– one of the things every pastor would face in their ministry is criticism. Some constructive some destructive. Since planting our church in Greenhills we have received a number of criticisms. Some good, some bad, some meant to be ignored, some meant to be considered.
– After 4 months of church, we have some interesting suggestions and criticisms. But what stand out the most are the criticisms we receive from other Christians who attend a different church. Here are some of the feedbacks we got:

– Make our sermons longer and add more points.
– Have hymnals in our services. (maybe sometimes)
do a BOOK STUDY of the Bible during the week like how they did it in their church before because it would attract more people.
– someone criticized us for having too much fun during Praise and Worship when we had balls bouncing around Music Museum during the 1st 2 songs of our Service.
– This Sunday we got another visitor commenting that the pastor (that’s yours truly) shouldn’t be entertaining and amusing because a “credible, experience and spiritually mature” pastor should be serious. and she ended with these words: I THINK THATS THE REASON WHY WE CHRISTIANS NEED A CHURCH”

Here are my thoughts:
First, the church was not designed to be “FOR CHRISTIANS ONLY” The goal of the church is to GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES and not GO AND ATTRACT OTHER CHRISTIANS and sing KUMBAYA!

Since starting the church we have received criticisms from people from other churches. Does it bother us? We did not plant a church to cater to Christians ONLY but to people who need the Lord.

Christians usually want the deep stuff of the Bible. Question..WHAT IS DEEP? Is teaching people to read their Bible and pray everyday not deep? Is preaching that you must love Jesus and love your wife and kids not spiritual? Is preaching of repenting of your sins and making Jesus the Lord of your life not spiritually deep? If you expect people’s lives to be changed, you don’t have to tell them how good your Greek is, or if you can explain all the symbolisms in the book of Daniel and Revelation. In fact most of what we consider deep is really shallow and SO NOT life changing.

Here is what we communicated to our leaders since the start of the church plant. OUR TARGET ARE THE LOST PEOPLE. We want to see a church with sinful people encountering Jesus. Jesus called us to reach the lost and make disciples. SO when critics complain about church not meeting their spiritual needs then something is definitely wrong. Jesus said “I came to seek and save the LOST”

On my next blog – when to listen to criticism. We did listen to a lot! Till the next blog!

PS: I told my wife I was not affected with the criticism I received this Sunday, but on second thought , I am! I just don’t get religious people! Love you all