Newsletter #61
On Strategic Patience (Part 1)
We’re vacationing in east Tennessee this week, or as I call it, “Frady-land.” (Inside joke)
What Are We Waiting On?
Two newsletters ago I wrote briefly about what I saw as the two biggest obstacles to church revitalization: sincere repentance and strategic patience. Since then, I’ve discussed the latter in person or through email with a few readers. It’s not just “revitalization pastors” who get it; faithful lead pastors do, too.
When do I move forward? How do I move forward? Do I hold back and keep my powder dry, or should I fire away now? These and other questions are the kind that deliberate, thoughtful leaders contemplate. But underneath them is a deeper virtue and commitment: the ability and willingness to wait.
Our Bibles often translate two Greek words (hupomone and makrothumia) as “patience,” or some variation. While it may be a bit of a generalization, the former tends to refer to bearing with difficult things or circumstances, while the latter is bearing with persons. Thus, sometimes makrothumia is often translated as “longsuffering,” and sometimes hupomone is translated as “endurance” or “perseverance.” Depending on the context, other virtues are also associated with these, such as compassion, mercy, love, and self-control.
More could be said about these two words, but I’ll summarize the practical upshot of both (New Testament scholars can leave their objections in the comment thread below):
First, we learn and grow in patience by being placed alongside difficult persons and within difficult situations.
Second, patience functions in connection with other virtues which support it and reinforce it.
Third, patience is both a prerequisite for faithful ministry and the result of faithful ministry.
If we situate these general observations about patience in the context of revitalization ministry, what am I actually describing when I refer to “strategic patience?”
Successful revitalization ministries are inherently shaped by the dynamic of urgency. There is not only a sense that things have gone wrong; they have gone very wrong. They have been going wrong for quite a while. In fact, depending on how long or to what depths a church has sunk, the proverbial patient may be on life support. To use another well-worn metaphor, the window of opportunity may be closing. Such a closing window is sometimes marked by the exodus of younger families or committed members who serve and contribute. Perhaps because of the church’s location, it still sees a regular flow of visitors. But bridges to the community are being burned gradually because of the building’s condition and the unfriendliness of members.
Because of situational urgency, revitalization pastors feel they must shine a spotlight on the situation as it truly is. They have to awaken their congregation to (1) the realities of the ministry, and (2) the need for a proportional response. Proportionally, urgency requires urgency. But how urgent? Strategic patience enters the picture.
Patience is not only commanded of all followers of Jesus; it’s especially required of pastors. Consider these few examples:
“You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness…” (2 Tim. 3:10)
“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Tim. 4:2)
Timothy had first seen patience in Paul and had begun to imitate it. It would be strange for Paul to mention patience as he moves into a pivotal section about faithful Word ministry if it had no relevance to pastoral work.
Moreover, the call to engage in faithful ministry requires a range of practices. Not only must one teach, but they must also “reprove, rebuke, and exhort.” I dare say these are more difficult than straightforward instruction. How does Paul advise us to perform these? With complete patience. Why? Paul knew that people don’t get everything the first time, and even when they do, they don’t always embrace it.
Consider a few other relevant examples:
“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach…” (1 Tim. 3:1-2)
“For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” (Titus 1:7-8)
“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim. 4:5)
These verses are significant for different reasons. The first few don’t directly use a word like “patience” or “longsuffering.” They do, however, refer to qualities of a pastor/elder/overseer that we might describe as “patience-adjacent.” That is to say, they approximate the concept of patience. In the first instance, an overseer must be “sober-minded” and “self-controlled.” Consider: is it possible to be either of these without also possessing and expressing some degree of patience (both with people and circumstances)?
Even the familiar mention of “able to teach” is relevant. Paul speaks later of how one must teach with complete patience. Being able to teach is the competency; teaching patiently is a necessary corollary.
Titus is also instructive. A prospective overseer must not be “quick-tempered.” Instead, he must be “self-controlled” and “disciplined.” Sounds like a kind of patience to me.
Finally, consider 2 Timothy 4 again. One must be “sober-minded” and be willing to “endure suffering.” We’ve already noted a relation the first quality bears to patience, but why does one need to be “sober-minded and endure suffering”? In the prior two verses Paul says, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
We must be willing both to suffer and continue to teach patiently because others will not have patience with sound teaching. They will find different voices to listen to. In fact, it won’t just be at the conservative Southern Baptist church down the street. They will, in fact, “turn away from listening to the truth” altogether and settle for myths.
Sober-mindedness and patience will be needed because, among other things, some people who we think are our “partners in revitalization” will not eventually be partners at all. They will desert us, not unlike some who Paul mentions at the end of 2 Timothy 4.
How about Those Changes We Discussed?
I have patiently waited (pun intended) before turning to the very practical questions that successful revitalization ministries must ask and answer. We must ground our understanding of the work itself by focusing on passages like these. We cannot understate the difficulty of the work and the emphasis on patience—patience not just for life in general, but patience for the work of pastoral ministry.
I’m concerned that we believe that once we label something a “revitalization ministry,” we can bracket off all considerations of patience. After all, we’re facing an urgent situation! Urgency, therefore, is required. I don’t disagree! But if you don’t have patience when you’re dealing with an established group of believers, you’re going to be dead in the water.
Let me provide an additional example of why I think my argument holds up to scrutiny.
Imagine a supposed ideal scenario. A congregation (and especially its lay leaders) have agreed with a revitalization pastor (and/or an outside ministry entity or leader providing assistance) to a set of changes or reforms that must occur. They agree on the types of changes and the timetable for their implementation. No need for patience, right? Just go for it! No more business meetings. No more board meetings. Full steam ahead.
I wonder how long it will take this struggling group of people, focused as they may be, to walk through the laundry list of changes. After all, they’re learning to think, speak, and act in ways that are quite foreign and unfamiliar.
I wonder how long it will take to line up all the contractors to come in and do the work on the facilities that has been deferred for decades.
I wonder if we’re waiting to see the ministry organization change or the actual church, that is, the people, to change.
It’s not a false dilemma. True spiritual change in the hearts and minds of people will have consequences for the ministry operation. To use Marshall and Payne’s excellent metaphor, life in the vine will require and lead to changes in the trellis. But whether we’re dealing with either, patience will always be required.
Check in next week for Part 2 on this topic (and more!).
Follow-Up:
One of the most important insights I’ve learned as a Christian was the biblical and practical relationship between doctrine and practice. My earlier research into this broad intersection culminated in a paper that I presented at a theological symposium in 2012, which later appeared in Integrity: A Journal of Christian Thought.
This past week I was reading Trevin Wax’s often insightful blog and saw where he has been thinking about this topic also. Below is an excerpt from his very good article, “You Can’t Sever Orthodoxy from Ethics”:
The New Testament sometimes speaks of the gospel as something we “obey” (2 Thess. 1:8; 1 Pet. 4:17). And in 2 Corinthians 9:13, Paul praises the early believers for their generosity, describing their good deeds as "obedience to [their] confession in the gospel of Christ” (NET). The phrase can also be translated as “the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ” (NIV) or “your submission that comes from your confession” (ESV) or just “obedient confession of the gospel of Christ” (CSB)…This is why recurring debates over whether or not we can trust Jesus as Savior without bowing to him as Lord are misguided. True faith is demonstrated not in mere assent to certain truths about Jesus but in personal trust that results in practical obedience. We confess Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Don't miss the implication. The truth of Christ is tied to a way of Christlike life. No wonder the early Christians were known as The Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22) and Peter described Christianity as “the way of truth” (2 Pet. 2:2). One of the earliest Christian catechisms was called "The Two Ways," made up primarily of ethical instruction. Confessing the gospel prompts obedience and directs us to a certain kind of life. Doctrine and practice reinforce each other.
Currently Reading:
Michael Gurian, The Wonder of Boys
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