Responding to Criticism: God's Glory & Grace

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Ben Kreps:

Hey everyone and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, as we were talking, preparing to record before we started recording here, you mentioned that you had a topic that you wanted to discuss, but in the moments before we started recording, you felt that God led you in a different way and I think a wonderful way to care for, in a specific way, care for pastors who are reading or watching this podcast. Pastors and anybody else, actually. So talk to us about that.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's those moments that I only wish I had more often: thinking about the podcast, praying about it and thinking I had a particular direction I was going to go, and then the Spirit of God just interrupted that thought process and sent me in a different direction. And even that experience is a reminder that we as pastors, we as people, not pastors only, are people who are dependent upon the Spirit of God and we need to be listening to the Spirit's voice as he does lead us. So the direction that the Spirit led me, I believe, is to talk about the topic of criticism and what was on my heart coming into this podcast is for some listening to this podcast. There's been recently a season of criticism for you. It seems like the criticism has been more frequent and some of it has been more piercing to the soul, if you could say it that way.

You've experienced moments of discouragement and even moments of just anger-type responses that we can have to criticism in our heart. And I just believe the Lord wants me to just talk about that today. And I've got pastors on my heart, obviously. But I think about people in our church, members of our churches, who are working in different vocations and they get criticism often. And it's really important that we have an understanding of how to respond to it biblically and in a way that can please God because it is in those moments, we feel very vulnerable in a number of ways. We feel attacked at times. We can feel very vulnerable regarding our heart response. As I mentioned, we can respond by criticizing back or we can respond in anger and self-righteousness. We don't want to do that. We want to please the Lord obviously.

So God uses criticism in a number of different ways in our lives and a resource that I've mentioned before in a podcast, it may have been either earlier this year or last year. This is specifically for pastors: "Pastors and Their Critics" written by Joel Beeke and Nick Thompson. If you don't have this book, please read it. Especially for pastors. Sinclair Ferguson does the forward. I find it's been the most helpful thing written regarding criticism that people receive in ministry, pastors in particular. So that's what I really want to talk about today. And what I want to do is not only talk about what Beeke says and a couple of thoughts, but just know that I'm carrying you, whoever's listening to this or reading this and is in a time of criticism. I'm carrying you on my heart and I'm praying for you, obviously generally, I don't know who by name, but I just bring that burden into this podcast and I give God all the credit for that because I was actually headed down the road toward a different topic. So hopefully this serves you what I'm about to share in a moment and know that I'm praying for you.

Ben Kreps:

Excellent. So many of us are grateful for how for you in your role as executive director are not just doing business. You carry us on your heart and you have a strong desire to minister to the pastors and members of Sovereign Grace churches. And this book, which I got from you a year or two ago, so thanks for that, is full of rich wisdom and encouragement for people experiencing criticism. So you wanted to share a couple of excerpts from that to serve us.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, the book is excellent, I think because it's very honest. Joel Beeke is very honest and it's very helpful. I think his chapter 4, "Receiving Criticism Humbly", is worth the price of the book alone, just that chapter. But the whole book is wonderful and I want to read a couple of quotes from the very last chapter, which is "Reorient Your Perspective". But the heading for that last section of the book is just having a theological perspective on how to respond to criticism, even a theological vision for that. And that's really, really important. I'm so glad he ends the book there because we do need that God-centered, theological understanding of how to respond to criticism so that we can respond to it personally in a way that pleases the Lord. But criticism is a tool that the enemy can use to divide.

Criticism can be a means to sow division because very quickly we get in defensive mode and we are ready to fight. And it doesn't lean us towards responding to it in a godly way. That doesn't mean you don't defend yourself, but in a way that can actually strengthen unity. And that's why I think it's important. So just a couple of sections in this last chapter, "Reorient Your Perspective". He says, "Have a God glorifying vision for response to criticism. That's a criticism, that's one theological perspective." And he starts by saying, "the chief end of man is what? To glorify God and enjoy him forever". He writes the chief end of our ministry, so he's speaking to pastors, is the glory of God and enjoying him forever. And he unpacks that by going to Acts 20 verse 24, which happens to be one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Paul is speaking to the elders in Miletus and he's seeing them for the very last time. And he says in Acts 20:24: But I do not account my life of any value or as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And Beeke picks up on that verse, and this is what he says. Verbal and physical opposition did not move Paul. He wasn't shaken by it. Why? asks Beeke. "Because he did not prize his own life. The apostle understood that he was a servant of Christ, a man who had been entrusted with a massive stewardship from his Master. And he was consumed with a passion to faithfully carry out that stewardship with joy."

And that's just an excellent, I think, recommendation from Beeke that we not account our life of any value or precious to ourself. He's basically saying, when you get critiqued, the temptation is to put your eyes upon yourself. And we need the grace of God to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on the glory of God. And how do we respond in a way that pleases God? Because if we respond to it the right way, for pastors in this case, it will only strengthen our ministry rather than weaken it. And you and I were talking before the podcast, Ben, that's not an easy thing for me to do in the moment. It's not an easy thing for you to do. I think most people listening or reading this podcast say, that's not easy for me to do. And again, that reminds us of our dependence upon God to respond to criticism in a way that glorifies God. We really need as grace.

So, that's one point. Let me just read one other section or one other quote from a section that's entitled A Church Building Vision. And I say that because as I mentioned before, criticism can sow seeds of division and it can affect the church, it can affect the family of churches, honestly. And we have to be mindful of that because we can't give into that and we can't give into the ways of the enemy who may be using criticism in that way. And so Beeke says this quote "lift your vision above yourself and your circumstances and remember the reason why Christ has commissioned you to the ministry in the first place, to serve and build up his church". That's what we are primarily called to do. And again, it's an exhortation to take our eyes off of ourself and off of our circumstances and put 'em on a bigger vision of what God has for the church and that we've been given as pastors responsibility to steward, to care for, the flock that he's given to us. And that will help us reorient our perspective to serve the church and to look to sow unity into the church rather than division. And sometimes the criticism we get, it comes from the members of the church. And our response in that moment is really, really important. And that doesn't mean we don't have very honest conversations with them. But as he talks about earlier in the book, how you receive that criticism and how you speak in response to that criticism, the tone with which you do it, that's huge.

And it actually makes you more effective as a pastor. And for anyone who's listening to this and not a pastor, I think those same principles do apply to your life and I hope they do serve you. So those are some thoughts related to criticism and what I carried on my heart as we started this podcast this morning.

Ben Kreps:

Well, thank you for that. That is encouraging. I have leadership development groups that I work through each year, and one of the first things that we read is that old article that cross and criticism, because these guys need to know they aspire to leadership, which means criticism inevitably. To lead is to receive criticism. And that criticism can be deeply helpful, can be formative. God can use it as a gift to open our eyes to areas of weakness. But there are times where you know, more than most, where we want to respond, we want to defend ourselves, and then we have to die to ourselves. And in the end say, well, I did not defend myself. That person may have a view of me being weak or something like that, but my right is with the Lord. And in the end, our right is with the Lord. And so he carries us through these kinds of things

Mark Prater:

Amen. He does. Just one last thought before we end the podcast, and this is for the pastors in Sovereign Grace that might be listening to this. If right now you are experiencing just a season of criticism and it's been difficult for you brothers, thank you for being faithful. Thank you for going to God and crying out for his grace to help you. Thank you for responding based on that grace in a Christ-honoring way. And thank you for remaining in ministry and remaining in what God has called you to do; to be faithful, to preach his word and to administer the sacraments and to exercise church discipline where you have to and to care for the church of God as a shepherd in a way that honors Christ and is similar to Christ. So I want to end on encouragement in case you are listening to this podcast and you're discouraged because of the criticism you've received.

Ben Kreps:

Wonderful. Just as you're talking, I'm thinking how grateful I am and I imagine we all are, that we build together in Sovereign Grace relationally. We have a plurality of eldership, we have regional connections. We're not alone. And so we don't have to carry those kinds of burdens by ourselves. We get to receive and give encouragement to those who are downcast because of unjust criticism. So just another reason I'm grateful for our partnership together, and I'm grateful for you, Mark, and your care for us. And thank you to everyone who is watching or reading this. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.