Receiving compliments
 
I just read a really good article in the Christian Century entitled, “Slings and Arrows: Living with Criticism” (unfortunately, the article isn’t up on their web site yet). The first part of the article focuses on how difficult it can be for clergy (a group that tends to care a little too much about what people think about them) to receive criticism. The advice given in the article was helpful, but the latter part of the article is what struck me. I’ve read a fair amount about receiving criticism, but I haven’t read much about how to receive praise and I’m thankful for the author for exploring this, especially as I come to the end of my ministry at this church. My congregants have always been so kind to my family and I (praise has always been in greater supply than criticism--which isn’t to say I don’t deserve to be criticized!) The challenge is knowing what to do with the praise. Feel good about it? Brush it off? Fake humility? Martin Copenhaver (the author of the article) says that the best kind of praise is the kind that points beyond our own gifts and graces to something/Someone greater. Copenhaver writes: “I remember one of my seminary professors saying, ‘We have too many preachers who want to hear their parishioners say, “What a great preacher we have,” and not enough who long to hear them say, “What a great God we have.”’” I’ve certainly been guilty of needing to hear nice things said about me without stopping to think whether great things are being said about God. Which is why I was so thankful for a conversation I had this morning with a parishioner. She paid me the perfect compliment. She said kind things about my sermons and presence in her life, but she also noted that the end result was a deeper and greater faith in God. Having just read this article, I was so thankful for this feedback. There will be times when I simply receive the praise and then think to myself, hey, I’m pretty good at what I do and leave it at that. But I pray for a heart that will also listen for the praise of God and feel a greater joy in that response. I have great respect for our bishops in The United Methodist Church. It is a job that takes an enormous amount of patience, skill, and (speaking of criticism) thick skin. Here’s the “but.” But I couldn’t help but roll my eyes a bit when I read that the bishops are taking a pay cut. On the face of it, it’s a nice gesture. Each bishop’s salary for 2009 has been $125,650 and they recently voted to drop their pay to what it was in 2008, $121,000. Fine. What got me was the statement they came out with on May 8: “The current global crisis has uncovered our hesitancy to act, but it also gifted us with a sense of urgency and an opportunity to lead courageously.” Lead courageously? Taking a modest pay cut when you’re already making six figures and having a home provided for you isn’t what I would call leading courageously. I don’t begrudge them their salary, but they need to work on their definition of “courageous.”http://www.christiancentury.org/shapeimage_1_link_0
Thursday, June 11, 2009