Multiplication tools: accountability. A story

Accountability has been key to the church that meets in our home over the last few weeks.

Photo credit: ItzaFineDay (Creative Commons)

In the last post, I described how a challenge to pray with someone during the week, led to my reaching out beyond my comfort zone to pray with a total stranger over the phone.

Our initial week's challenge had resulted in different ones praying for neighbors, people at work, and other college students, so our simple/organic church decided to repeat the experiment. This time, I reached out to a relative who needs work. She's one I've had many spiritual conversations with in the past, but who would probably describe herself as pagan. She was very willing for me to pray.

Then I had a surprise. As part of my initial reaching out, I'd placed an ad on Craigslist: "Do you need prayer?" A week or so later, a lady responded, asking me to pray for certain things. As our conversation has developed, she has opened up more, and in my last message to her, I was able to share the Gospel openly. That story is still ongoing.

Many simple/organic churches or small groups long to be more outward-focused but don't know how. Why not think through some of the skills that might make a difference in this area, commit to pray, and then challenge each other and hold each other accountable to put them into practice.

In disciple-making movements in other nations, ongoing accountability plays a vital part. Who did you share your story with this week? Have you been able to pray for anyone during this past week.

We often use four symbols when we study the Bible. The last one is an ear: who do you know who needs to hear what we've been learning? The power of this symbol is to hold each other accountable to share what we've been learning with someone else. This leads to multiplication.

I'd love to hear some of your stories.