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By Pastor Chuck Swindoll

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Be Accountable to Your Spiritual Leaders

“There’s something very healthy about a submission to spiritual authority. This is not some self-appointed Gestapo group that glares at you looking for what’s wrong. These are people who have a few years on you who have been there and beyond and understand their perspective is broader and deeper than yours could be at your age and with your experience. That’s why I urge even in the seminary years, be engaged in a local church. Find one where you can worship and learn and grow—and equally important, be accountable to those around you. So we’re accountable to God, we’re accountable to spiritual leaders, and we’re told it’s profitable.”

Open Your Life to Others

“When you open your life to a small group of trusted friends and they to you, when you cultivate this relationship during your years at the seminary, not waiting until sometime when you’re in real need, but as you cultivate the habit of doing this, you will find that as a result of that relationship you are less likely to stumble into a trap. They will have discernment you will lack. They will have a wisdom you don’t have. They will be objective as you’re involved deeply in something. They’ll have a perspective in it that’ll save you from a trap.”

Live Out the Christian Life with Others

“The whole series of commands has to do with the living out of the Christian life with one another. With one another, back and forth in life. Sharing in the heartaches and the joys and the sorrows as well as the successes of life. All of this helps shape your character so that you become a person, the kind of person that will be admired and needed in this world that’s lost its way.”

Accountable to God

“Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the One with whom we have to do. We live our lives, we think our thoughts, we say our words, we respond with attitudes, positive, negative, whatever, known fully by our God. We’re accountable to Him. We will someday be before the judgment seat of Christ.”

Submit to the Long Journey of Accountability

“It’s all about your legacy. And you become the person you want to be through the long journey of accountability. I commend that to you. I urge you to let that happen. You’re the one that opens that door. You’re the one who invites others in. Let them in.”

Additional Resources

First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.

Second, check out our new Preach The Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.

Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your fingertips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.

Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.

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