ACCOUNTABILITY, EDIT-ABILITY, & VISION-CASTING:
Accountability: Getting Honest & Specific
(Suggestions modified from Not Even A Hint by Josh Harris – Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2003.
 Remember that a person is only as accountable as he or she is willing to be. Accountability meetings and lists of
questions are only as helpful as one is willing to be honest and vulnerable.
 Be specific. Vague questions and vague confession can be worthless. (“How’s it going?” doesn’t typically cut it.)
Specific confession leads to specific encouragement, specific accountability and specific prayer. Make
accountability questions specific to one’s personal situation.
 Don’t just confess. Talk about what repentance actually looks like in a given situation. We need to be
challenged, not just offered sympathy. We don’t need to be consoled for our sin; we need to kill it. Speak truth,
give a good kick in the pants, work toward victory rather than wallow in failure.
 Benefits of Accountability: Silence and secrets sustain sin. By contrast, when you are honest, it can release
Satan and sin’s hold on you. (See Eph 5:8-14 which discusses exposing the deeds of the darkness….). (See also
Prov 27:17, Gal 6:1-5, Eph 4:15, James 5:16.)
 Sample Accountability Questions:
Accountability (n): the quality or state of being
accountable; an obligation or willingness to accept
responsibility or to account for one's actions
1.
Have you succumbed to a personal addiction or
sin? Explain.
2.
Have you been in a compromising situation
with a member of the opposite sex anywhere
this past week, been exposed to sexually
alluring/explicit or compromising material,
and/or fantasized about a romantic
relationship with someone?
3.
Have you lacked any integrity in your financial
dealings? Have you spent money recklessly?
4.
Have you given priority time to school work?
5.
Have you continued to remain angry toward
another?
6.
Have you furthered God’s kingdom this week,
or have you knowingly disobeyed God’s
leadings to do so?
7.
Have you lied to me/us? OR Have you been
completely truthful with me/us?
Let us consider how we may spur one another on
toward love and good deeds” –Hebrews 10:24
Let us consider how we may spur one another on
toward love and good deeds” –Hebrews 10:24
Accountability (n): the quality or state of being
accountable; an obligation or willingness to accept
responsibility or to account for one's actions
Edit-ability: Sharpening One’s Voice
(Material from Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect by Joseph Myers – Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books,
2007.)
-“An editor’s function is very different from that of an accountant. While an accountant’s training, job, and passion are rooted in
looking for errors and covering all bases, an editor’s training, job, and passion are to help an author toward richer communication – a
rich, full voice that is free of encumbrances. Accountants keep records. Editors wipe away errors while keeping the voice of the
author.” 139
-“When presented with the option, most people prefer an author-editor relationship over a client-accountant relationship. We want
someone to confide in, pray with, and listen to us. We do not hope for someone to keep a record and reconcile us to the rules. We
hope our friends will help us to be reconciled to life, to community, to ourselves, and to God.” 140
-Some differences between accountability and edit-ability relationships (142):
Accountability Relationships
Edit-ability Relationships
Accountability relationships are built on the understanding that
Edit-ability relationships are built on the understanding that
people are primarily bad and sinful.
people are good, made in the image of God.
The accountability partner looks for mistakes and keeps an
The editor looks for strengths and makes suggestions for
account.
improvement.
The accountability partner tries to help by creating more
The editor makes suggestions but leaves the major reworking with
structure, rules, and regulations.
the individual.
The accountability partner tries to get the individual to cooperate The editor allows one to resource oneself in whatever ways are
with and conform to certain standards and expectations (a
healthy (a descriptive pattern). The relationship is more about
prescriptive pattern).
collaboration than cooperation.
The accountability partner emphasizes and inadvertently
In an edit-ability relationships, the people involved celebrate the
reinforces the negative behavior by concentrating on it.
journey of wholeness.
Vision-casting: Unleashing Potential
(Material from Connecting: Healing for Ourselves and Our Relationships. A Radical New Vision. by Larry Crabb. Nashville: TN:
Word Publishing, 1997.)
-“Admonishment to do right becomes ugly pressure when it is not preceded and liberally accompanied by an attitude that says, “I cannot
make you do anything. But I believe there is something in you that knows what you’re doing is wrong and, if you belong to God, there is something in
you that wants to do right. I believe in that life within you. I trust God’s work in you. And more than anything else, I want you to enjoy a taste of
God’s gracious, loving heart in your relationship with me.’” (33)
-“We must clearly understand that a vision for someone is not something we make up or merely something we would like to see
happen. Visions are discerned; we don’t create them….A vision calls forth what is there. It arouses possibilities we hadn’t
considered.” (159-160). -“A vision we give to others of who and what they could become has power when it echoes what the Spirit has
already spoken into their souls” 165
Focusing on What’s Wrong
What is wrong with this person?
Releasing What’s Good
How has God built this person?
Where is this individual’s sin and damage and hurt?
What is God wanting to release through all the joys and heartaches
of this person’s life? What is right now being released?
What strengths does this individual have that, if surrendered to
God, could powerfully advance the kingdom?
How can we smooth out the bumps in this person’s life, first by
exposing then problems we see and then by figuring out how to
deal with them?
What don’t we like about this person and how should we help him
or her deal with it?
What potential remains unrealized because of undealt-with
weaknesses?
How does this person uniquely bless me?
What does that tell me about the character strengths that God is
specially weaving into the fabric of this individuals’ soul?