Piper's Pastoral Accountability-LTG group

I saw this post on Piper's site. I'm reminded of the verse we studied on Tuesday. 2 Corinthians 7:1 "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." It is very important we become accountability partners in the Gospel. We are all weak and sinful. We need prayer partners and friends we can talk to. Practically, it shows how important it is to establish and create LTG groups (Life Transformation Groups) within the Church. The blog also includes a PDF questionnaire. Please let me know your thoughts.


Piper's Pastoral Accountability
May 23, 2007 | By: Abraham Piper | Category: Commentary

Hearts can harden fast. The writer of Hebrews drives this point home: "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (3:13).

So for pastors—and for all of us—yearly or quarterly or perhaps even monthly accountability is dangerously rare. The hardness that creates "an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God" (Heb. 3:12) can happen in a day.

John Piper and the other pastors of Bethlehem Baptist Church know this, and so, among their other strategies for sanctification, they hold each other accountable with a simple questionnaire (PDF) that they each fill out weekly. It addresses issues from days off to diet, personal devotions to pornography.

They would all agree that filling out the form is not what matters; what's important is the heart behind it—the desire to be pure and holy.

I think they would also all agree, however, that committing to answer these simple and straightforward questions each week is an invaluable tool in the fight of faith.

Update: A reader offers a challenging reminder about sexual accountability.

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/642_pipers_pastoral_accountability/