Personal Accountability Groups

At 6:15 AM every Saturday, I attend my personal accountability group. Accountability groups typically have a few trusted friends who are there to keep you honest. They keep you honest as you share your struggles since you last met. The only hard part is, that to be honest with them, you have to be honest with yourself.

My group has only one person with whom I can trust completely with my darkest admissions. My appointment book simply reads, “Coffee with Jesus“.

During our coffee together, I let Jesus hold me accountable. Accountable for each of my actions or in-actions during the past week. It has become my 60 minutes each week, out of 10,080, where I force myself to be totally honest. It is not easy, nor is it kind. I show up knowing it is impossible for me to lie. He has already seen my week and knows the truth better than I do.

Holding Myself Accountable

The first ten minutes begin with me asking myself ten questions. As I answer those questions, I use a cheat sheet with room for notes. I ask and answer each question out loud so that I can hear myself as I justify my actions. Often, I am amazed by how creative I am at giving those justifications. The one thing I will not do in my creativity is blame anyone for my actions, not even satan. Despite any encouragement from him or others, I am ultimately accountable for my slips.

By the time I am finished, the sheet is marked up with a variety of comments and admissions. The final step is crossing out those questions that I passed. That leaves me with a sheet of broken promises and poor judgment on my part. The header image of this page offers a sample of what that sheet looks like filled out.

As we sip our coffee, those uncrossed lines often become our talking points during the rest of the morning.

Where is Your Accountability Group

To get to the real question here, who do you allow in to hold you responsible for your actions? Let me ask that in another way. Is there anyone you could go to right now, be totally honest with them, and not shock the heck out of them, or give them pause to trust you ever again? If you know one or two, congratulations, and I mean that. You are at least being honest with someone. Now the real question, do you let them hold you accountable?

The popularity of Accountability Groups have been around for years. I first learned of them as part of the Promise Keepers movement. I have not heard much about these types of groups over the past ten years. My guess is that the “all about me” mentality has finally won out. Let’s face it, those two concepts are polar opposites. Whether it is popular or not today, I encourage you to find someone to hold you accountable. I do not recommend anyone in your family. As for honestly in a marriage, this is not the time to include your spouse either. Do you think you can be honest about your struggles with flirting with someone at work?

If there isn’t anyone you can trust to love you unconditionally, Jesus is still there for you. He already knows the worst about you and even the things locked up in your subconscious. He is there waiting for you, each day, just sipping His coffee waiting … .

If you need some help starting, here is the link to download the cheat sheet I use.