God loves you. You know that, right?
Of course you do. You’re a church leader. Maybe you’re even a bit offended by the question. After all, it’s the first lesson we learn in Sunday School: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” What church leader doesn’t know that?
But if we know that God loves us, why is it so easy to miss his love in the hard times of ministry? It might be easy to see his love when ministry is growing, people are encouraging, and there is visible fruit, but do we see his love in criticism and conflict? Do we see his love in a lack of fruit and declining attendance? Do we see love in his leadership struggles and hard counseling situations?
We should. Romans 8:38-39 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This means that nothing passes into our lives without first passing through the filter of God’s love. Every good and hard aspect of life—including ministry sufferings—are part of his loving plan for our lives. As Charles Spurgeon put it, “Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there.”1
Consider this example: how do you respond when others criticize your ministry? If you’ve been in ministry for some time, you know that it is often inevitable and sometimes unfair. In the past, if you had asked me how I handle criticism about my preaching, I would have said the humble thing to do is take the 10% that is true and learn from it, and ignore the rest. Sounds like a pretty godly answer, right? The implication, however, is that God has a 10% purpose in that criticism. What about the other 90%? Did it somehow slip by God’s love?
We must believe that God has a 100% loving purpose even in criticism that is only 10% true. What could that purpose be? It might be to wean us from the idolatry of people’s approval so that we would be encouraged to preach for Christ alone (1 Peter 1:6-9). In our ministry, we can want people to be transformed and for God to be honored, and yet, we still really want people to like and think well of us. I have never met the preacher who doesn’t struggle with fear of man and people-pleasing at some point. We can simultaneously be preaching for God’s glory and pursuing our own. Though God would be justified in striking us dead in the pulpit, he instead pursues us through trials and difficulties. In particular, criticism humbles us. It shows us our weakness and the futility of living for people’s approval. It is one way God weans us from our inward bent so that we might preach for Jesus alone.
The better way to view criticism of our preaching is to take the 10% and let your preaching be changed, and take the other 90% and let your heart be changed. In other words, let your ministry be transformed by the 10% of the criticism that is true, but let your heart be transformed by the 90% of criticism that seems unhelpful, untrue, undeserved, and even unkind. We must be convinced that God didn’t ordain that criticism with a 10% purpose. His plan is always a 100% loving plan for us.
This understanding of God’s love should transform how we view our ministry sufferings. We can now actually pray, “Lord, this critical email/leadership conflict/dwindling attendance is you loving me. Though I don’t know everything you are doing, thank you for always wanting more for me than I want for myself. Thank you that you are unwilling to give me the easy path when the hard path is better. Thank you for your constant and abundant grace that transforms me. Thank you that in your unfathomable, unending love, you pursue my true joy.”
This article is part of the Leaders’ Line blog, written by various leaders and geared specifically toward those serving in leadership. Our email newsletter goes out twice a month. In addition to Leaders’ Line articles, each newsletter includes news and notes curated especially for ministry leaders. Sign up here to receive it directly in your inbox.