by
Rick Sutcliffe
(index)
Accountability
For TWU FA meeting 2005 04 05
Luke 16:2 So he called him in and asked him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer."
Accountability is a word loaned to the broader sphere of human activity from both business and mathematics. At the end of the day someone has to count up the credits and debits and so determine if there is a profit or a loss.
In the bigger picture, we must all give detailed account to God at the end of our lives for the way in which we have fulfilled our purpose: to love and give glory to God with all our being and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
Heb 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from GodŐs sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Mt 12:36 But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
We must surely give account of how we handle the written word of God, not only for how we followed its moral content as it reveals the heart of God and so the character of Christ He would instantiate in us if we allow him to, but also for how we perceive, handle, teach, and live its other doctrinal content.
Jas 3:1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
But the sweeping issues of GodŐs final judgement aside for a moment, accountability, like salvation, has a daily on going aspect that gradually sums up to a final accounting. Daily mutual accountability is a Christian ethical duty to God and his word surely, but also to one another. This latter works out in our personal relationships at home and church, but also in our professional ones. Specifically, we must be accountable to one another in our departments and faculties, to others of our colleagues upon whom our words and work impinges, to the university as a whole across its various administrative apparatus, to parents, donors, church constituents, and most of all to students.
Mt 25:20-21 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. "Master," he said, "you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more." His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!"
Surely in our TWU context we are among those to whom much has been entrusted. We show the accountability of our stewardship when we not only faithfully take the spiritual and academic talents (double meaning here of course) with which God has entrusted us and multiply them to his honour and glory alone, but also are seen by others, can indeed be counted upon by others to be doing this. This happens
first when we openly, publicly, measurably build up our studentŐs faith by what we do in the classroom--what we teach, how we teach and how we hold our students accountable by testing it;
second when we engage in research of the highest quality under the strictest ethical guidelines, and with a view to exposing the concinnity all true knowledge must have, because we know it originated in the integrated creative plan of God and is therefore very good;
third when we apply what we know to the transforming not only of people but also of communities to assist them also to conform to the purpose for which God made them--to honour Him.
Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Summary:
Accountability has to do with living out in our daily context in a visible and demonstrably measurable way before God and our neighbours the effects of the Holy SpiritŐs character development in us.
In the specific TWU context, we must constantly ask, and have others measure in us for our benefit and theirs, whether our teaching, research, and transformative service to our community correspond in detail to GodŐs expectations for fruit giving rise to fruit.
So donŐt fear those refereesŐ reports, student evaluations, your deanŐs assessments, or those of your colleagues with whom you trade classroom visits. Rather read them, study them, embrace them, and let your future professional career be informed by them. Let us be transparent. Why? So others can see through the little man or woman to a clear view of Christ. Neither hesitate to hold your students, colleages, administrators and others with whom you interact accountable for their actions, for we all have a stake in the reputation of the kingdom of God, both globally, and as it is instanced in Trinity Western University.
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