Articles for tag: Accountability Partner

January 1, 2024

By Jerry Harris All church leaders are dealing with stress right now. Stress can come from every area of our lives. You might be under pressure, facing big changes, feeling a lack of control, shouldering heavy responsibility, or feeling uncertain about the future. You might be facing multiple issues simultaneously or feeling the effects of past experiences. Your stress might be triggered by illness, injury, parenting, infertility, bereavement, abuse, marriage, divorce, relationships, or caregiving. You might have lost your job, or be seeking a new job, or just started in a new role. Perhaps you retired recently. You might be

February 16, 2015

Christian Standard

Ethics & Moral Issues Sexuality

Sex Offenders in the Church

By J. Robert Ross The minister at my church recently refused to allow Sam (not his real name), a convicted sex offender in my treatment program, to attend services at our church. I understood his fear, but I cannot agree with his decision to turn Sam away. I suspect his reaction, and the reaction of many others, is motivated by anxiety rooted in several misconceptions about sex offenders, their offenses, and their victims. A common misconception, aided and abetted by the media, puts all offenders in the same boat. Anyone convicted of a sex offense is automatically labeled a “sexual

July 9, 2013

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Politics & Government

Our Own Defense of Marriage Acts

By Mark A. Taylor Last year, just before my daughter”s wedding, a friend e-mailed me about the big day. “My daughter”s wedding was the most exhilarating and exhausting day of my life,” he said, and soon I would know what he meant. But it occurs to me that exhilarating and exhausting describe the whole gamut of married and family life. For example, it”s exhilarating finally to hold a newborn baby, especially after an exhausting labor and drawn-out pregnancy. Likewise, each milestone of the new preschooler”s life is exhilarating: first words, first steps, first everything! And keeping up with her is

April 18, 2007

Christian Standard

Church Leadership Leadership Development

What About Accountability?

When ministers fall, the question returns: where is accountability? This reflection explores how plans can fail, why a weekly confessor matters, and how honesty—one week at a time—keeps a vulnerable heart away from the edge.