Accountability, Responsibility, and Authority
Proverbs 29:18 Whoever walks blamelessly will be saved,
But he who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall.
I usually like to include a video in my sermons in order to illustrate a point. Up until now, I haven’t been able to do this because we didn’t have the equipment.
The video I have this morning is only a few seconds long. It shows a couple of guys with a common goal. They are working together to accomplish the goal, but something is missing. Take a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV4CiusqC_0
So what do you think was missing? They are obviously highly motivated, but one or two things aren’t working.
First, I think it is obvious that they don’t have a very good plan.
Second, they have a common goal, but they aren’t paying attention to each other.
Third, the one guy hurt his partner and then himself.
Sadly, this is exactly what is happening in churches all across America today. They don’t have a good plan, they have a common goal, but they aren’t paying attention to each other, and ultimately they end up hurting each other.
You have all probably heard the old saying, “he who fails to plan, plans to fail.” I believe that there is a great deal of truth to that statement.
We have been going through “lean” training at work, and as a preacher, I can’t help but see the spiritual analogy in the various aspects of “lean” training.
As a pastor, I guess my two least favorite statements from church members are “we have always done it that way.” And of course the flip side of the same coin is, “we have never done it that way.”
These terms are also forbidden in Lean training. Lean training is designed to improve productivity. Now, that isn’t necessarily analogues to the spiritual world.
For instance, in manufacturing, doing something exactly the same way every single time is a good thing. It means that you are consistent, you have a plan, and your product is going to have consistent quality.
But what if you found a better way, a way to make your widget faster, or less expensive, or higher quality: what if your product becomes obsolete?
If you were to make such a discovery, you must also realize that in order to have improvement, something is going to necessarily change.
You see, we all know through our own life experience, that if you keep doing something the same way and expect a different result, well, that’s been called the definition of insanity.
And that is really what I want to address today. Are we happy with the way things are?
Do we expect our problems to fix themselves? If you do, then that is the same as doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.
If a different result is desired, then what do we need to be doing to facilitate the new outcome?
I’m not talking about copying church X or Y or following some video plan on church growth. I’m asking you to think about your ideal church, and then identify the differences between your ideal and your reality.
In “lean” training, we have an exercise called 5-S. Five S stands for Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.
5-S is intended to provide a methodology for organizing, cleaning, developing, and sustaining a productive work environment.
Now, 5-S could be applied to the church, there are aspects that could certainly help us out.
We need to sort through our committees, classers and ministries and determine which are working, which need repair, and which need to be dropped all together.
We need to set in order the ministries and classes that we are involved in and insure they are meeting the desired goals.
We need to shine, that means we take care of God’s house, we make sure that everything is clean and in good repair.
My motto is, “if I wouldn’t have it in my house, it certainly doesn’t belong in God’s house.” What we are currently undertaking next door is long overdue for this body of Christ.
And going forward, we make sure we are pro-active enough to realize when we need to be making repairs or build to accommodate growth.
We need to standardize. Our standard here at Southwest Baptist is the Bible, and as Southern Baptist, our articles of faith, the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message states our moral and ethical beliefs (which are based on the Bible).
We must always be vigilant to take a close look at any material that is being taught in this church and make certain that there is no conflict with the standard that this church is founded on.
And when these 4 things have been done, we will be in a position to sustain growth.
These 5 things are not impossible goals. They aren’t some fantasy that might be possible one, two, or three years from now.
These goals are achievable here and now. All that is necessary is for us, each individual that makes up this body of Christ, to realize our place in God’s plan here and now.
You see, there is another aspect of lean training that I think we can apply to our Christian walk.
In lean, our goal is to insure that each person is aware of his/her accountability, responsibility, and authority.
Now, for Spiritual purposes, I need to re-arrange the order and make a few caveats.
What I am about to describe applies only to born again believers, and the proper order of the three attributes is a follows; authority, responsibility, and accountability.
1. I say that these apply only to believers because if you act on behalf of the church, by whose authority do you act?
When anyone imposes something on us, we always want to know, “by whose authority” they do so.
Not just anyone can pull me over for speeding. It must be someone who has been given that authority, such as the local police, sheriff’s deputy, or highway patrol.
When we savingly believe in Jesus and are born again into His kingdom, we are now acting under the authority and leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told his disciples that when he left he would send the comforter. John 14:26 says, “But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to remembrance all things that I said to you.”
So, when we are born again, and submissive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we are acting in the authority of the Holy Spirit.
I don’t have the authority in and of myself to stand in this pulpit and preach. None of you who hold office or membership at this church do so of your own authority, the founders who built this church did not act of their own authority.
All was, and is, done by the authority of the Holy Spirit.
When each believer fully embraces the reality that they operate in this world under the authority of the Holy Spirit… then they will be highly motivated to be busy for God.
Not only will we be highly motivated, I believe that when we fully grasp that we are living our lives under the authority of the Holy Spirit we will become bold and fearless when it comes to sharing our faith and our testimony.
2. And that brings me to the second attribute, responsibility.
If, in fact, we as believers do operate under the authority of the Holy Spirit, then we have a responsibility to be active for God and the work that He has for each of us.
Each of us who work a secular job has specific responsibilities. There are things at our jobs that our employer expects us to do.
The simple fact is, they pay us to do certain tasks, and thus those tasks are our responsibility.
If I fail to accomplish my responsibilities at my secular job, I will receive a reprimand, and if I fail to improve, I will probably be fired.
How many of us would be fired as Christians if God gave us a performance review?
Now, let’s suppose that I am a servant. That’s not a stretch because Jesus said that the greatest disciple would be “servant of all.”
So, if I am a servant then what are my responsibilities? Well, the closest thing I have ever experienced physically, on this earth, to being a servant was being obedient to my parents.
When I was a boy, you did what you were told, and if you talked back or complained, you did what you were told after the whipping.
So, my responsibilities as a boy were whatever my mom or dad said they were, no questions asked.
Now, as a servant of God, the joy and purpose of my life SHOULD be to serve Him.
Thus, my responsibility is to do whatever God calls me to do. Pastor, Deacon, teacher, member, witness, missionary, whatever He calls me to do, it becomes my responsibility.
And if I have accepted His call to serve the church in some way, then I am also responsible to the members of the church.
We still have many positions that need to be filled in order for our classes and committees to function properly. Are you meeting your responsibilities as a member of this body of Christ?
So, I operate with the authority of the Holy Spirit and am responsible to God and the Church.
3. This brings us to the 3rd attribute, that is, to whom am I accountable?
Well, at the most basic level, there is personal accountability. That applies to my secular job and it also applies to my faith.
As a born again believer, I hold myself accountable to make sure that my conduct is pleasing to God and helpful to my fellow believers.
As a member of the local Church, I am accountable to the body of Christ, both in my conduct and service to my fellow believers.
And finally, I am accountable, ultimately, to God Himself.
When we fully grasp the concept of, “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord,” it’s a very humbling experience.
I want each of you, as a members and believers, to take time this afternoon to think about our church, our worship services, our outreach, our plans for growth.
I want you to imagine all of these as you desire them to be and then identify opportunities for improvement here at Southwest. Then I want you to write your thoughts down on paper
Tonight is family night; we will enjoy a meal and fellowship. I want you to prayerfully consider how we, as a church, will move forward.
Then I want you to bring me what you have written. You don’t have to sign you name to it, everything you give me will be in confidence.
If you love the Lord and you love this Church, then come back tonight at 6:00, come and enjoy our fellowship and come with your hopes for our future.
Come tonight with your wildest ideas, you most heartfelt convictions, and a spirit filled with excitement as we look toward the future.
When you had your time of questioning for me, someone asked me how I was going to change the church and my response was, “we will come together and decide how we will move forward,” we will decide what we will change.
Please don’t come to complain about some program or person, that is not what I am asking you for.
Please don’t come saying, “let’s do what this church is doing, or lets follow what preacher X is doing.”
I’m not asking for “me too” ideas, I am asking you, as members of this body of Christ, to come tonight with the hope and inspiration that the Holy Spirit has given you for Southwest Baptist Church.
We are going to have our hymn of invitation; I want you to remain seated while the music is playing.
I want you to close your eyes and imagine what God desires for you as an individual. Is he calling you to serve Him, is He inspiring you to be involved in reaffirming our worship and ministry Southwest Baptist?
Maybe God is calling you to be saved. You know in your heart that Jesus is God’s son, that He died for your sins, but you have resisted the call of the Holy Spirit.
Maybe your answer has always been, not today, maybe tomorrow. Friend, today is the day, stop fighting, stop running, and receive God’s peace today. Whatever God is calling you to do, do it today…
