What is Accountability for Us?

A Prayer Wall at our Center: We Go to God First

What is a culture of accountability? Do we have this culture at our Center?  My questions led to more questions.

Roger Connors in his book Fix It: Getting Accountability Right  writes: "Accountability is a personal choice to rise above one's circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving Key Results: See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It."

So key results in our Center would always start with God-- seeking guidance from the highest power through prayer and visioning. It is also about taking action. If you take ownership of your organization, and you see something that needs to be done, you do it. Currently there are many examples of this accountability right in our Center. For instance, we have several people who have been researching buildings for us. Whenever we have meals together, we have people stay to help clean up.

This month we have scheduled a series of visioning sessions. Visioning is a process in which one listens for direction from God, Divine Mind, Mother/Father God. We are doing these sessions so that each member and friend of our Center can contribute to the overall vision of our future. Everyone's participation adds to the practice of cultural accountability by taking part in the fulfillment and flourishing of our Center.

I will not be leading the visioning this Sunday because I have another Center commitment, but I know that the right and perfect people will attend. Lee Van Slyke will be leading it. I will be leading it again the following week. Visioning is important work for us to do for our community.

I wasn't exactly certain what culture meant in this context either. The dictionary didn't help, but Centers for Spiritual Living, founding documents, our Organization Design Model did help. I love this document and am so proud that our Center not only embraced these ideas but many of us were part of the creation process of these documents.  In Section 4, under the heading Our Organizational Culture you will find these wonderful words:

"We are a healthy, effective organization honoring and respecting each other and all of creation.

We  are known for the love that we share throughout our community and the world. 

We stand together in a shared commitment and devotion to our spiritual principles, practices and values. 

We are all in this Life together and we include everyone in our vision of a peaceful, loving world. 

We embrace the evolution and revelation of higher consciousness. 

We are prayerful and principled in our decision-making and actions. 

We practice the spiritual tools put forward by our founder, Dr. Ernest Holmes, in The Science of Mind, and by other spiritual leaders and mystics who teach and apply truth principles  for our individual lives."

Today, out of the blue, we received a note from one our our members who was writing to thank us for being who we are. This person addressed the note to her Family of Love. She said that when she walked in she felt love, acceptance and home. She went on to say that when she started attending her thinking was self-destructive but she didn't know how to stop it. She went on to say that now she knows that she is Love, Light, and Life and she is perfect, whole and complete, priceless freedom. She signed the note with gratitude for all of us.

I believe we have a demonstration that we have a culture of accountability.