Patience Doesn’t Win Church Growth Awards

God is a master of the quiet game. I’m a bit resentful over my childhood children’s church experiences and Christian school classes, for that matter. The quiet game over stimulated my competitive nature and blinded me entirely to the real intentions of the game. Not until years later did I realize the psychological trickery my teachers used to dupe me into being patient.

Whether I knew it or not they had given me a reason to be patient. Today games have been set aside for medication. But in my day I was motivated to quietly wait against my natural physical inclination for the prospect of being glorified in front of my peers as the WINNER, i.e. the best of all quiet game players, to be revered by all who played the quiet game behind me, and spoken of with admiration when other quiet game rookies need a motive to sit still.

Patience Tested

Now that I have gotten old (27) I find myself playing the quiet game, but this time God is my teacher and his glory is the only reward. Pleasure me in sharing a fresh example. Last night after notably one of the most powerful prayer meetings our church has had during my time, over 60 members of Lexington Baptist Church attended the Planning Commission Meeting of Rockbridge County. The rock quarry adjoining our church campus is seeking a 54 acre expansion, which would result in weekly blasts as close as 600 feet away from our current church buildings over the next 60 years! God bless those who attended. They truly showed their love for LBC because the meeting lasted for 4 hours and 45 minutes resulting in an agreement to hold another public hearing next month.

Patience Motivated

God had prepared me for this event. He stimulated my motives during my devotions last week. The quarry quandary weighed heavy on my heart and like most Christians I needed a powerful lesson in my devotions to pick me up, but the day before I had finished Jeremiah, which would normally be quite an accomplishment for me except it left Lamentations as my selected loaf of “Daily Bread” for the next morning. I didn’t need to read lamentations. I could have written it and made it sound more lamentable! Do you know how far you have to read in Lamentations before the first positive statement is made? Chapter 3 verse 22. But when I made it that far it was like driving up the curvy road leading to the Blue Ridge Parkway to enjoy the magnificent beauty of an overlook. I just had to stop (in the middle of Lamentations) and enjoy a breathtaking view of the goodness of God.

Take a look

Lamentations 3:25-26 says, “ The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. ” (NRSV)

There it was! All I needed. It doesn’t matter if patience goes unnoticed. Even if there are no awards for patient pastor of the year or featured articles in church growth magazines about being the same as you were yesterday awaiting God-induced change. If God alone is my reward, the cross of Christ my model and goodness of God my expectation I am willing to straighten my back, put my feet flat on the floor, fold my hands, look straight ahead and play the quiet game.

Michael Wilburn