We sometimes neglect to remind people that walking in repentance and integrity is a good gift to leaders (Hebrews 13:17) because it keeps them from having to enter conflict. Us folks under accountability can take real burdens off those holding us accountable by striving to act right.

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
– Galatians 6:2

Once upon a time I had to sign a conduct form as part of an application for health care from a Christian “insurance” co-op plan. On the form I filled out every year to renew membership was a list of unhealthy behaviors from which my family and I had to promise to abstain. (Not all of them were sinful things like illicit drug use or immoral sexual behavior; some were just things considered a risk to our health.) And then there was a place where a church officer had to sign to vouch for the veracity of your statements. Two of my fellow elders at the time signed off on the application.

Back then, it occurred to me that if I were to cheat on my health care plan, it was likely that nobody would ever know. I could break my committment and the powers that be would likely be none the wiser. And yet, I also knew that if I were to cheat on my pledge, it woudln’t just make me a liar, but would make my elders liars too. Since they had vouched for me, I would be pulling them into my dishonesty, unwitting participants in it. And it would of course make me a liar to them. So even though they never really asked me if I was really keeping my promises on that form, they signed it with the assumption that I was doing so, and therefore their vouching for me became a facet of our relationship.

When we think of accountability relationships (or accountability “partners”), we often think of all the ways someone might keep a weaker brother responsible for his actions. But we rarely talk about how the one being held accountable might live in such a way to not make his accountability-holder have to feel like a jerk. This runs through issues of church discipline and the like, as well. The focus is so much on gentleness and directness and loving rebuke for those sinning — which is a necessary focus, of course — that we sometimes neglect to remind people that walking in repentance and integrity is a good gift to leaders (Hebrews 13:17) because it keeps them from having to enter conflict. Us folks under accountability can take real burdens off those holding us accountable by striving to act right.

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