spiritual gift of criticism
One thing that all pastors must deal with at some point is criticism. How are we to respond to such negativity regarding what God has called us to?
Case in point: Two nights ago, Christa and I were at Foster's Freeze getting ice cream when we ran into two women who used to go to Bay Hills. One now goes to another chruch. The other isn't going anywhere (perhaps a telling factoid). But the one who doesn't go to church right now pretty much laid into Bay Hills and all the things that she perceives we don't do. She said we needed a singles group, a single mothers group...and went on and on and on. Criticized our move up the street in August.
The question is how to deal with people like this. Ray Matthes says that some people have the spiritual gift of criticism. How true. I pretty much tuned her out after about 2-3 minutes, while Christa listened a bit more. Is either one the best response??
Off the top of my head, I can't think of much in Scripture that deals with how to deal with criticism, beyond generic ideas such as loving your neighbor. I could be wrong about this. When Jesus, Paul or whoever got criticized, they tended to blast thier opponent. Whe Peter criticized Jesus for saying He had to go to the cross, Jesus' reply was, "Get thee behind me Satan." Not a lot of compassion there.
I think perhaps the best answer is to listen to them and work on separating the criticism from the person or the attitude which they bring to the situation. Perhaps their criticism is legitimate but the way they present it makes it unpalatable.
By the way, while listening to this, I'm listening to the new Johnny Cash Cd 'A Hundred Highways'. His last before he died and it fits well as an elegy
Case in point: Two nights ago, Christa and I were at Foster's Freeze getting ice cream when we ran into two women who used to go to Bay Hills. One now goes to another chruch. The other isn't going anywhere (perhaps a telling factoid). But the one who doesn't go to church right now pretty much laid into Bay Hills and all the things that she perceives we don't do. She said we needed a singles group, a single mothers group...and went on and on and on. Criticized our move up the street in August.
The question is how to deal with people like this. Ray Matthes says that some people have the spiritual gift of criticism. How true. I pretty much tuned her out after about 2-3 minutes, while Christa listened a bit more. Is either one the best response??
Off the top of my head, I can't think of much in Scripture that deals with how to deal with criticism, beyond generic ideas such as loving your neighbor. I could be wrong about this. When Jesus, Paul or whoever got criticized, they tended to blast thier opponent. Whe Peter criticized Jesus for saying He had to go to the cross, Jesus' reply was, "Get thee behind me Satan." Not a lot of compassion there.
I think perhaps the best answer is to listen to them and work on separating the criticism from the person or the attitude which they bring to the situation. Perhaps their criticism is legitimate but the way they present it makes it unpalatable.
By the way, while listening to this, I'm listening to the new Johnny Cash Cd 'A Hundred Highways'. His last before he died and it fits well as an elegy
posted by jeff miller at 8:36 PM
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