Accountability Tools
What is Accountability?
Accountability is often considered a way to get others to hold us accountable to Biblical values. Even wikipedia describes accountability partners as “a person who coaches another person in terms of helping the other person keep a commitment.”
However, the dictionary definition for accountability is: “the quality or state of being accountable”.
True accountability is so much more than asking others to ensure I keep a commitment. True accountability should first and foremost be a commitment on my end to hold myself accountable. This should drastically reduce the importance of the qualifications of the person on the other end of that accountability equation.
What matters is that I have a systemized solution in my life that will continually allow me to hold myself accountable to another (or others). To account for my past week/month etc.
Accountability will only work in the long-term if I don’t consider it a babysitter watching over me, but instead another tool for me to be honest with myself and the world, regaining and maintaining my integrity or wholeness of self, and the Godly man I am called to be.
Accountability Questions
Accountability questions developed at Generations Church, designed to help us hold ourselves accountable to our partners.
- We refuse to be spiritual zombies. I will seek God daily in his word and prayer. I will participate in weekly worship and fellowship with the body of Christ.
Have you spent time daily in the scriptures and prayer and have you been faithful in weekly worship and fellowship and have you been obedient to what God is asking you to do? - We refuse to be self centered hoarders. I will be completely honest in all my financial dealings and I will give the first ten percent of my income to God’s kingdom.
Have you been completely honest in all your financial dealings and have you been generous toward God’s Kingdom? - We refuse to keep our sins and temptations in the dark. I will confess my struggles and my failures to my brothers. And I will be humble enough to receive the grace and rebuke that God and my brothers offer.
Have you acted inappropriately in any area of your life that you are currently struggling with? - We refuse to have a boring marriage and be boring dads. I will actively pursue my wife by taking her on dates and listening to her heart. I will know my children’s heart by developing a relationship with them, disciplining them when necessary, and encouraging them to be all that God has called them to be.
Have you spent quality time with your wife and kids this week?
4a. If single, we refuse to treat sexual sin as normal. I will treat the women I date with honor and I will not touch my future bride sexually until the day I marry her.
Have you been sexually pure in your dating relationships this week? - We refuse to shut up about Jesus. His gospel is good news not bad and I will continually work to win our world to faith in Jesus Christ.
Have you shared Christ or done something specifically to impact the world for Christ? - We have a specific calling on our lives, and God is always taking us to our next step.
Are you allowing distractions to creep into your life, or preventing you from pursuing your purpose? - We refuse to hold a grudge and we refuse to let the circumstances of life steal our joy.
Did something or someone rob you of your joy or cause you to harbor a grudge? - We refuse to be fat and lazy. Knowing that our body is the the temple of the Holy Spirit we will fill it with good things and exercise our minds and bodies.
Have you exercised regularly, gotten adequate rest, and maintained good eating habits?
Life checkups
An additional perspective for accountability by looking at the various areas of my life (by Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands).
How is your:
- Faith Life
- Marriage Life
- Family Life
- Office Life
- Screen Time Life
- Ministry Life
- Financial Life
- Social Life
- Attitudinal Life
- Creative Life
- Travel Life
- Physical Life
in the top right of the video.