Tim Challies recently blogged on some discussion (including audio) of how Mark Driscoll was sharpened by the friendship, accountability, and encouragement of C.J. Mahaney and John Piper at the recent Resurgence conference.
This brought back a lot of thoughts as to how a healthy view of the local church is so helpful. We often think that people are just being nosy when they give us a good word, but we need to learn to embrace criticism as a gift from God to strengthen us spiritually. A new resource available in blogdom is the blog of Peacemaker Ministries entitled Route 5:9 as in Matthew 5:9 (Blessed are the peacemakers). These helpful posts can encourage your view of the church to be what God intends for it to be.