Holly: Yes, the title is a mouthful. And we are erring a bit on the silly side, but it all boils down to one thing: accountability. I think we lack none nowadays. Seriously. No one is held accountable for their actions anymore, it seems. Or lack of actions.
I'll give an example that is also a wee bit of a pet peeve: Something that really drives me crazy about churches is that we are often told "We should pray more" or "We should read the Bible more". Well....great. I won't disagree with you. But how? There's usually no follow-through, and we're left to our own devices, which usually turns into a never-ending mental battle of "doing it right" versus "doing it wrong". As someone who has been a follower for a few years now, I am STILL struggling to find out what works for me. Here's another example: when someone decides to leave a church or a small group (we ran into this back when we participated in BCM); there was a bit of persuading to try to stay, and then after it was all said and done, that was it. Basically all forms of contact were cut off. ALL. There was no "Hey, how are you doing?" after we left. There was nothing.
If we really are the hands and feet of Jesus, if we are brothers and sisters in Christ, shouldn't we be looking out for one another...really looking out for one another? As I mentioned in our small group discussion this morning, I would much rather have someone take me aside and tell me I was going down the wrong path, versus being left alone in the assumptions that everything was hunky-dory. At what point do we stop saying "someone else will take care of it?" and just take up the gauntlet ourselves? Now, I'm not saying I am an expert in this. Trust me, I have A LOT to learn from all of this as well. I've thought of several potentially difficult conversations that I should be having, most of them with myself. I hope that we as Christians, or just decent human beings, if Jesus isn't a part of your life, take responsibility for our actions and how we truly, really, wholeheartedly, interact with each other.
Kelly: In light of recent events, our church will soon be discussing how to fill a vacancy that has since March been empty, and God has called some wonderful volunteers to attempt to fill this vacancy whilst a decision is being made. I know that sentence seemed like a lot of garbled gobble-dee-goop, but it hones in on what this post is about. Throughout the years I've been attending church, many programs, groups and once active and thriving ministries have fallen off the wayside because in my opinion there's no accountability. Some of thought "well, nobody cares about this anymore" or "the need is being met elsewhere in the church" or the most common one I've heard "well, a piece of it is covered so as a whole this area is being taken care of." Not necessarily heard by me, but by other members that I am close to and trust. It's quite sad, to be honest. When this meeting rolls around, I don't know if I'll have anything to say, but if I do, I hope it's from my heart and that I feel led by God to share. I think instead of asking "who's going to do something" let's maybe perhaps ask "what can we all do as a body of unity and a body of believers?" Having said that, I'm going to share a story.
When I was in college, Holly and I joined BCM. We went regularly for about 2 years and on and off for about a year. I went more often than Holly, as she was busy doing RA stuff, which was no big deal. So I came and went for a while, but my schedule was starting to become busy and I made the decision that I was going to have to devote more time for my nursing work and explore other means to grow in my faith. I presented my thoughts to several members at the time, and I guess there's no way to say it, but in a way I was shunned. I stopped receiving invites to attend when I could, no one checked in with me regularly, and then the time came for the end of the year party. I actually was invited to attend, and I did. It was like walking into a completely different atmosphere. At that point I realized this was not a place for me to grow in my faith and my walk with Christ. That warm, welcoming, open and accepting environment was gone and replaced with favoritism, unwelcoming and feeling lonely. Now please do not misunderstand me. I have quite a few very fond and powerful memories from my time that I spent and will cherish the friendships I had. I'm not saying don't ever do a college BCM program, because that's not what I'm saying at all. All I am saying is this; at what point should we stop asking "who" and start asking "what." Instead of chastising for forgetting your Bible, greet one another and genuinely say "I'm glad you're here. We're happy to help you in any way we can." (Bible chastising c/o church camp). I am so happy and blessed that I am currently in a small group where I feel safe to share my needs and know that I am going to have follow-up with it or them, and I do my best to do the same. It honestly takes a little bit of an extra effort to hold someone accountable, but to me it's worth it. I think it can make the difference between someone staying in a church/small group and someone leaving it.
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