The Virtue of Patience in Ministry

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Ken McGarity, One of Thousands of Christian Coaches on Noomii.

As I work with Ministry leaders and Church Visionaries there seems to be a consistent underlying theme that most of them have either self induced upon themselves or have had propagated upon them. That underlying theme is the message “until your church is big enough for other people in the church world to notice, you haven’t arrived yet.” There seems to be a certain pressure in the modern church community to grow bigger, be better and innovate some new and creative way to “do” church.

No doubt it is entirely Biblical to grow your church and to burn with a desire to reach more people in new and exciting ways. The pitfall I seem to run up against is that we want it now or better yet, yesterday.

In my recent devotional readings it occurred to me that from the time that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost until he reached the gentile house of Cornelius with the gospel was approximately a five year span. It was a reminder to me that even as zealous as God himself is to reach every man woman and child with the Gospel that everything must take place in it’s appointed time to be truly successful.

What struck me most about this realization was the fact that because Peter had no expectation of reaching the Gentile’s with the gospel during that five years. His attitude remained true and sure towards his day to day Christian service. He did not live in a constant state of frustration and disappointment because he had not reached the Gentiles yet. As so many church leader’s do today.

I can only imagine the negative result if on the Day of Pentecost five years earlier someone had said “Peter, good job. Now that God has given you these 3000 converts, lets see if you can go ahead and concentrate on growing the church to reach the Gentile people.” If someone had pushed him toward that expectation, I imagine the next five years would have been filled with frustration and disappointment as he made attempt after attempt and mistake after mistake at his man made effort to reach the Gentiles in his own timing.

The lesson to be learned here is to force yourself to be patient enough to declare that your present day obedience is of much greater value than the energy spent trying to push a self imposed boulder up a hill again and again. If God has called you to nurture your flock today then be content in doing that, but do it with intentional excellence. If he has called you into a season of growth, then seize it with all the resources you have. But in the midst of it all embrace the process and don’t get distracted by always looking toward the destination. Ministry is a marathon and not a sprint. You may very well have a mega – church one day, but it doesn’t have to be today. Measure your success by the level of your obedience to God and not the expectations of man. And that would include your own expectations as well.