How many times have you sat in the pews to hear a church leader or pastor preached about accountability? How often the message was for people, the likes of you & me in the pews? How often the preacher seems to brush off his own accountability as something privy between him & God?
I've often found the disparity in such messages more than just disturbing. The messages often sounded as though the ordinary people like you & I in the church are accountable to God, the church, the pastors & the church board. The pastor, well, he's only accountable to his good buddies in the board & to God. And even when a preacher mentioned the God part, it sounds like a private hearing & a slap on the wrist kind of thing as if God will go easy on church leaders & pastors. Is it any wonder why preachers often speak of such matters with an air of confidence?
The truth is that the Bible speaks of every person – layman & clergy alike - standing before God to give an account of themselves. Doesn't this sound frightening? Church leaders often think that it's easier to give an account of themselves before God than to their own church. This cannot be further from the truth. We're all fellow human beings, we know that we're not perfect. We can accept each other's failings & we can forgive, forget & move on.
However, I think a lot of church leaders are just too sure of themselves that they think that it'd be beneath them to be accountable to members of their own church. I wonder if they know what they are talking about when they say glibly that they accountable to God. There couldn't be a more careless statement. Here on earth, as church members, we can forgive a pastor when he makes a mistake & can offer advice for corrective actions. But I assume some are even too proud to listen to good advice, unless it comes from their buddies in the church board.
What does accountability to God entails? It basically means that one's at the end of the road. There's no turning back. One is standing before God with the rest of the world staring at him behind his head. Here, God is not going to give anyone any advice but just expecting an account. One cannot even give any excuses as to why he failed. It's a horrifying moment. Anyone in their right mind would rather stand before a church than before a perfect & holy God, sometimes an angry God.
It's no wonder that the corporate world outside has a higher standard in good corporate governance & accountability than most churches, especially mega-churches. A corporate executive who is making a request for a million dollars from the board of his company will have to do a lot of homework in outlining the justifications, cash-flow, forecasts & projections. Whereas, a church leader only has to appeal to the emotions. No homework or paperwork is necessary. Millions are raised & spent without a single writeup.
It'll not be surprising that many church leaders & pastors today will get to heaven with smoke on their backs – just barely made it!
