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This article originally appeared in the November 20, 1987 issue of Christianity Today.

"I began to feel I was an exception, that what I would censure in others, I could justify for myself," a pastor reflects. "Looking back, I realize that as I was burning out, my values were going first. And there were no relationships where I was open or accountable."

Individualism. Narcissism. Loneliness. Value-free choices.

"My counselee told me, 'If you really cared for me, you'd hold me,' " a pastor reports. "So since caring is the essence of pastoral care, we held each other. Then we decided that much more caring was needed by us both."

Individualism. Narcissism. Loneliness. Value-free choices.

"I became convinced that I deserved more pay. Other professionals around me were making double my salary," a parachurch minister confides. "I found a way to enable my board to correct my problem and to increase their fringe benefits at the same time."

Individualism. Narcissism. Value-free choices.

These are all key elements in the decline of the practice of mutual accountability in Western churches, among clergy and laity alike. Where once believers stood watch with each other against the loss of center, of values, of faithfulness, there is an increasing willingness to wink at questionable ethical choices, considering them "none of our business."

The practice of ministry, however, always involves making, fulfilling, and keeping covenants. A group is as healthy as its "social contract" is clear; a congregation as faithful as its covenant is mutually understood; a pastor as effective as the pastor's and people's commitment to trust and integrity is honored, guarded, and fulfilled. The integrity of boundaries and the trust of those maintaining them are central tasks in the ministries of interpretation, teaching, preaching, counseling, administration, and evangelism. Any decrease of accountability in any of these ministry tasks diminishes the integrity of each of the others. Accountability, mutuality, and interdependence in body life are what we are about in "being church" with one another.

From the multiple factors in our culture that strongly encourage the diminishing of accountability in the ministry, seven stand out and call for comment. They are interlocking elements in the system that shapes the setting for pastoral work. These elements function with different strengths and varied styles from person to person or from parish to parish. But they are present in almost all ministries.

• Individualism. This remarkable belief sees the self as an island of autonomous experience distinct from every other human being. This is imagining what is unimaginable to most of the world's population for most of the world's history. The individualist assumes that he or she lives in a private, inviolate, protected territory (the boundaries of the self) where one is "free to choose," to undertake projects of personal expression, free to live a private life with a personal history separate from all others. Choices can simply be defended as "my own business." However, both individual autonomy, and communal solidarity are necessary to a fully human existence.

• Narcissism. With the increase of an individualism that grounds identity in self-esteem, there is the inevitable rise of narcissism. The classic characteristics of narcissism are now afflicting both pastors and their counselees: an inability to make appropriate attachments to others, an inflated concern for one's own interests, and self-centered moral processes. The loss of authentic social interest in the welfare of others and the inability to experience genuine mutuality are more common tendencies in us all than we care to own.

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December (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50