My littlest one (and me)! :-) 

VIEW FROM THE PEW: A Culture of Silence

During a Sunday morning service at a Long Beach church, a pastor told his congregation that he didn’t need anyone in his church with a critical spirit. He must not have realized that by criticizing those in his church with critical spirits, he was making a self-contradictory statement. He may have meant well by wanting his church to be more positive and less negative, but he could not have been more wrong about people with critical spirits. Sadly, most Church leaders feel exactly the same way. These leaders don’t want to be challenged and they don’t seem to understand that people who complain are the ones who care and want to see improvement.

People who don’t care, don’t complain. Churches, just like all successful organizations, need to know when there is dissatisfaction among the people in the organization. Problems need to be identified before they can be corrected. Improvement can only occur when there is a desire to fix the problems. When church members are discouraged from expressing critical opinions, the problems are harder to identify. If the problems are not identified, and if possible solutions are not discussed, the problems will never be corrected, and the church will not improve.