That’s where my personal relationship with God becomes all-important
- if my connection isn’t fully working then what am I modelling? More than that – what am I imparting spiritually as I pray and work with them?

It may well be possible to run for a little time on empty [in fact I know it
is possible!] but it isn’t possible to run for long or indeed to run our best when we feel low ourselves. John 15 talks about abiding in the vine
and whilst I am not much of a gardener [that in itself is a gross understatement], I do realise that if a branch is cut off from the main body of the tree then it dies. It may well look full of green leaves for a little while but make no mistake about it – it is dead.

The aim of this post is not to generate guilt, my observations have shown that we are quite capable of creating more guilt than we need, but to stimulate us into reassessing our ongoing relationship with God and making any necessary changes. There are many ways that we can find ourselves needing to re-establish a past friendship level with God. We could be tired, feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of life, depressed, have lost some of our inspiration. It will be worth some of your time to
identify the cause or causes because they may well need some attention to ensure that you don’t repeat the same scenario in the coming weeks and months.

The main key being that when we have recognised the need to rebuild that we take action. I can happily ‘perform’ in front of people when I am not spiritually topped up – but I know the difference.

But, no worries, the answer is easy. Get reconnected, return to God – re-establish your times with Him – pick up that Bible again, listen to those CD’s, even listen to the preacher and God will be there. In fact he never moved – we did and He is keener than we are to fill us afresh with His love, His compassion, His grace, His mercy, and His vision.

Personalities vary dramatically and the way that individuals will maintain their devotional life will be just that – individual; but I would like to suggest several components for your consideration.

• Spiritual reading: experiencing grace through scriptures, through other books [leaders are readers], through listening to written works [time in the car could be invested into your spiritual life by a good selection of tapes/cds].
• Spiritual reflection: writing a journal to express your thoughts, time away on retreat [1 day a month would be a starting point], times of solitude, prayer.
• Accountability partnerships: it is good for us to have someone we can both talk to and be talked to about our relationship with God, people around us that not only observe but have permission to comment as appropriate [for those of us who are married we live
  with someone like this!]

D – Dare to Dream

Every dream we have starts in the mind and can be put there by God direct! What we have to do, the risk we need to take, is dare to accept it and make it our own. Hopefully it will stretch us and develop us into bigger people as we dare to do more than we ever thought possible.

R – be Realistic

Being realistic doesn’t mean that we need to make our goal easy – it just means that we ensure that it is achievable. Ideally we won’t be able to do it by ourselves, it will be too big – we will need God to come through and be with us all the way.

E – Express It

If we never talk about it we run the risk of never making it as we can talk ourselves in and out of things with ease [we have had years of practice]. So tell someone – ideally someone who will be supportive and encouraging. The purpose isn’t to expect them to do it for you but for them to be aware and prompt you by asking how things are going.

A – Age is irrelevant

You are never too young or never too old to dream – KFC was founded by a guy with his pension money (yes it was Colonel Sanders) ad Josiah was a king at 8 years old as well as the bulk of the disciples being teenagers when they first encountered Jesus.

M – Make it Happen

Having a dream is great but it would be foolish to think we can then just sit around and it will magically come to pass. No, we have to do our bit and make it happen. Someone once said that we should pray as though only God could do it and work as though only we could do it. Effort reaps rewards.

For a limited time I am happy to email you either the transcript, the workbook or the audio file [hey all of them if you ask nicely] – limited time = end of November 2007. Please comment here with a valid email address.

This post was inspired by Life in Student Ministry – 100 blog topics I hope YOU will write.

My first experience of youth group leadership (in the late 1980’s) did not give me a good example.experience of accountability in action. The theory was good in that I was accountable to the senior pastor of the church. The weakness was in the practical outworking of the theory. In the three years that I led the youth he (the senior minister) didn’t attend the youth group once. Now I realise that attending the meeting wasn’t the only was the minister could find out what I was doing (his daughter attended the youth group!) – but it was one of the ways that he could show that he cared about what was going on.

So – three questions for you:

1. What does accountability look like?
2. Who are you accountable to and how is it working?
3. Who are you accountable for and how is that working?

What does accountability look like?

As the dictionary states, it is being liable to account. In a church setting you are responsible to someone (if you are a volunteer or a staff member) and you should be able to provide an account of what is happening in your ministry and in your life. Don’t see it as a negative thing or a task to be avoided but more of a positive experience, a safeguard, a protection, a covering that you should no be without. In a Christian sense we are keeping each other accountable to our actions according to God’s law.

The way accountability works (beyond just a work setting) is that you have a partner that you meet on a (preferably) weekly basis and ask questions about their week. The only way it works is to be completely honest – you have to want a steady, deepening relationship with God. If you are weak in a certain area then it would be great to talk about it with someone you can trust.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 “Two are better than one… For if they fall one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up”.

Who are you accountable to and how is it working?

Of course we are all accountable to God (Romans 14:12 – Each of us will give an account of himself to God) and to the leaders of the church/organisation we work in (Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them). Although accountability , in the sense we are talking here, can be wider than that. It would be good to form an accountability partnership or group if you are not already in one. It would also be good to regularly review how things are going.

Who are you accountable for and how is that working?

Many of us will have tram members that we lead or work with, volunteers that give their time to work with young people and of course, young people themselves. We need to make sure that we are proactive and show them we are interested ion what they are doing and how they are progressing – both in the work they and and generally in life.

• How often do you meet with your team?
• Do you only talk about the work?
• When was the last time you asked them about their relationship with God?
• Have you developed a structure where people can form accountability partnerships and groups? Is it working?

Summary

Let’s take accountability from a theory that should be there to something that is there. Let’s take it from something that is there to something that is actually working.