Ed Stetzer recently compiled a list of 48 questions to ask yourself for honing your personal accountability. Unfortunately, each year we hear of preachers, politicians, and average Joes who compromise their integrity and make life-ruining mistakes. Sadly, many of those mistakes could have been avoided with the right accountability systems in place.
For all 48 questions, you will need to check out Ed Stetzer’s original post. Here are my top 15 personal favorites:
Have I spent adequate time in Bible study and prayer?
Did the Bible live in me today?
Am I enjoying prayer?
Have I given priority time to my family?
How do I spend my spare time?
Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
Have I been with a woman/man anywhere this past week that might be seen as compromising?
Have I been exposed to sexually alluring material or allowed my mind to entertain inappropriate thoughts about someone who is not my spouse this week?
Have any of my financial dealings lacked integrity?
Have I secretly wished for another’s misfortune so that I might excel?
Have I damaged another person by my words, either behind their back or face-to-face?
Is there anything that has dampened my zeal for Christ?
Is Christ real to me?
Have I been completely honest with myself?
For Discussion: - What accountability questions do you recommend asking?
Having lived two different leadership styles, Michael compares the leadership styles of the worldly Machiavelli and the godly King Solomon. However, I particularly appreciate two bits of advice Michael gives early in the book.
There is no magic formula that will guarantee your success.
This life principle is important in any field, but in the pursuit of effective ministry, it is extremely important. There is no perfect church model. There are no 3 steps to megachurch perfection. God has given us each a unique calling. And unique callings require unique formulas to achieve success.
First, nail down the basics.
I am a firm believer of not pursuing the next steps until you have the basics covered. In ministry, first you need sound theology. First, you need the Great Commission. First, you need love. Paul sums up this concept beautifully in 1 Corinthians 13 when he talks about how his ministry efforts would be worthless without love.
Tony writes good content and has brought his best work out of the digital archives and into a new book called Killing Cockroaches. It covers strategy, leadership, marketing, design, team building, worship planning, and more.
Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 14th week.
Goofing off boosts productivity
Employees who use the Internet during work hours for personal reasons are 9% more productive than those who don’t.
72% prefer gaming to wives/girlfriends
1 in 3 British men would prefer to play video games than sleep with their partner, with 72% claiming they’d shun their missus for the night to play a new release.
Britons seek de-baptism
More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded “certificates of de-baptism” from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.
Steven Furtick on Guitar Hero Ministry Mentality
If my generation isn’t careful, we may fall into a Guitar Hero mentality toward ministry: Everybody wants to be a rock star, but no one wants to learn the chords.
Tropicana’s Sales Plunge 20% Post-Rebranding
After its package redesign, sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars.
Poverty Goes Straight to the Brain
A long-term study of cognitive development in lower- and middle-class students found strong links between childhood poverty, physiological stress and adult memory.
Exercise Makes Smarter Kids
Physical activity may increase students’ cognitive control – or ability to pay attention – and also result in better performance on academic achievement tests.
Long-term goals help us resist unhealthy urges
If we are feeling fresh, it’s easy to focus on our goals and exert self-control. But when we’ve already tested the limits of our self-control, it’s harder to keep going. This is when focusing on the big picture helps us to keep our eyes on the goal and push ourselves harder. In contrast, focusing on the immediate situation only emphasizes how we’ve already maximized the extent of our willpower and hinders self-control.
Action Video Games Improve Vision
Video games with lots of action, such as the shoot-’em-up variety, can improve your vision. Players became up to 58 percent better at perceiving fine contrast differences in the tests.
25 Free WordPress Themes
One man’s picks of the best 25 free WordPress templates that are really nice and unique.
Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 13th week.
8.5 Hours a Day Spent on Screens
Adults are exposed to screens (i.e., TVs, cellphones, even G.P.S. devices) for about 8.5 hours on any given day, according to a study released by the Council for Research Excellence
More Americans Look to Comedians for News
24% of respondents to a Rasmussen Reports poll agreed that TV shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are “taking the place of traditional news outlets.” Fewer than half (45%) disagreed, while the rest were unsure.
Beauty Over Brains Nearly 25% of women would rather win America’s Next Top Model than the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a study of 2,000 18- to 34-year-old women commissioned by Oxygen Media.
Teenagers with Social Skills Make More Money as an Adult
According to a University of Illinois professor who studies the sociology of education, high school sophomores who were rated by their teachers as having good social skills and work habits, and who participated in extracurricular activities in high school, made more money and completed higher levels of education 10 years later than their classmates who had similar standardized test scores but were less socially adroit and participated in fewer extracurricular activities.
Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 12th week.
U.S. Christians are Dwindling
The percentage of Christians in America, which declined in the 1990s from 86.2 percent to 76.7 percent, has now edged down to 76 percent. Ninety percent of the decline comes from the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ. Baptists have increased their numbers by two million since 2001, but continue to decline as a proportion of the population. (via)
Most Mainline Protestants Say Society Should Accept Homosexuality
Among mainline Protestants overall, 56% say homosexuality should be accepted, compared with only about one-in-four evangelical Protestants and four-in-ten members of historically black Protestant churches.
Brain ability declines after age 27
Brain ability peaks at age 22 and mental powers begin to dwindle at age 27, Virginia University researchers found.
Happiness is contagious
Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself. A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8%, and even your neighbor’s sister’s friend can give you a 5.6% boost.
10 Reasons Why Homeless People Choose To Be Homeless
The tenth reason: “A large percentage of homeless shelters have a religious affiliation. Not all but many of those that do have one impose a requirement to attend religious services in order for a person to be granted access to their food and shelter facilities. This can, of course, be offensive to some and particularly those who belong to an ethnic minority, which tend to be over-represented amongst the homeless population.”
More Senior Citizens are Using the Internet
Internet usage among people ages 70 to 74 increased by 19 percentage points from 2005 to 2008. For people 75 and older, the increase was 10 percentage points.
What About Asexuals?
A survey carried out in 1994 found that 1.05 per cent of respondents had “never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all”.
Most Mosaics Have No Biblical Worldview
Less than 0.5% of adults in the Mosaic generation (those aged 18 to 23) have a biblical worldview, compared to about 1 out of every 9 older adults.
Mainline Protestant Denominations Are More Liberal Than Conservative
48% of clergy from the seven largest mainline denominations say they are liberal while 34% identify as conservative. Also, 56% of mainline clergy identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared to 34% of those who affiliate with the Republican Party. These denominations are the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, American Baptist Churches USA, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
1 in 50 U.S. Kids Are Homeless
The National Center on Family Homelessness estimates that 1 in every 50 American children was homeless between 2005 and 2006. That totals roughly 1.5 million kids.
College Freshman Drink More Than Study
Students who said they had at least one drink in the past 14 days spent an average 10.2 hours a week drinking, and averaged about 8.4 hours a week studying. Nearly 70% of respondents said they drank. Of those, 49.4% spent more time drinking than studying.
Young Women May Be Drinking Heavily To Get Attention Of Opposite Sex, But Men Not Impressed
Research suggests women believe men find excessive drinking sexually attractive and appealing, but it appears this is a giant misperception. Although traditionally, men drink more than women, research has shown that women have steadily been drinking more and more over the last several decades.
