I fully intended to write a post at the beginning of this year on “Lessons Learned After 1 Year of Church Planting.” I may still do it. I can tell you right now that one prominent lesson has featured over these last thirteen months: the preeminence of patience in pastoral ministry.

As he lay in a prison cell thinking about his immanent departure from this world, the Apostle wrote to the Protege and there is an interesting emphasis he places on patience in ministry. In 2 Timothy 2:24-25 Paul writes, “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” Then he writes in 4:2, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

Increasing patience in ministry is thus a mark ministerial health. From whence does such patience come? The Spirit’s work in the pastors heart (Gal. 5:22); it is a fruit of the Spirit after all.

Let’s turn this jewel of patience in the sun of Scripture and Christian prudence a bit to see its uncommon goodness. First, some presuppositions for patience, then some practices of patience.

PRESUPPOSITIONS FOR PATIENCE

If pastors are to every be known for their patience they must be familiar with God’s patience in Christ. In his first letter to Timothy Paul says he “received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” The meditation is so rich for Paul that he composes one of his spontaneous doxologies in 1:17, singing, “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Pastors who pursue the fruit of patience would do well to meditate much on God’s patience to bring his own heart to faith in Christ.

A second presupposition for patience deals with the pastor’s aim in his ministry. Namely, a desire to stay in one place for a long period of time. If a pastor is eager to always move on to the bigger and better, what value will patience be in his ministry? Little. Patience in ministry presupposes a desire run the race of ministry with one people for a long period of time. In The Deliberate Church Dever and Alexander write,

Most of us think only about five or ten years down the road (if that). But patience in the pastorate requires thinking in terms of twenty, thirty, forty, and even fifty years in ministry. . . . Are you building a congregation or a career? Stay with them. Keep teaching. Keep modeling. Keep leading. Keep loving.

The patience revealed in the gospel and your purpose to stay with your people are fertile soils in which this fruit can grow.

PRACTICES OF PATIENCE

How then might pastoral patience display itself in shepherding and leadership? Three practices come to mind:

Patience and preaching. Patience is a great friend to our preaching ministry. We will exhaust ourselves if we measure our preaching primarily by immediate and tangible fruit. Preaching is the ordinary means to grow people in Christ, but God’s timetable for growth is usually quite different from our own. Preach to fatten up your people’s soul over time; patience will help you here.

Patience and praying. Just like preaching, patience is a kind companion for our prayer life. In Luke 18 our King gave a parable “to the effect that [we] ought always to pray and not lose heart.” An apparent lack of quick answers from God might frustrate our prayer life, but God might just intend the delay to create harder callouses on your knees. We are to wrestle with God in prayer, not letting Him go, and this striving won’t happen apart from persistent patience.

Patience and pastoring. By pastoring I mean everything else a minister does outside or preaching and praying. Health and joy in leadership, discipleship, evangelism, discipline, and exhortation are, in many ways, dependent on patience. We don’t want to be like the gardener who gets all excited about planting flowers, but then gives up if the seeds takes too long to sprout. Rather, we want to diligently water, fertilize, and cultivate the souls in our congregation knowing that growth takes time. Pastoring is dependent on patience.

So, preaching, praying, and pastoring are integrally linked with patience. It indeed makes sense then why the apostle would place such an emphasis on this elusive fruit. Patient pastors are works of God and gifts to His church. I hope to be one some day.

Eventually I will get around to putting up a “Lesson Learned in . . . of Ministry” list, but the more I think about it the more I realize how patience surrounds almost every lessons that pops into my mind. I raise my glass of the heavenly nectar and make a toast to patience-driven pastors.