WEEK 15: A Model of Accountability

MONDAY — Read the passage with your team.

   10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

   1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:      2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

   6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

2 Timothy 3:10 - 4:8

What does this passage have to say about accountability?

Why is that important?

TUESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

Paul’s relationship with Timothy was a unique one.  The two men labored together for many years, yet Paul was not just Timothy’s “fellow worker” (Romans 16:21).  Paul called Timothy his “true son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2), and this passage in 2 Timothy is Paul’s charge to Timothy — a model for training a person to train others.

1) How does Paul expect Timothy to learn from him (2 Timothy 3:10-11)?  Whose habits and discipline, beliefs and goals, are you watching and imitating?  Will that training prepare you to be a capable leader?

2) Who is watching and imitating your habits and discipline, beliefs and goals?  Will that training prepare him / her to be a capable leader?  In what ways do you need to commit to a change of course?  Will you allow your teammates to pray for you and hold you accountable to these goals?

WEDNESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

3) Why is it important for a leader to remain accountable?  What difficulties should any person interested in being accountable (having a right relationship with God) expect (2 Timothy 2:12-13)?

4) What did Timothy’s training in accountability make him able to do, amidst these difficulties (v. 14)?  Why was he able to continue without losing focus and purpose (v. 14)?  What, then, was Paul’s role in Timothy’s leadership abilities?  Ultimately, where did both Paul and Timothy learn the truths that allowed them to stand firm in the face of obstacles to their work — being “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (v. 15-16)?

THURSDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

5) What is required of an athlete who desires to honor God in the midst of an environment where others reject instruction and seek to “do things their own way” (2 Timothy 4:3-5)?  Why is it so critical for a team’s leaders to keep their heads, persevere, remain focused on their goals, and continue their work?  What can this example accomplish in the lives of your teammates?  (What did Paul’s example accomplish in Timothy?)

6) Can your training as an athlete, in the midst of trials and persecution, provide any benefit to your life apart from athletics?  Twenty years from now, what benefit might you have gained — as a husband or wife, as a parent, as an employee or boss, as a leader in your church?

7) What does Paul mean when he describes himself as being “poured out like a drink offering” (v. 6)?  On behalf of your teammates, have you “fought the good fight … finished the race … and kept the faith”?  Ultimately, whose pleasure have you sought as you’ve “poured yourself” into athletic pursuit?  Have you spent yourself for a worthy purpose, or have your efforts been wasted?  See to it that you “pour yourself out” into other areas of your life in a rightly-motivated way.  This, after all, is the way of accountability … the way of relationship … the only Way.

FRIDAY — Discuss sport applications of accountability, and pray together.

· Ask your athletes to briefly reflect on what they’ve learned about accountability this week, and to repeat some of those things.  (Remind them of some of the Biblical truths about accountability you’ve discussed, if necessary.)

· Ask your team, “Based on what we learned about accountability this week...What does an accountable athlete do?”  Do not settle for vague answers; challenge your athletes to go beyond general qualities of accountability, and to determine what those qualities look like in action.

· Add the results to your team’s list of descriptions of the “accountable athlete”, and be sure the list is displayed somewhere that is constantly visible, as a reminder to the team.

Pray together as a team.  Encourage your athletes to pray for your team’s growth in regard to the discipline of accountability — especially in relation to some of the issues and challenges that you discussed together this week.  Challenge them to also ask for forgiveness, when applicable.  Give time for athletes to request prayer (regarding accountability or anything else), and pray together