While uneducated or cruel critics can be distracting, try to keep things in perspective. Where I live, Christians are rarely in danger for being Christians. Countless believers have suffered gravely for their faith in Christ. If all we have to do is endure a few people complaining, blogging, or writing emails, we haven’t suffered much.

Besides, when someone takes a shot at us or our churches, if their criticism isn’t true or valid, what does it really matter? If we can stand before God with integrity, it doesn’t matter what someone else says. It only matters what God thinks.

Rather than honing in on the negative, I try to remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood. Instead of being sidelined by criticism, I choose to stay in the game and fight the more important fight.

The best way to avoid criticism is to not do anything significant. That’s one reason I don’t worry a lot when we receive occasional criticism. I worry more when we don’t, because it means we’re not doing anything significant.