7 Giving and Receiving Critique

 As Christians, we should all sign off on the need to be 'teachable'.  Reading through Proverbs this month I have been struck by how many proverbs exhort us to receive correction and not stiffen our necks.

In many seminary and church settings, there are lots of things in church life where review is vital if the church is to grow up in its service of Christ.

However, cultures do this in somewhat different ways and we must be willing to adjust the way we do things. Unless I am mistaken, there is a spectrum and people from the USA tend to be reluctant to critique publicly for fear that they will crush the spirits of the one being critiqued. Brits are more on the direct and confrontational end and perhaps the Dutch are further along that spectrum- but having not lived in Holland that may be only a stereotype.

I was made aware of my own expectations by listening to an interesting Dick Lucas interview. This grandfather of British evangelicalism is asked about the emergence of the Proclamation Trust and he explains that it had its origins in the early 1980s in a group of ministers getting together and critiquing each others' sermons. For one thing, the story of the Proclamation Trust -  a hugely influential evangelical organisation in the UK and beyond - is refreshing. It began not with Dick Lucas or anyone else 'telling everyone else how to preach rightly' but a collective discovery that pastors were routinely getting the text wrong by receiving correction from their peers.

Uncle Dick traces this approach back to the camps on which he was converted and became a leader - the 'Bash' camps that nurtured many British evangelical leaders.  E.J.H. Nash used to publicly review the talks given to the schoolboys and 'called a spade a spade', judging by Lucas' memories.  Clearly the approach exemplified by Bash was later deemed by the network of clergy connected with St Helen's Church to be a painful but necessary remedy for the weaknesses in our preaching.

As it happens, I was converted through the same schools ministry and gained a wonderful training in Christian ministry in that context, so I came to see critique of talks given in a group setting to be a healthy way to help believers grow in their skills as exegetes and preachers.

As for cultures that take a different approach, we should all bear with one another as we bring different expectations to the table in an international setting. But I would want us to distinguish between publicly confronting people for sin - which Matthew 18 tells us should be done privately - and reviewing public pronouncements. In some cases, surely a private word would be better- irritating or embarrassing habits in speech and body language, for example. But the one who steps up to issue a public declaration of what God's word means does have to be prepared to face public correction. The same goes for those who promulgate teaching in written forms- they do have to face a public correction if they lead people astray, or else their false teaching will spread unchecked.

But for the Brits and the Dutch and whoever else may be inclined to be 'brutally' honest: let's remember the Lord Jesus' example:

A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out (Matthew 12:20 NIVUK)