Squad GoalsSample

One of the spiritual disciplines often taught in church is accountability, but accountability in church can feel awkward. A friend gets vulnerable with you and they share their struggles. They ask you to keep them accountable. You text them the following week asking them how they’re doing with it, and they tell you they’ve failed. Then what are you supposed to do? Ground them? Put them in timeout? Slap them on the wrist? You want to encourage them in the moment, but accountability gets difficult over the long haul because you don’t want to feel like you’re their spiritual police officer. The final squad goal is this:

Goal #7: Stay Accountable.

You can’t say you want to be free and then take the steps to freedom lightly. People often find themselves stuck in their struggles because they get lazy with their accountability. What you have to know about the people who you are asking to keep you accountable is it’s not their job to think about you. It’s your job to keep them up to speed with where you’re at. Accountability is not just checking in with one another. Accountability is an agreement to wage war with another to find freedom and stay free.

We’ve grown accustomed to saying this phrase that has to die… “Well, I don’t want to be over-spiritual.”

Do we want to be under-spiritual? Saying that gives the notion you’d rather be less than who you are to keep others comfortable when you could be who God has called you to be and help your friends find freedom. If you want freedom from your struggles, you’re asking for a war.

The half-brother of Jesus gives clear instructions to the person giving the confession and the person receiving the confession. The recipient of the confession only has one job: Pray. When someone confesses their mistakes to you, it's not your job to remind them of how dumb they are for doing that. It's your job to pray. Our natural reflex to a confession is to counsel. Can you imagine what kind of friend you would be if you were one whose first response was always prayer before opinion?

The goal of accountability is to grow. Growth for you and they might be related to romantic relationships, pornography, materialism, substance abuse, gambling, or getting healthy. If you desire to grow, be a person who consistently invites your friends into your process of growth.

Do you have good friends? Are you a good friend? At the end of the day, your wealth is not measured by the amount of money in your bank account. It is measured by the quality of friends you have around you. I pray that you and your squad will be a group of people who help each other accomplish God's will for your lives.

To find out more about Ryan Leak, check out ryanleak.com or follow @ryanleak on Instagram or Twitter.