I first came across TFT about 7 years ago when my daughter opened up to me about her struggles with SSA. At the time she was passionate about her faith and committed to the biblical view of sexuality. I went along with her to the TFT London and National Conferences, I honestly didn’t think I had much to worry about, as she was so zealous for the Lord. I naively believed she would never walk away from her faith. It was only a year previously that I had come to faith myself through my daughter’s encouragement to attend her church and home groups.

For a number of years, I attended an accountability group for Christian men with sexual addictions, and found it very helpful. It was a mixed group - old and young, black and white, manual labourers and city professionals, businessmen and civil servants. The men came with a broad range of issues, whether battling lustful thoughts or porn addiction, compulsively masturbating, using female sex workers or being promiscuous with other men. They were all with a very obvious broken sexuality and all trusting Jesus for their salvation.

Many of us know the value of having an accountability partner or partners, and find great help and strength in sharing with another human, but what about accountability before God? Should we have an accountable relationship with Him, and if so, what should it look like?

Accepting the need for accountability is a humbling step. None of us likes to think that we lack self-control. And we’d rather not have to talk about our private struggles with other people. When we read about the  misdemeanours of certain politicians, and even some church leaders, we long for them to be held to account.

True Freedom Trust is right to prioritise fellowship and community as ways for members to ensure that their faith walk keeps to the straight and narrow. There is no surprise here, since finding and keeping community are fundamentally scriptural (1 Cor. 1: 10; Heb. 10: 25; 1 John 1: 7, and many others). As we have seen in some of the other articles in this edition of Ascend, a key function of fellowship and community is accountability. As Christians, we need each other’s help identifying the course corrections urged by the Holy Spirit.

"The Six Conversations: Pathways to Connecting in an Age of Isolation and Incivility" by Heather Holleman

Every book review is likely to reveal as much about the biases of the reviewer as it is about the book. I don’t think this one will be any different!