Lay leaders should teach the membership to never bring anonymous criticism to them or to their ministers.
6. “I gave the money for that, so I’ll make the decision as to how it’s to be used.”
Once our gifts are in the offering plate, they belong to the Lord and his church. The donor relinquishes all control and is entitled to nothing as a result. (Even the IRS agrees with that. Money given to a mission program or to benevolence cannot be dictated by the donor. Church procedure decides how it will be used.)
7. “Sorry. I don’t have a gift for that.”
Every believer can serve in a hundred ways, whether we are “gifted” in a particular area or not. No one requires a specific anointing of God to share their faith or make a gift or pray a prayer or teach a class.
8. “Why don’t ‘they’ do something?”
A friend says three groups of people can be found in every congregation. There are consumers: “Just browsing.” There are customers: “We come to this church because of the music (or children’s, missions, etc.) program.” If you cancel that program, they leave. And there are the shareholders: Announce a work day and these are the ones who show up. You build a church with the shareholders, not with the other two groups, although most of the latter were one of the former previously.
9. “The preacher is a dictator.”
Now, some preachers have been known to tyrannize congregations, so let us admit that up front. There is no place for that in the household of God. However, Acts 20:28 says the Holy Spirit makes the pastors the overseers of the church, and Hebrews 13:17 calls on us to submit to those who are over us in the Lord.
Related: When should a church fire a pastor? »
Personally, I’d be careful in accusing the pastor of being a dictator. I keep thinking of a time when the charge was made about me. The church’s building committee had decided we needed to renovate our aging sanctuary and I supported the decision and, as pastor, became the spokesman for the effort. In short order, some began to accuse me of engineering this project (for what reasons I could never discern) and ramrodding it through. Go figure.
10. “I don’t know what the Bible says, but I know what I believe.”
Each believer should bring our convictions and beliefs under the lordship of Jesus and the authority of God’s Word. If we are holding onto a doctrine or belief about which Scripture says otherwise, the spiritually mature will jettison the faulty conviction and stand on the Word. The immature and carnal will insist that being true to his own beliefs—flawed as they are—is the highest form of faithfulness.
I suspect that one of the greatest tests of maturity and faithfulness in the Kingdom is the ability to receive correction from the Word of God, even to the point of giving up cherished beliefs and doctrines we have held dear but now see as mistaken.
Let us bring every area of our lives under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Joe McKeever spent 42 years pastoring six Southern Baptist churches and has been writing and cartooning for religious publications for more than 40 years. This article was originally published on McKeever’s blog.