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If you were in any doubt about the influence and reach of Hillsong's music, you might like to note that ‘Shout to the Lord’ was sung not once, but twice on two separate episodes of American Idol recently. You can see both on YouTube.
We sometimes make a great deal, in evangelical circles, of accountability. How fascinating then, to see the attitude of Jesus as he lived on this earth when he was asked to hold people to account:
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” (Luke 12:13-14)
Surely here was a case where we might expect that Jesus, Lord of all creation, might exercise his lordship by calling sinners to account. But this is something he categorically refuses to do. The time will come when, by means of the resurrection, he will be able to say that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:18; compare with Rom 1:4). But for Jesus, his time has not yet come.
How much more should we (who, unlike Jesus, have not yet been resurrected) imitate his humility and refuse to call people to account when we have no license to do so! Rather,
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:5-11)
If we are to be genuinely accountable to God, we should not hold brothers and sisters in Christ to account any more than Jesus did when he walked on earth.
The sin which ‘accountability’ wrongly seeks to address (see my previous post) is individualism, also known as ‘pride’ or possibly ‘greed’, or, more loosely, ‘sin’.
A better antidote to this sin is to go back to the Bible and read Paul's exhortations regarding one another in their context, or similar ones by the other New Testament letter writers. Our churches would be healthier if we made this a regular exercise.
By the way, be careful with those links: they were discovered by typing ‘one another’ the highly useful search function for the ESV Bible website. A quick glance at the first ‘one another’ will tell you why these words need to be read and applied with due regard to their context in the passage!
Where does the Bible teach our accountability to each other?
Nowhere.
We will certainly be accountable to God on the final day of judgement; the Bible is very clear on this. But is there even a single verse which teaches that Christians are accountable to each other? Verses which teach that we should encourage each other, confess our sins to each other (and so on) come close, but they are not the same.
The demanding of accountability to a human judge is more a feature of state rule (in which case, it is legitimate) or Roman Catholicism (in which case, it is not).
Sometimes I like to think about how blessed we are to have the gift of writing. Once upon a time, writing was only the privilege of the literate class, but these days, thanks to widespread schooling and an increased emphasis on education, the ranks of the literate are growing. Sure, not everyone may possess the same mastery of spelling, grammar and punctuation as certain Briefing editors do (she says, tongue in cheek!), and not everyone will keep their nose buried in the latest Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, but most people know enough to skim through a TV guide, decipher a train timetable, read a street map or ‘pen’ a text message.
Furthermore, writing is such a useful mnemonic tool in our information-saturated age. What's my friend's email address again? I don't remember but my electronic address book does. Was it rice or risoni that I needed to buy from the supermarket? Better check the shopping list. What did I need to do today at work? Good thing I scribbled down a ‘To do’ list before I went to sleep last night.
In addition, writing, even more than speech, is increasingly becoming the format in which we communicate. Email, SMS, blogs, forums, instant messaging programs, Facebook and MMORPGs all rely on text, and are giving rise to a generation who use writing as never before. As Amy Goldwasser writes in Salon.com,
[T]he Internet is only a means of communication, and one that has created a generation, perhaps the first, of writers, activists, storytellers ... When the world worked in hard copy, no parent or teacher ever begrudged teenagers who disappeared into their rooms to write letters to friends—or a movie review, or an editorial for the school paper on the first president they'll vote for. Even 15-year-old boys are sharing some part of their feelings with someone out there.
We're talking about 33 million Americans who are fluent in texting, e-mailing, blogging, IM'ing and constantly amending their profiles on social network sites—which, on average, 30 of their friends will visit every day, hanging out and writing for 20 minutes or so each. They're connected, they're collaborative, they're used to writing about themselves. In fact, they choose to write about themselves, on their own time, rather than its being a forced labor when a paper's due in school. Regularly, often late at night, they're generating a body of intimate written work. They appreciate the value of a good story and the power of a speech that moves: Ninety-seven percent of the teenagers in the Common Core survey connected “I have a dream” with its speaker—they can watch Dr. King deliver it on demand—and eight in 10 knew what “To Kill a Mockingbird” is about. (Source.)
Writing is also the way God has chosen to preserve the knowledge he has given us. “[Writing is] words that stay”, says Jen in The Dark Crystal, and God's words have ‘stayed’ throughout the centuries so that we can still read what the Son of God said to people when he walked the earth 2,000 years ago.
Moreover, writing is one of the ways in which we can disseminate the fragrance of Christ abroad so that those in great darkness might come to know the light of his gospel. How long ago was it that John Chapman penned A Fresh Start? And how many people have been brought to know the living God through perusing its pages? Perhaps we'll never know this side of heaven.
This brings me to The Faithful Writer. The Faithful Writer is a one-day conference for Christians interested in exploring the ministry potential of writing, paid or otherwise. It's for Christians keen to use their words to serve and glorify the one who made words. It's for Christians who are passionate about communicating and communicating well.
This year, the conference is taking place on Saturday 2 August 2008 from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm at New College, University of New South Wales, Kensington (330 Anzac Parade, Kensington).
Mark Tredinnick, Australian poet, essayist, writing teacher and author of The Little Red Writing Book has agreed to be our special guest speaker to train us in the practice of writing.
In addition, Trevor Cairney, Director of the Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education (CASE) and master of New College, University of New South Wales, will be speaking on writing for children; Greg Clarke, Director of the Macquarie Christian Studies Institute and Director (with John Dickson) of the Centre for Public Christianity, will be speaking on writing for sceptics; Tony Payne, Publishing Director of Matthias Media, will be speaking on the art of the essay; and I, together with Rebecca Jee, editor of Salt magazine (published by the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students), will be speaking on writers, editors and the relationship between the two.
Join the conference mailing list for updates. Registration costs include lunch, morning and afternoon tea. The earlybird rate if you register before Friday 20 June is $80 ($65 concession for full-time students and pensioners). (Registrations received after the 20 June will be charged $100 [$85 for concession]). There are no part-day registration discounts.
Registrations have now opened, and will close on Friday 25 July 2008. Places are limited so make sure you get in early. Please note: no registrations will be accepted on the day of the conference.
We hope to see you there!
P.S. Want to help us promote the conference? You can do so in three ways:
