On Pastoral Criticism--Part 2
The post that I write now has to do with the critic and what
potentially can take place in their own soul.
Most critics allow such self-absorption with the particular windmill
they are choosing to charge to take a precedence in their mind that they cannot
even began to fathom the fallout of what they are getting involved in. I have recently been preaching through the
Psalms at various points over the last year in our church. I have managed to preach Psalm 1-16, 27, 42, and
63 and there are some very strong lessons concerning the tongue and gossip that
have come through all of these messages.
(NOTE: The sermon notes are here.) When I got to Psalm 15 on “The
Portrait of a True Worshipper,” a chapter that deals with what real holiness is
all about, I wrote these words into my sermon notes:
-David reminds us
that the tongue of the worshipper is different from the tongue of the
pretender. It is again hammered home to
us how important the tongue and speech is all the way through the Psalms. It does matter what I do with my words.
·
We cannot
afford for our tongue to be a scourge—Job
5:21
·
We do not
want our tongue to be sinful—Job 6:30
·
We do not
want our tongue to be filled with cursing, deceit, fraud, mischief and vanity—Psalm 10:7
·
We do not
want our tongue to be filled with flattery and pride—Psalm 12:3
·
We do not
want to slander with our tongue—Psalm
15:3
·
We do not
want our tongue to speak evil and guile (crafty, wily, treacherous)—Psalm 34:18
-One of the chief
sins of the church today is gossiping about and harming others with our
tongues. Gossip, criticism, and slander
have probably done more damage to the church than any other single sin.
Matthew Poole—Pity your brethren; let it suffice that Godly ministers and Christians
are loaded with reproaches by wicked men—there is no need for you to combine
with them in their diabolical work.
-I have a choice,
as you have a choice, and I want my words to count. The godly should desire for our words to:
·
Be filled
with singing and praise—Psalm 126:2
·
To be
just—Prov. 10:20
·
To be
wise—Prov. 12:18
·
One that
uses knowledge—Prov. 15:2
·
Filled
with wholesome words—Prov. 15:4
-When truth stirs
in our heart, our words are going to be affected by the presence of the
Lord. The Lord wants obedient
truth-speaking servants to dwell in His tabernacle and His holy hill.
A critics’ main weapon is an unsanctified (unholy)
tongue. He will have to use it in such a
way that gains him a following. But the
greater concern of this matter is a great question: What is going on in the soul of a person who
sits in the role as a loud, vocal critic?
First, criticism is a snare of the devil to use a sense of spiritual erosion
that will work toward removing this person from the church. The worship that the critic once found to be
joyful and faith-building no longer holds that power for him. Worship is no longer God-focused but rather
it has become man-centered. Criticism
causes a loss of fellowship with God and the local church body which is whom they
really need to be connected to. Criticism
of the pastor and the church leaders causes everything to suddenly be about
them. It causes a divided heart and they
spend great energy in wasting strength on the unnecessary. This is where the snare of the enemy is set
up for them. It is hard to have
spiritual maturity and spiritual progress when you are sitting in the seat of
the scornful.
Secondly, the critic removes the power and the authority of a God-called and necessary
shepherd to help them. A critic is a
wandering sheep that will be at a great liability to be devoured by the
devil. Over the years, I have observed
the critics as they have come and gone through the doors of the church that I
grew up in and now have the privilege of pastoring. I can remember thinking as a young rookie
preacher that things were not going to go well for some of the critical people who
for various reasons found themselves being an authority on matters that were
frankly far out of their spiritual expertise and maturity. As the clock has continued to tick and the
calendar pages have continued to roll, I have come to witness that many of them
are no longer even in the race and those who are have been side-lined and have
literally become spiritual pygmies who never reached the potential that the
Lord had in mind for them.
One of the passages in the Bible that points to the
responsibilities of a shepherd is found in 1st Peter 5:1-3. A shepherd will know his sheep and at any
given moment, I dare say, that all pastors have a response if you were to
mention the names of the people whom they serve as a pastor. It is an internal response that needs to stay
private but that reaction is present in the soul of that pastor. It is one that is either met with great joy
or it is one that is followed by deep despair.
I generally find myself in the category of wondering what I might do
better to encourage spiritual growth in their lives. However, a critic separates himself from the
influence of a shepherd and soon that shepherd is looking for a remedy to
recover from the sheep bites that he is having to endure. A critic removes himself from the community,
exposure, contact, and blessing that comes from the presence of being in a
flock under a shepherd.
Thirdly, the critic puts himself in a place that he will potentially become the
leader of a faction in the church.
Before going further, we need to make the determination that battling
against a false teacher, immorality, sins that would disqualify a shepherd, and
extreme spiritual abuse are necessary battles that a discerning believer and church
needs to move against. Those are not the
areas that I am writing of when I am speaking of criticism. I am speaking of the criticism that comes
when a pastor refuses to cover the sins of prominent members of a church,
sinful practices in a person’s life, calls for doctrinal distinctions, calling
for a higher life of holiness, and the general aspects as to how the church is
run.
When a critic starts gaining ground and he develops a
following, he places himself in the cross-hairs of God’s judgment and as prey
for the devil. We rarely talk about the
judgment and wrath of God these days but over the years there has been ample
evidence that I have observed that people who worked these angles of criticism
had a host of difficulties to visit their lives. There are some who would say that we do not
have the right to say that this is the direct judgment of God and I would
perhaps agree, to a point. However, we
can say that the choices they made created some consequences had to be endured
and some of them were not the most pleasant in the world. Furthermore, the judgment of God visits all
of us who do not walk in the correct path of righteousness when we should do
so.
To conclude, I would like to point out that the majority
of pastors who have been open with me about the pain of criticism are not men
who wanted to be rejected and disliked by their critics. Only odd people like that kind of
treatment. But when criticism continues
to come and it is not dealt with by the pastor or the elders/leaders in that
church, the courage of that pastor slowly starts to leak out of his soul. A constant barrage of criticism will never be
helpful for that local church because unconsciously that pastor will soon began
to shy away from what he has been truly called to do. He will avoid issues, certain doctrines, and
relationships for fear of setting off more criticism. When a church moves into that category, the glory
of the Lord will soon leave that place and it will have “Ichabod” stamped on
it. That is why the critics have to be
dealt with lovingly, gently, but very firmly and without equivocation.
We are at a point in history where the dividing line
between the church and the world is getting smaller. Every critic better take into great
consideration what they are doing when they play into this snare of the devil
whose whole goal is to destroy the church however he can. I challenge those critics who could be
reading this to give yourself to great self-examination as to the motives by
which you have taken up your cause. You
also might want to look at those whom are your closest associates because that
will also give you great insight as to what kind of person that you have
become.
More later. . .
Thanks for reading. . .
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