“Everyone in the church should be in an accountability group.”

Accountability groups in churches have gone from trendy safeguards for men, to implanted expectations for entire congregations. However, a study of the New Testament reveals no mention of accountability to anyone but God. (Romans 3:19) Yes, if we see our brother or sister in sin, after we remove the “plank” from our own eye, we are to gently correct and restore them. (Matthew 7:5; Galatians 6:1) But this is very different than the control factor, which seems to be built into “accountability groups” (some are alternately called small groups or home groups but not all of those are “accountability groups”). By all appearances this practice is simply a modern adaptation of the Shepherding movement of the 1970’s, which abused so many Christian lives.