(let JI Packer thank his lucky stars that he's unlikely to get reincarnated as a blog post).
So those of you who are regular Sola Panel skimmers may well have missed this moment of truth in today's blog post about men's ministry:
2. The accountability model
A popular form of men's groups is to be accountable to each other to keep a set of rules or commitments. There are a number of ‘how to’ manuals for Christian men. They promise to sort out men's problems by defining the principles and boundaries of life, and are appealing because they offer simple solutions to complex lives. If we not only read the manual, but someone checks up on our performance, this is a powerful motivation.
But motivation is the problem. In the end, the reason for godly living is not the grace of Christ in the gospel, but the weekly accountability session. The fear of men replaces the fear of God. Such groups, after a while, can operate without any reference to the gospel and, in fact, distort Christianity into legalism (Col 2:20-23).
Read it! Pure gold buried in, er, well, I don't know what because I couldn't be bothered reading the rest of whatever someone said. It was too long.
*"My Eyes Glaze Over". The acronym is from Tom Wolfe's novel, Bonfire of the Vanities, quite a timely little piece of work actually in the current financial crisis.
