Personal accountability usually feels constraining; limiting. I don’t like accountability because it seems like it might keep me from doing what I want to do. And yet…I’m learning that healthy accountability actually is tremendously freeing.
Julie and I meet with an Accountability Group once a month. This group consists of 3 other couples who have made a commitment to listen to us, to pray with us and for us, and to ask us hard questions as a way to help us make good decisions. We’ve made a commitment to be open with them at a very deep level.
And rather than feel vulnerable or threatened, I feel a deep sense of freedom. It is a wonderful gift to have others walk by your side, in an intimate way, in the life of faith. It is empowering to realize we do not have to hide our struggles and doubts and questions. It is life-giving to ask for, and receive, godly advice from godly men and women.
And particularly in this season – as life unfolds in ways that are totally new to us – there is power in having others affirm and confirm God’s direction in our lives.
So to these dear friends, we give a heartfelt “thanks”. We bless the time, the effort, and the prayers they invest on our behalf. And we rejoice in the tremendous freedom we experience as a direct result of this ongoing relationship of godly accountability.
- Bruce
About Me
- Bruce and Julie
- After seasons of working in both the for-profit and non-profit worlds, God called both of us into ministry. We have two over-riding passions: (1) to communicate - via speaking, teaching, and writing - God's truth as found in the Bible, and (2) to help men and women experience a faith in Jesus Christ that meets the deepest needs within their souls. + + + + Both of us are ordained ministers in the independent Christian Churches. Bruce is the Preaching Minister at Garden Way Church in Eugene, Oregon. Julie has earned a certificate in Spiritual Direction, has been a Women's Pastor and an adjunct college professor, and oversees a non-profit women's ministry called "the unfolding soul". Together we are developing a prayer garden at our home in Springfield called The Lavender Pavilion. + + + + We have been married for more than 30 years and have three adult children.
