Anthony on Accountability

My favorite blogger of the chocolate persuasion (and great instructor at Covenant Seminary) Anthony Bradley has good post on accountability groups. He says:

Whenever I hear of one these "accountability groups" starting up it reminds me of how they will likely be locked into immaturity(milk), legalism, a time for empty penance, and never really arriving at the life-committed, God-made masculine daily formation and validation that men really need to make it. "Not sinning" is not masculine formation.

He makes some great citations from The Journal of Biblical Counseling. This one stood out to me as helpful:

Although the aim of accountability groups is good, the practice is often misguided. Accountability groups often smack of legalism. Failures to trust God are punished through graduated penalties (an increased tithe, buying lunch or coffee for the "partners," or unspoken ostracism from one's peers). As a result, our motives for holiness are warped. Confession in such contexts is relegated to "keep from doing it," making discipleship a duty-driven, rule-keeping journey.

Alternatively, accountability groups can devolved into a kind of confession booth from which we depart absolved from guilt, fearing merely the passing frown of our fellow priest.

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. This approach to holiness backfires and we begin to take Christless comfort in the confession of sin.

As a result, confession is divorced from repentance, reducing holiness to half-hearted morality. Accountability becomes a man-made mix of moralism and cheap peace.

I have written a bit on this in the past. You can check it out here.