S1E2: Accountability

Well, in today's leadership lesson, what I want to do is I want to talk to you about accountability and how that actually helps us in the longevity of ministry and lasting for the Lord and finishing well and the great benefits of accountability. And you may already feel this as you are a part of a community or cohort, a network, ⁓ being around other church leaders, it actually can encourage you to stay in it for the long haul. I don't know about you, but as I've been pastoring year after year after year, the longer I go, the more discouraging it can get when I look my friends to the left and to the right fall. Other godly men and women, church leaders getting stumbled by sin or opposition or just wanting to give up. They're statistics, but they're also real life. And you could sometimes get a pity party ⁓ when thinking about people falling to the left and to the right, almost like Elijah in First Kings chapter 19. Remember that? When he had this great ⁓ work from the Lord and he got by himself and said, Woe is me, there's just me. And the Lord had to gently rebuke him, correct him, and say, Hey, I got 7,000 other prophets. We need other ministry leaders in our life to hold us accountable and just to bring encouragement, saying like, hey, you can do this. You know, when I think about ⁓ the network director, ⁓ Jeff Geip, who has done many di different things over the years and been faithful to the call that God has given him. And even in this season, It encourages me. I I see someone like that and say, Hey, I I can I can make it. Or when I have an example like my dad, who's a Calvary Chapel pastor of over 40 years, and ⁓ man, he's gonna be passing on his church and he's finishing well and he's my my parents are still married. I'm like, man, ⁓ I can make it. Having a fellowship and being in community actually helps us ⁓ to see the future, a brighter future, to to know that we can Make it and it can actually help us. This is why at Calvary Global Network, ⁓ the tribe that we're part of, man, we say we are better together. We are better together. Community matters. I was reminded of that verse in ⁓ Ephesians chapter six, verse 21, at the very end of Ephesus, ⁓ Ephesians, he writes to Ephesus about a dear brother, Tychekis. Paul says, Tychekis is a dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord. We need reminders that we can be a faithful servant. That there are people around us that will last and walk with us. And Paul wasn't ⁓ calling out this famous, amazing pastor or someone who wrote the Bible. He was saying, hey, he he's valuable because of his faithfulness, because he's done the things God's called him to do. And so can you. Tychekis, man, he's a faithful brother. Aren't you so glad that there are faithful brothers in your life? That brings an encouragement that that we can do this together and it brings strength. And I just want to remind you today that you don't have to be a famous pastor or an influencer, ⁓ a celebrity pastor as the world elevates. ⁓ you can just be you in the things God's called you to do, and you're gonna bless the church. You're gonna bless other brothers in the work that we're doing together. There's a great accountability being in fellowship. Because you know what? Being in community matters to the Lord. He tells us throughout scripture that we need to be in community. That doesn't negate. Us as church leaders, our pastors, our church planners, our missionaries, those scriptures apply to us, especially when it comes to the subject of longevity and lasting in ministry. Because it's this through community comes accountability. Through community comes accountability, and there's this great accountability being in fellowship, but we need to dive deeper into the subject of accountability because it's not just being around brothers, but allowing brothers to be in our lives. It matters. It matters. Now look up this word accountability and it says this. It's the state of being responsible or answerable for a system, its behavior, and potential impact impact. Let me say it again. It's the state of being responsible or answerable for a system, its behavior, and potential impact. I think that when it comes to accountability, we tend to think more of just the system rather than the state or an heart issue. For example, ⁓ as It's October and it's coming up on ⁓ basketball season, which is my favorite sport. And so I'm thinking about it. There's being trades being made, and LeBron James ⁓ is going on his 21st, 21st season of the NBA. And right now, still after 21 years, he's arguably the top five player ⁓ in the NBA. Now, this has taken a lot of work and a lot of money. I recently read a report that he spends 1.5. million dollars on his body a year. I think that statistic went up. A few years ago it was only a million. Now it's 1.5. He has systems in place to perform at a high level, to be in the NBA. He has trainers, ⁓ chefs, massage therapists, doctors, etc. And he's not the only one in the NBA. Chris Paul, who's recently joined my NBA team, the Golden State Warriors, at the age of 38, is going on his 19th season. And he decided in 2019 To go vegan. That's right, my friends. That's serious commitment. He gave up meat. Why? So he can have a greater future and last. He hasn't looked back. He's continued on. He says it was a great decision to give up meat so he can perform better. He placed a system in place for his life to hold him accountable to perform better. And LeBron James, Chris Paul, other NBA players, man, they have systems of accountability to perform better and last. How much more so Should you and I have systems in place to be faithful servants of God? Wasn't it the apostle Paul, who in first Corinthians nine twenty-seven said, But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. Or he said to his protege, his spiritual son Timothy in first Timothy four, seven and eight, rather, train yourself for godliness. There's some training to be involved. There's some discipline. He says, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, and it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. So we should also have systems in place to hold ourselves accountable, practices and disciplines that we say, hey, we're going to do, and we're going to ask others to hold us accountable for a desired outcome. And having this accountability partner and even personally practically spiritual. Practicing spiritual disciplines like reading scripture, fasting, praying, whatever it may be, those are good things. But too often when we think about accountability, we just think about the exterior and the systems and behavior. We think about the what of accountability. But I think we need to dive deeper into that. Not just being around guys, not just thinking about the peripheral, the outside, but this definition said it's the state of personal responsibility. We need to take ownership. in our own accountability if we're gonna last. And this is so important because this, well, this is a heart issue. This is something that the Lord needs to do in our lives. You see, you and I, honestly, we can lie to our accountability partner. It's very ⁓ when it comes to accountability, you need to walk in truth and you need to have humility. ⁓ it's it's a very ⁓ prideful thing to think that we can just shepherd ourselves, our own soul and do it alone. And oftentimes When we have this attitude, we're not being around other brothers. We're not even having systems in place and having accountability because it starts with our heart and works out through our body. But we tend to do that backwards. We try to do the peripheral and forget about our heart. I thought about scripture and what we could look at as we discuss this topic. And honestly, it's just a lot of Proverbs, because we need to be wise about this subject. Proverbs three: seven says, Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. We need God to To help us and to transform our hearts. We need to acknowledge that, that we're accountable to God. We need to recognize it isn't just a system issue like structures or disciplines, but it's a heart issue that we need. We need to be responsible and be in a state that we're gonna give account to God and fear Him. You see, God uses the system of community of other people to help shepherd us, and we need to invite other people to shepherd our hearts. And to be under authority and to walk in his scripture. Listen to Proverbs twenty, verse five. It says, The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding, it'll draw it out. We need help from others to draw out the things in our hearts, to affirm things, to rebuke or correct things, to allow us to process and glean wisdom from. You see, ble being close to not only God is important for our hearts, but being close To others is such a gift. ⁓ but it also on our parts needs to recognize it takes humility. We need to address this as church leaders. We need humility. You know, I was reminded of the story in 1 Kings chapter 22, ⁓ the end of Kings, and there aren't a lot of good examples of leaders in kings. They're actually giving us a reflection of how wicked our heart is and how we can turn away from God in our pride. But the king of i ⁓ Israel, Ahab, he's trying to get all these people to war. And fight, and he didn't want to listen to the prophet of the day that was godly, that could speak truth into his life. ⁓ he, you know, surrounded himself basically with false prophets, or you can say yes, men, because he wanted a certain outcome. But the king of Judah, and when he was trying to get him, Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat was listen, no, no, no, you gotta get men of God around you. Go get Micah, go get the real prophet. And speak. And Ahab was like, No, no, no, I don't like when he speaks because he says things I don't like. How often are we like this? We need to understand that we need people around us that could speak truth into our lives and give us wisdom from the Lord. That's true accountability. That's true friendship. Proverbs 27, verse 7 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, perfused are the kisses of an enemy. Ahab didn't want to hear the truth. So he surrounded himself by yes men, false prophets, and we can end up doing the same thing if we walk in pride. We need to have people that can speak truth and love into our lives. And so that takes humility on our part to have true accountability because we need input from others. We all have blind spots. I'm reminded what Paul says in the New Testament, his wisdom, 1 Corinthians 3:2. It's he says, Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. Listen, we can deceive ourselves in pride. Don't get it twisted. Or to put it more bluntly, like the prophets do, Isaiah 5 21, God says, Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and screwed in their own sight. Listen, we need people to give us godly counsel. Our hearts need to walk in humility to listen to others, to be slow to speak and quick to listen, to invite people to speak into our lives, to have a personal state of responsibility in this, not just the systems, the behaviors, the outside. Where are we taking responsibility in our own lives to invite people in, to have them speak into our lives? Because I tell our church all the time through community groups that we grow through loving accountability. That's how we grow. Through community. And that applies to us as church leaders. Listen, are you inviting people to come in close to you, to have intimacy, to speak into your lives? I'll just say we need to. Proverbs 12, 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. I'm currently reading this book ⁓ for church leaders and ministry leaders. ⁓ it's called ⁓ What Great Ministry Leaders Get Right. It's six core competencies. ⁓ the subtitle is You Need to Succeed in Your Calling. It's written by Jimmy Dodd, and he has a section actually in this book about how important accountability is and its importance in our lives. Jimmy says this accountability will not protect us against our desire to lie. Something more powerful is required intimacy. Intimacy in our relationships with God, our spouse, and our biblical community is a powerful watchman. Over our souls. Man, have you found this to be true? I know I have. Community has blessed my life and saved me so much pain and helped me last, even the last 10 years of church planning in a community where I'm not from. I remember coming across this Barna statistic, and Barna is this group that does a whole bunch of research and and things like that for church churches and church stats and things like that. And so ⁓ they came across this statistic and said. That pastors that are connected to an ⁓ another local pastor in their area will stay in that community exponentially more than a pastor that's not connected. Like 10 years plus more if you just have fellowship with another pastor in your area. And so I remember reading that. And so as soon as I came here, Planted was not from the community, I sought out community. ⁓ man, and I've seen great benefit from just giving my time to have a lunch, to, to ask about. How are you doing? To give calls, to go on double dates with friends. Like, how do I invite other people into my life? You see, we biblically we need older and wiser men and women in our lives. I mean, we see this in Titus chapter two. ⁓ I'm thinking about even Proverbs, how we're going all that. That was that was a father speaking to a son. You remember Proverbs, Solomon's like, hey, son, do this, be careful. What about this? Guard yourself. He's He's trying to give wisdom, and I think the older generation of people that go before us, they want to give us wisdom. But are we inviting them in? I even think of Samuel in his farewell address to the nation of Israel. First Samuel twelve, twenty-four, he would give this advice or this counsel, this wisdom to the nation and say, only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done. We need people in our lives that are godly and will tell us, fear the Lord. Follow him. And we can and should glean from a lot of other different people. And we don't need just professionals. Hopefully you know now the importance of a coach, of mentors, of spiritual fathers. But Paul says Tychus was a dear brother. We can learn from one another, from inviting people into our lives. Listen, I want to propose to you that all of God's people can speak into your life. Not even just fellow pastors and missionaries, people even in your church. Even sometimes critics can speak into our lives. God uses people to actually help us. Romans 12 16 says this: live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly and never be wise in your own sight. You see, with humility, you can actually learn from anyone. So surround yourself with all types of godly people. Get a coach, get a mentor, get a couple of brothers around you that are pastors or fellow like-minded church leaders. Get some people in your church, get some people outside of your church, get some ⁓ spouses ⁓ and and fellow ⁓ friends that are around you and your spouse that can just walk life with you. We should be surrounding ourselves with godly people because it does matter. First Corinthians 15 33, bad company corrupts good morals. Who are you surrounding yourself with? It's important that they're godly, led by the Holy Spirit to actually minister to you. We don't just need professionals. We need all sorts of people to rest around us. And it matters. Again, another example from the Old Testament, just thinking about Solomon and his son. One of his sons was Rehoboam, and he took over instead of Solomon. And and ⁓ in Second Chronicles chapter ten, you may know the story, probably do, it's verses one through nine. But he didn't listen to his dad's advice or his dad's wise counsel. Again, he had other people around him that said. Other things that were very hard for the nation. The older wiser group said, Hey, lighten the load, ⁓ bear love, just give that to the people and they'll follow you. But the younger men, his friends, weren't so wise and said, make it harder, double the amount, let them fear and respect you and do all this diff and blah blah blah blah blah. Well he ended up following the wise the not the wiser, but the younger friends, and it actually harmed the nation. The point in principle is who you listen to matters. This is why we need to take our own responsibility in listening to the Lord, actually spending time in prayer and fellowship with God and hearing from his word. But it filters and goes through not just with the Lord and you and God. No, no, no. Elders, other people. There needs to be people speaking into your life. Now I'll close with a couple of current articles that I came across in pastoral ministry and thinking about accountability and last encouragement for us. This article comes from Pastoral. careinc.com and it's called 10 Reasons Why Pastors Leave the Ministry. It was written by a guy named Jimmy Foley, ⁓ Fuller, and he gives the contributing factors ⁓ for one person leaving the ministry. And he interviewed hundreds of pastors and he compiled this lift list of factors for quitting. Now listen to some of these reasons and see if you can identify with any of these. Maybe you felt these before. He says number 10, the people reason why people quit is just a lack of vision. They they have no insight. They don't know how to move forward. They're not equipped. I think we've all been there, right? ⁓ number nine, low income, low self-esteem. They think, man, God hasn't given me enough or provided in this way. ⁓ they're not content in their life situation. Stress and burnout, the the stress and burnout on pastors and on any people, really, with job and this economy and environment and family and ⁓ responsibility. I mean, that's a contributing factor. Number seven, he says, feeling. Not appreciated. You do all this work, no one thanks you, and so it it it wears on you. You get discouraged. Number six, he says, Pastors quit because they can't be real. ⁓ they have to be the most spiritual person. And in that, you can't repent, you can't walk in truth, unity, your hypocrisy. It's just a nightmare. And so people don't like that. They give up. Top five reasons. Number five, he says the stress on the family and the health. It it does something to us when we're just Going, going, going, going, maybe not practicing a sub ⁓ Sabbath, maybe not giving time to our family and marriage problems. Number four, lack of denominal support. There's not other brothers and sisters around us to support us and structures to help us grow. Number three, he says ministers have a vision. The church doesn't. There's conflict between deacons, elders, body life, and where you want to go and where the Lord's leading you, but the church doesn't want to follow. Number two, he says, lack of validation and drive. Man, it's just so hard when all of these factors contributing, so you don't have this drive, this sense of urgency, and it's just hard. Now I say all these things before I get to number one, not to discourage you, but to encourage you, because when I say this last one, I want you to know what we've been talking about can actually be corrected. The number one reason why people in ministry, Jimmer Fuller, after talking to hundreds of people, said why they quit being isolated and feeling alone. Here's the deal. You and I, through humility, don't have to feel isolated or be alone. God has given us his word and given people to surround us. And if we walk in humility and grow from the wisdom from Proverbs says and listen and have godly people around us, man, it's gonna benefit us. It's going to encourage. And this isn't all isn't a one-off article with things that we deal with in ministry. Again, Barna, that group that does all this research. ⁓ they wrote an article called Pastors Share Top Reasons They Considered Quitting Ministry in the Past Year. And this was actually written just last year, April 27th, 2022. ⁓ they tell us that pastors are actually considering quitting more right now than the year before. Like in 2021, it was a twenty-nine percent of people wanting to quit after COVID. Now the stakes are forty-two percent of the people that got asked that say question are saying, Yes, I want to c quit. And you know the n top three reasons or the top one of the top reasons of why people are wanting to quit in this article they say the same exact thing and I quote they feel lonely and isolated. There's a huge problem in ministry leaders being isolated feeling lonely, but through accountability, loving accountability, being humble, we can actually combat that top factor of wanting to quit, of having people that we can pray with and and know us. And the stress of things just seem overwhelming. And so Barna, in response, had Dr. Glenn Packin ⁓ write a book called The Resilient Pastor Initiative to try to help pastors stay in ministry. In 2022, they wrote this book, and I haven't written it yet, but I found across in this article this quote, and I'm going to order it. ⁓ he says this: We need sages to advise us, leaders to direct us. Hold us accountable, peers to remind us that we aren't alone, healers to dress our wound, and companion to carry us when we can't carry on. The wisdom is out, ladies and gentlemen. Listen, we as pastors need community, and that's going to help our longevity. All types of community, loving community with coaches, mentors, spiritual directors, with our spouse, our family, our friends, with other godly leaders and Pastors, elders, like minded people, and yes, even people in our church. Community is God's loving and wise ⁓ spiritual discipline and practice for us, his means of grace for us as church leaders as well. And it's so kind of him to give us this instruction, to say, take a personal responsibility in this. Put the behaviors, put the systems, put the disciplines in there, but don't forget about your heart and inviting people in. Walk in humility. So why aren't we running? Towards practicing this discipline more? Why do we just talk about the exterior of reading our Bible and praying more? What about community? Have you embraced that as a spiritual discipline? Have you put that practically in your calendar? How do we practically embrace the the gift of community in our lives? Because we need a system, yes, but let us remember we need to walk in humility and have other godly people surround us. And if we do, listen. We will have a better chance of lasting for the long haul and hearing the Lord say, Well done, good and faithful servant.