Walking the fine line between trust and Accountability: Finding what's Bearable

Scripture Verse that Caught my attention today: Acts 15:19 Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God,

Observation: The pressing question of the community of faith was whether or not the Gentile converts needed to be circumcised. After hearing the testimony of all that God was doing through the Gentiles and taking into account some ancient words of Scripture that seemed to allow for Gentile conversion, James decided that the community of faith should lighten up and more or less just be thankful for Gentile conversions rather than trying to “trouble” them by placing more demands on them.

Application: There is a fine line, and often tension, between trust and accountability. The tension usually revolves around differing views on the word “should,” as in, what “should” be done. It’s a dilemma that just about every community of faith wrestles with at some point.

One question that comes to mind is this: At what point do standards of accountability become “trouble?” In other words, at what point do well-intentioned efforts to assure a certain level of consistency or performance become a source of “trouble” that upsets individuals and/or groups to the point that the whole effort actually becomes counter-productive and, possibly, out of line with the faith (or mission) we endeavor to proclaim and live?

Peter, in verses 8-11 of this chapter, offered the following viewpoint which no doubt influenced James pronouncement: “And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; 9 and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. 10 Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11 On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Based on Peter’s pronouncement, the answer to my question may revolve around the word “bearable.” When well-intentioned efforts to assure accountability become “unbearable” in some way (creating undue stress, diverting attention from the mission, etc.), that may be a sign that the efforts of accountability may need to be re-examined.

This is certainly true at times in the church and non-profit sector, but it is also true in government, education, and even business. It’s hard to come up with ‘reforms’ that actually reform in a positive way. This is not to say that we shouldn’t try. But it is to say that we should know from the onset that what we think is right, in the greater scheme of things, could still be wrong. Let’s pay attention to what people (ourselves included) are actually able to bear.

Prayer: Lord, thanks for people of good wisdom like Peter an James and Paul and Barnabas and all the rest of your people from then and now that are open to your insights. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Leviticus 7-9 and Acts 15)