The Conclave is NOT an Accountability Group

I am rea­ding a great little ebook by Jonathan Dod­son called Fight Clubs: God-Centered Dis­ci­pleship and he nails it when it comes to the fai­lure of accoun­ta­bi­lity groups.  I tell peo­ple all the time that The Conc­lave is not a “men’s Bible study” nor is it an “accoun­ta­bi­lity group”.  It is so much more.  So read along…

Although the aim of accoun­ta­bi­lity groups is good, mis­gui­ded accoun­ta­bi­lity prac­ti­ces can lead to lega­lism. In lega­lism, per­for­mance repla­ces obedience,we are moti­va­ted by works not grace. In lega­lis­tic accoun­ta­bi­lity, fai­lu­resto per­form are punished through gra­dua­ted penal­ties (an inc­rea­sed tithe,buying lunch or cof­fee for the “part­ners,” or uns­po­ken ostra­cism from one’speers). Even if the inten­tion is to honor God; the moti­va­tion is redu­ced to merit-making before God. Ins­tead of hol­ding one another accoun­ta­bleto trus­ting God, we become accoun­ta­ble for exac­ting punish­ments. Theun­for­tu­nate result is a kind of lega­lism in which the hea­ling of repen­tan­ceand faith in the gos­pel is subs­ti­tu­ted by peer presc­ri­bed punish­ments. Asa result, our moti­ves for holi­ness get war­ped. Con­fes­sion in such con­tex­tsis rele­ga­ted to “kee­ping from doing it,” making dis­ci­pleship a duty-driven,rule-keeping jour­ney. We fight against the church ins­tead of with her. We act like bullies.

Alter­na­ti­vely, accoun­ta­bi­lity groups can devolve into a kind of con­fes­sio­nal booth. We con­fess our sins and depart absol­ved of any guilt, fea­ring merely the pas­sing frown of our fellow con­fes­sor. I con­fess my sin; you con­fess yours. I pat your back. You pat mine. Then we pray. Accoun­ta­bi­lity groups become circ­les of cheap grace, through which we obtain cheap peace from a trou­bled cons­cience. Con­fes­sion is divor­ced from repen­tance, redu­cing holi­ness to half-hearted mora­lity. Accoun­ta­bi­lity beco­mes a man-made mix of spi­ne­less con­fes­sion and cheap peace. This approach to dis­ci­pleship is hollow. It lacks the urgency requi­red by the fight of faith. We fight without the church ins­tead of with her. We act like wimps.

With lega­lis­tic accoun­ta­bi­lity, the main moti­va­tion for not sin­ning is punish­ment or emba­rrass­ment. We refrain from sin­ning because we don’t want to lose something or to be emba­rras­sed by con­fes­sing sin to a friend.  Our moti­va­tion for obe­dience to Christ har­dens. We don’t need a group to fos­ter this har­de­ned, rule-driven dis­ci­pleship. Many of us are quite good at lega­lism on our own. With con­fes­sio­nal booth accoun­ta­bi­lity, the moti­va­tion for not sin­ning slips away. At most, we fear the frown of our fellow con­fes­sor. Our moti­va­tion for obe­dience to Jesus hollows out. Ear­nest­ness for holi­ness is repla­ced by ritual regur­gi­ta­tion of sin. Con­fes­sing sin to purge our cons­cience beco­mes most impor­tant, while we play fast and loose with our devo­tion to Jesus. Many of us prac­tice a con­fes­sio­nal, hollow, and loose dis­ci­pleship. Others of us pre­fer rules and punish­ments. Whether we drift towards lega­lism or license, we dimi­nish the serious­ness of sin and strength of the gos­pel. We fight in our own strength or not at all. We end up acting more like bullies or wimps than disciples.