Pastors and Their Critics: A Guide to Coping with Criticism in the Ministry

All pastors and church leaders experience criticism—but that doesn’t make criticism easier to process or to address well. With wisdom, charity, and illustrations from decades in the ministry, pastors Joel Beeke and Nicholas Thompson strengthen and equip the reader as they provide a biblical foundation, a Christ-focused theological vision, and practical principles for coping with, and benefitting from, criticism.

188 pages

“Beeke and Thompson’s guide to receiving and responding to criticism is a wonderful gift for the church. From beginning to end it is personally informed, biblically framed, and Christ-centered. If you experience or fear opposition, this little volume is a must read. My only criticism of the book is that it was not published ten years ago.”

—Chad Van Dixhoorn, Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary 

“As a young pastor, I received a letter of constructive but rather direct criticism about my preaching from the person who had recommended my name to the pulpit committee of the church! To say that I was stung is to put it mildly. It hurt so badly, I filed it away after one reading and went on about my work. When I ran across the letter again, fifteen years into my ministry there, I realized that every word he said was right and helpful (though I am not sure that I would have even have known how to follow his counsel until I had lived a little more life). But it did get me to thinking about criticism, and how to benefit from it and respond to it. This book would have been a help to me then, and will be to you now. To be a pastor, especially in our time, is to be criticized. So how we respond to that criticism, how we process the criticism, how we keep from being defensive or even paralyzed by the criticism, and how we learn and grow from the criticism is all of great significance. We want to be neither despondent and discouraged, but entreatable and correctable. Furthermore, we should learn how to offer criticism in the most God-honoring and helpful way possible. I’m thankful for the hard thinking that has gone into these subjects in this book. I think it will help you as you try to develop “tough skin and a tender heart.”

—Ligon Duncan, Chancellor and CEO, Reformed Theological Seminary