Squad GoalsSample

One of the spiritual disciplines often taught in church is accountability, but let’s be honest—accountability can feel awkward. A friend gets vulnerable and shares their struggles with you, asking for help. You check in with them the following week to see how they’re doing, and they tell you they’ve failed. Then what? Are you supposed to ground them? Put them in timeout? Slap them on the wrist?

In moments like these, you want to be encouraging, but accountability often feels tricky over the long haul. You don’t want to turn into someone’s spiritual police officer. But at the same time, you know this discipline is crucial for both freedom and growth.

The seventh squad goal is this: Embrace accountability.

Here’s the reality: you can’t say you want freedom and then take the steps to freedom lightly. The truth is, many people stay stuck in their struggles because they get lazy with their accountability. If you’ve asked someone to help you stay accountable, it’s not their job to chase after you—it’s your job to keep them in the loop. Accountability isn’t about being checked up on. It’s about inviting someone into your fight for freedom.

Accountability is more than just a quick text exchange or an occasional “How’s that going?” Accountability is a mutual agreement to wage war against whatever is holding you or your friend back. It’s a commitment to take your growth seriously, even when it’s uncomfortable.

But here’s something else we’ve grown accustomed to saying that needs to die: “I don’t want to be over-spiritual.” What does that even mean? Do we want to be under-spiritual? Saying this gives the impression that we’d rather play small and keep everyone comfortable than be who God has called us to be. But real accountability doesn’t settle for less. Real accountability takes courage. It invites others into the hard and holy work of becoming who God designed you to be.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, gives us clear instructions when it comes to accountability.“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed”(James 5:16). Notice the simplicity here. The recipient of the confession has one job: pray. Not lecture. Not guilt-trip. Not remind someone of how foolish they were. Pray.

Imagine what kind of friend you would be if your first response to someone’s confession was always prayer instead of opinion. Accountability begins with prayer because prayer invites God into the process. Without it, we’re just trying to fix things on our own.

The goal of accountability is growth—growth in areas like relationships, pornography, materialism, substance abuse, gambling, or even health. Whatever the struggle, accountability is about progress, not perfection. And if you want to grow, you have to be the kind of person who consistently invites your friends into your process of growth.

So here’s the question: Do you have good friends? Are you a good friend? At the end of the day, your wealth isn’t measured by the amount of money in your bank account—it’s measured by the quality of friends you have around you.

My prayer is that you and your squad would be a group of people who help each other accomplish God’s will for your lives. A squad that shows up for one another, prays for one another, and fights for one another’s freedom. Be the kind of squad that lifts each other higher, loves deeper, forgives fully, and never stops chasing God’s best for one another.