Criticism Revisited

I didn't think I'd be revisiting this topic so soon, but a friend's blog post regarding the church I attend has really brought some thoughts to mind.

The writer was rather critical about North Point Church's use of secular movies as discussion themes for the Reel Time series. This past weekend, the church used a movie as an illustration for the sermon. (For those wondering, no, the movie wan't shown, just clips.) Instead of describing how it was used, you can watch it here.

But, my friend, who doesn't go to the church and wasn't attending on Sunday, took some shots at the church, and so did some commenters to their post. My issue isn't necessarily with the comments, or even with the fact that the criticism came without having seen the service. What I take exception to is something I should've added when I talked about church critics last week, and that's the notion that we can criticize the pastor.

Now, I don't think anyone is above criticism, especially those in the public spotlight. However, I do think we need to take special care when we turn our biting comments toward pastors.

Pastors are often the most beat up and lonely people on the planet. People demand of their time, and then complain when it wasn't quite good enough. The details are insignificant. The fact is that it happens...a lot. Most pastors who have flamed out can chalk much of it up to stress caused by difficult people in their churches (and a few in other churches).

If you're reading this and you are a person who has criticized your pastor (or another church's pastor), I have some difficult words for you...the Bible says you are sinning. Yep, that's right. The Bible says to not touch God's pastors. In the NLT, God calls them "MY chosen ones" (emphasis mine). For the pastor, those are valuable words. For the critic, 1 Chronicles 16:22 is a warning.

So, what's the big deal? The pastor is in the public spotlight. If he doesn't do something you want, shouldn't he be subject to criticism? After all, we're all submissive to God, right?

Here's what the big deal is. Let's say you hear of a local pastor doing a particular thing in the church he leads. Instead of going to hear it for yourself, and seeing the results in person, you light up your flame thrower and start spraying criticism from long distance. (By the way, maybe you were in attendance, and you just didn't like it...this also applies).

The sticky point for you, as the critic, is that if God directed the pastor and church staff to take that particular approach to lead people to Christ, then you aren't critcizing the pastor. You are criticizing God.

So, what are you, as the wannabe critic supposed to do? I think the first thing you do is keep your mouth shut, especially if your ire is directed at a church you don't attend. By openly criticizing a church for it's methods, you are automatically saying that the people who came to Christ by those methods didn't do it the right way, or are only partial Christians.

Secondly, I think you need to ask God whether or not your opinion is really justified, or just an opinion of preference. By giving this enough time for God to reveal the truth to you, you also give that church enough time to see whether there are any spiritual results from what they're doing. Oh, and by the way, if you ask God about your opinion, chances are pretty good that he'll tell you that you're in the wrong.

Third, read 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. If you don't like the methods used, but the Gospel is being preached, you just don't have any ground to stand on.

Finally, if you have made your unjustified criticism public, you probably need to apologize to everyone you discussed the matter with...and maybe even to the pastor you criticized. Yeah, I know it means eating some pride, but I'm learning that eating pride can be good for you (more about that another day).

Oh, lastly, if you're a pastor who is constantly being criticized and accused of various things, here's a word for you. If you're doing what God told you to do, and what the scripture says, then do what Perry Noble says (read point #7) and ignore the criticism, especially from outside your church.

The clock is ticking. We don't have enough time in our lives to quarrel over what some other church is doing, or fret over what others are saying about us. We need to take care of God's business right where we are.