Be A Traveler
Some of the best advice I ever received was from a J. I. Packer book, "Knowing God", on the differences between travelers and balconeers. Focus on being a traveler and less on what others are doing. I graduated from MC, wanted to be in the ministry. Two of my best friends are pastors from big and small churches, Methodist and Presbyterian. Their problems are different but criticism and disagreements among members are universal problems of both, much larger dangers to the church than the ones you listed IMO.
I say this in humility and could be wrong with you but typically people with the time to criticize how others are doing it aren't doing much themselves. Since Pinelake was brought up, I am a member there. It's not perfect and I'd prefer a smaller church. I'm probably a bit unique in that our pastor, Chip Henderson, mentored me for a while at his Brookhaven church shortly after I became a Christian 22 years ago, before he became a big deal in the Jackson area. I'll stand up for Chip. He's not perfect but I respect that guy as much as anyone. He's legit and has been good to me, and has had a huge impact on a lot of people. And Pinelake, though certainly with issues, has a large core group of people that do as much good as any church I've ever been around.
J. I. Packer, Knowing God preface
"In "A Preface to Christian Theology", John Mackay illustrated two kinds of interest in Christian things by picturing persons sitting on the high front balcony of a Spanish house watching travelers go by on the road below. The "balconeers" can overhear the travelers' talk and chat with them; they may comment critically on the way that the travelers walk; or they may discuss questions about the road, how it can exist at all or lead anywhere, what might be seen from different points along it, and so forth; but they are onlookers, and their problems are theoretical only. The travelers, by contrast face problems which, though they have their theoretical angle, are essentially practical-problems of the "which-way-to-go" and "how-to-make-it type, problems which call not merely for comprehension but for decision and action too.
Balconeers and travelers may think over the same area, yet their problems differ. Thus (for instance) in relation to evil, the balconeer's problem, is to find a theoretical explanation of how evil can consist of God's sovereignty and goodness, bu the travelers problem is how to master evil and bring good out of it. Or again, in relation to sin, the balconeer asks whether sinfulness and personal perversity are really credible, while the traveler, knowing sin from within, asks what hope their is of deliverance. Or take the problem of the Godhead; while the balconeer is asking how one God can conceivably be three, what sort of unity three could have, and how three who make one can be persons, the traveler wants to know how to show proper honor, love and trust toward the three Persons who are now together at work to bring him out of sin to glory. And so we might go on."
