There is a place and a time to be critical, to challenge people and communities to think through their actions and attitudes. But simply pointing out problems without offering some kind of road map back to effective gospel ministry is neither helpful nor pastoral.
Criticism
Luc Niebergall
No one is mandated by God to be a heresy hunter. When we are walking in judgement and a critical spirit, we can stumble into an unhealthy infatuation with looking for the enemy, instead of seeking the Lord.
Jerry Bridges
One of the most difficult defilements of the spirit to deal with is the critical spirit. A critical spirit has its root in pride. Because of the ‘plank’ of pride in our own eye, we are not capable of dealing with the ‘speck’ of need in someone else. We are often like the Pharisee who, completely unconscious of his own need, prayed “God, I thank you that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11). We are quick to see – and to speak of – the faults of others, but slow to see our own needs. How sweetly we relish the opportunity to speak critically of someone else – even when we are unsure of the facts. We forget that “A man who stirs up dissension among brothers” by criticising one to another is one of the “six things which the Lord hates” (Proverbs 6:16-19)
Francis Frangipane
No one ever grew spiritually by focusing on the flaws in someone else.