountable now because we're living before the face of God and we know he sees everything we do. Yet accountability is steadfastly avoided by some and recklessly abused by others. What is it with accountability?

Don Cousins, a church consultant and speaker, identifies the core of the problem as a basic misunderstanding about what the word means. "Accountability carries a negative connotation," he says. "It creates the image of somebody being a watchdog in your life. When we say somebody needs accountability, it's usually because they've messed up in a big way and we think they need closer supervision. When someone asks for accountability, we think they're asking somebody to hover over them and tap them on the shoulder when they start doing something unacceptable. Joining an accountability group sounds like volunteering to live your life in a fishbowl. Who'd want that?"

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