Saturday, 04 April 2009

• Don't Let the Critics Keep You From Seeing God Make Converts

  Guest post by Clayton King
  
  Jesus had them both…the converts that left everything to follow Him as their master and Rabbi, and the critics that hated everything He said and did.  I believe that churches and ministries that are preaching the cross, proclaiming the gospel, and honoring Christ will, like Jesus, have both critics and converts.
  
  We fear the critics because one email, one comment, one letter to the editor, one blog post, can tear our nerves apart, completely ripping us out of the frame. Granted, it doesn’t mean that there has to be an all-out onslaught on your church or ministry to prove your orthodoxy, but Jesus did tell the people that listened to His sermon on the mount that they should expect to be slandered and abused for following Him.  I have had my fare share of critics, and you know what?  Sometimes they have been correct in their criticism.  And if they are, we must be humble enough to listen, adjust, repent and change by God’s grace.  Most of the time, however, those who criticize are either envious or they have misunderstood and misquoted or misrepresented your ministry.  We must discern if they are right or wrong in their critique of us.  Most often, it is best to ignore the criticism so long as you are obeying God and are above reproach.
  
  Converts (meaning those who repent of their sin and trust Christ for salvation, not those who convert to being a fan of you or your church or ministry) are often associated with criticism.  It was that way with Christ.
  
  So long as Jesus kept His words and teachings localized to the peasants in Galilee, things were cool.  But when the crowds began to swell and people began to put their faith in Him, following Him and swearing allegiance to Him (”converting” as it were), they got the attention of the Jewish hierarchy and the claws came out and the fur began to fly.  
  
  We can never let the critic keep us from seeing God make converts.  Usually, the churches and ministries that just keep the status quo, keep doing the same old traditional church thing (keeping the influential, embedded, rich fat cats happy at the expense of seeing new coverts brought into the Kingdom) never get criticized.  They don’t do anything to upset the balance of power, so the critics never have reason to notice them.  But once people begin to convert from sin, former ways of life, shady business dealings, partying with the boys on the weekend…you can set our clock by it.  The criticism will begin.
  
  Conversion always brings criticism.  If we focus on the critics, we will eventually quit ministry, which is exactly what the critics (and the devil) want us to do.  But when we focus on the God who can convert wicked lost souls to freedom and liberty and salvation, the voices of criticism will fade into the background noise.  It all depends on who we listen to.
  
  

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