In a world where the moral scrutiny of business and political leaders is nothing to write home about, the society relies on the uprightness of the faith community to fill the gap. The model which Jesus gave us for behavioural standards is one of shared scriptural experience, but it is not one for gallantry perspective. Churches that are serious about developing and cultivating authentic fellowshipping are going to have astonishing accountability from their leaders. There’s no getting around the fact that any church that wants to imitate the examples of Christ must start by imbibing accountability into its practices. Unfortunately, lack of accountability has corroded biblical honour for many pastors and church leaders. Accountability is God’s instrument that helps people enter God’s fullness and his calling. Jesus set this example by not only being accountable to God but he was also accountable to the church by paying the ultimate sacrifice at Calvary.

Similarly, pastors must give account of their actions before their congregation, likewise the congregation is accountable to their church leaders. Accountability in the church must not be mutually exclusive between the church leadership and the followers, the reason isn’t far fetched, accountability helps everyone stay in the right spiritual condition and promote the right spiritual and moral standard. The church leadership must not be sovereign unto itself, just like the congregation must not go rogue. They must ask questions of each other, the effectiveness spirituality depends on the level of the pastor’s accountability to the congregation and vice versa.

A pastor true to his or her calling will not find it offensive when you expect some measure of accountability from them. There is no church worth it’s name, no pastor worth his or her calling without biblical values, accountability is one of them, and it is your role and your responsibility as a church leader or follower to ensure you do not encourage a culture where the church as a whole lacks in accountability towards one another. The passage in Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”, means faith members should be questioning, encouraging, coaching and challenging each other, if any man or woman of God thinks they are above scrutiny as you would probably find in some churches then they are becoming lord unto themselves, every church member must hold each other accountable including the leadership, it’s simply what God wants, this is the conviction of both friendship and accountability found in Proverbs 27:17.