I was thinking the other day about the lack of accountability in many churches today. I would guess this is a part of the reason why we have so much apathy, and it also contributes to the reality of the church’s declining impact in the United States today.
Interestingly, churches in general have not lost their ability to impose a little guilt every now and again, there just isn’t much accountability with it. Don’t misunderstand me here–I’m not railing against guilt over sin. We should feel guilty when we sin. Sin is bad. (Feel free to quote me.)
What I am talking about is how churches will sometimes inflict the guilt when it is time to give. In fairness (for those who think that churches only exist to fleece the gullible out of their money), this is not really a major issue in most churches–look beyond pop culture stereotypes. There is a little bit of guilt over money, and there is some guilt that is dished out when a church is trying to operate some program and they need workers to fill slots.
But overall, we have lost a lot of accountability in our churches, I believe. Surely it was there at some point. It is almost as if those of us in church leadership are just so happy when people show up that we don’t expect much else from them. And we aren’t that upset when they don’t show up next time; we just hope they will show up the time after that.
Let’s raise the bar. Let’s say that what we do matters. Let’s say our results matter. Let’s man up, let’s cowboy up, let’s do this thing, and let’s invoke as many other cliches as it takes to inspire ourselves to start doing the little things right, so it leads to some big things.
Let’s pray for a bold vision.
Let’s get disappointed enough with the status quo that we refuse to keep settling for it.
Let’s look in our mirrors and figure out what we need to change in ourselves.
Instead of shaking our head at the problem, let us figure out what we can start doing to bring about the solution.
Are you with me?