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The Compliment That Insults a Pastor

Let us pray for the pastor and …

—let us keep our critical opinions to ourselves, or give them to the Father in prayer. (If the sermons are truly disasters, every church should have a small team of leaders who are able to work with the pastor on this or any other problem. Church members do not take this upon themselves.)

—give thanks to the Lord for every good thing God does through our pastor.

—ask the Father to attend to his daily schedule since conflicts rise from every side, and daily the Lord’s pastor is forced to choose which needs he will meet and which to ignore.

—let us speak well of him to other people. Let us not demand that he be perfect or flawless before earning our commendation. Let us show grace to the pastor by speaking well of him to others.

—let us speak up when someone is unfairly characterizing or criticizing the pastor. Let us not stand idly by when God’s man is being attacked by someone who is clearly out of fellowship with Christ.

What “speaking up” means …

Perhaps we could include a note here on how to “speak up” when we hear someone running down the preacher.  Assuming they are not addressing you, but you overhear the remark, then I suggest you walk over to where they are talking and do nothing. Do absolutely nothing. Just stand there. Button your lip. Say nothing.

Walk up close to them, as near as the talkers are to one another. In silence.

Your silent presence will convict the culprit of his/her wrongdoing more than anything you might say.

If yours is a church where this scenario might well play out—that is, if people criticizing the pastor happens from time to time—then I suggest you rehearse before going into action. Imagine you come upon a small group in the hallway and hear them running the preacher down. Imagine walking over and standing uncomfortably close to them. Imagine saying nothing but just looking at each one, in turn. Imagine standing there in silence as long as it becomes necessary. (The longer the silence, the deeper the conviction will penetrate and the longer it will endure, I promise.)

Do not misunderstand …

I’m not urging anyone to concoct a praise report about the pastor out of thin air.

Praise and encouragement should be given only when appropriate. What I am suggesting is that we find ways to encourage the ministers without attaching a barb to the compliment, without using the praise as a bait to sink the hook into the Lord’s man.

How we treat the preacher, God takes personally.

I did not make that up. The Lord takes personally how His spokesmen are treated. It’s straight out of the Scriptures, in two easily remembered passages, Matthew 10 and Luke 10.

“He who receives you receives me …” (Matthew 10:40).

“He who hears you hears Me; he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me” (Luke 10:16).

Who among us would not like to brag on Jesus? Imagine having the opportunity to tell Him what a great job He’s doing and how much you appreciate Him.

It’s far easier than you might think.

Go tell the servant Christ sent how you value his ministry. And show him, even.

Jesus will interpret that as you telling Him. And how good is that?