Pastors (and Christians) Should Never Complain About Their Churches

Since August, I have been teaching Spiritual Formation on Wednesday nights using our church mission/vision statement, Loving God, Loving People . . . To the Ends of the Earth. We are in the "Loving People" stage and have been using a couple of books as resource material. One of those books is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together.  I was reading this book and making notes today for the study tomorrow night when I ran across a statement of Bonhoeffer's that challenged me once again.  Pastoring a church in the South means that you are one congregation among many. Invariably, church members begin to compare one church to another, one pastor to another, and the services, resources, and excitement levels of each church. We even compare the members.  Pastors do the same thing. We compare one church and ministry to another, and often get irritated with our church if it does not perform up to our expectations. This happens easily because we are always gazing upon the ideal and the unfinished task before us, driving ourselves and those around us to performance in service of that ideal. "If we could just get these people to cooperate," we think to ourselves. Sometimes, the criticisms of one another grow even more severe, ending in a pastor leaving or being fired, or a church splitting. Bonheoffer speaks decidedly to this issue and it should cause us all to stop our complaining, repent before God, and thank God for the fellowship that we have with one another in Christ.

Prepare to be humbled and encouraged:

We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things? If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

This applies in a special way to the complaints often heard from pastors and zealous members about their congregations. A pastor should not complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men. When a person becomes alienated from a Christian community in which he has been placed and begins to raise complaints about it, he had better examine himself first to see whether the trouble is not due to his wish dream that should be shattered by God; and if this be the case, let him thank God for leading him into this predicament. But, if not, let him nevertheless guard against ever becoming an accuser of the congregation before God. Let him rather accuse himself for his unbelief. Let him pray God for an understanding of his own failure and his particular sin, and pray that he may not wrong his brethren. Let him, in the consciousness of his own guilt, make intercession for his brethren. Let him do what he is committed to do, and thank God.

Chistian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow day to day as God pleases.

Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it.

Bonhoeffer comes from a Lutheran perspective that we place our faith in the finished work of Christ outside of us.  We are made righteous by the work of Christ on the Cross and we are not to place our faith in our experience. We must believe in Jesus alone. Apart from our experience, it is true that Jesus died for us. All spiritual experience flows from that faith, but it is faith that comes first.

I can tell you that the vast majority of Christians, especially Southern Baptists, spend an inordinate amount of time complaining about one another and the state of the Church. I have been very guilty of that myself quite often and repentance is necessary.  Our unity is based in the spiritual reality of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and not in the Church's fulfillment of each pastor, leader, or congregants "wish dream."  May we learn to love one another sacrificially, even when we aren't perfect in one another's eyes. May our unity be based on Christ and transforming faith in Him, and not our performance or lack thereof. 

Comments

[Steve Walker]

Thanks for posting this, Alan. Can you imagine how the Church in America would change if we all took it to heart? OK, "all" is a bit idealistic. What if only all SBC pastors took it to heart, and started preaching this message? We say we believe in God's sovereignty, but I fear we only profess it with our lips while our hearts are far away from it.

[truthe not religion]

By this post I was moved, stabbed, and convicted.

Thank you

grace
wtreat

[Paul]

Alan,

I read this passage from Bonhoeffer six or seven years ago while going through a discouraging time pastoring. It immediately convicted me and completely changed my perspective toward our church. I don't know if things immediately began to change or if my new perspective caused me to look at things differently, but whatever it was that happened, it was dramatically good. I carried this perspective into our new church work here four years ago and it has continued to help me keep my focus through good times and not-so-good times. Whatever our circumstances I try to remain thankful for our church. It makes ministry a much greater joy.