Improving Accountability Helps Improve Ministry

Through the Vital Church Initiative process Brighton First congregation leaders are working in several areas of ministry to set measurable/achievable goals for our church. We have developed a mission statement, vision, strategic plan and are rewriting job descriptions for church staff and church leaders. The goal of this work is accountability. How, specifically, are we accomplishing our mission? How do we know when we are succeeding?

Setting goals helps us to celebrate ministry that fits with our mission to help people know, love and serve God. Setting goals also helps us to know when we are not, despite our faithful efforts, achieving the results we plan for. Goals keep us accountable.

The Vital Church Initiative consultation team that visited our church in March 2015 pointed out that while we had many ministries, there was no specific system for setting goals and assessing the achievement of those goals. In vital churches congregational leaders hold one another accountable for what they agree to do. This is difficult work not only in the church, but in many areas of life. We are in need of improved awareness and skills.

In the church we're nice to each other (or at least in front of each other!). In my experience, members of the church community avoid conflict and difficult conversations concerning accountability because we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Even if a person's behavior or failure to act has a negative impact on ministry, we are hesitant to talk directly to that person about it.

Recently, I have been reading Crucial Accountability: Tools for Resolving Violated Expectations, Broken Commitments, and Bad Behavior by Kerry Patterson, et. al. I'll admit that the book has had me rethinking my approach to accountability. I think of several situations over my 25 years of ministry when I have avoided conversations of accountability. The book is written, primarily, for the secular work force, but the authors include examples of how their principles apply to relationships and families. The skills detailed in the book are also transferable to situations in the church.

The authors make the case that unless people know when their behavior is unacceptable, they are not meeting expectations, or they have not followed through on a commitment and it was noticed, there is little chance for improvement. The book takes the reader through several steps of preparation for accountability conversations and then offers a structure for the conversation.

I'll write about preparation for a conversation in this blog and write about the conversation itself in a later entry.

The first thing to decide is whether or not an accountability conversation needs to be held and who is the person to hold it. I was struck by this suggested discernment question, "Am I choosing the certainty of silence over the risk of speaking up?" If we stay silent an unhelpful behavior will continue, but do we choose that over what else might happen? Often we over exaggerate the cost of speaking up or downplay the cost of not speaking up. We may tell ourselves that we are helpless to make any difference. The authors outline steps to determining when it is time to have a conversation.

Next the authors call the reader to self-examination in preparing for a accountability conversation. They introduce the element of grace by suggesting that if we are to have an accountability conversation, we are already setting the climate for the conversation, by what we're thinking about that person beforehand. The authors suggest that we assess our assumptions about the other person's intent and ability. In the midst of broken promises or bad behavior, we have a tendency to tell "ugly" stories about others. We attribute their behavior to their inner character (We are more likely to attribute our unacceptable behavior to outside forces.). Step back and ask, "What is the rest of the story?"

I can't help but think of Jesus' "accountability conversations" with religious leaders. (Check out Matthew 23, for example.) He held them accountable to the religious law they safeguarded. His goal was not to embarrass them or do them harm, but to bring them into a new way of living.

I believe that church ministry benefits from mutual accountability, even when the conversations get difficult.