Conflict and Criticism

I was sitting in a team meeting when that all-too-familiar feeling swept over me. Bob was speaking again in a condescending way to Tony, whose face had already started reacting.

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor. 4:8-9). The high-level business meeting reminded me of facing a fierce foe on the playing field. My co-presenter and I nervously eyed the clock as we waited in the lobby. Forty agonizing minutes of our allotted hour crawled by. Then, as if facing a surprise blitz, our hosts rushed us into the meeting. We walked into the room of twenty spectators. Not only had we lost two-thirds of our allotted time, we had to [...]

Have you ever realized, mid-conversation, that the person you’re arguing with is actually right, but you’re already in too deep to turn around, so you keep going?

You can’t have true innovation without some level of disagreement.

People are brutal. They don’t care what they say, how they say it, or how much their words hurt. People will trounce you for taking a stand.

If you've served your people for many years and now only receive criticism and complaints, apply these leadership tips from from Moses.

As ministry leaders, we get a lot of feedback on how we operate and even who we are. To sort through it all, we must learn to differentiate instruction from criticism.