Patience 5.18.2023

     Patience is not a function of waiting but of preparing. Patience is part of the process of knowing what the steps are and taking them in the proper order. Patience is possible because the foundation is so secure that the building can withstand the buffeting of the elements. Patience can be learned. It is both a skill and a temperament. When one lacks the temperament, it becomes much more important to develop the skill. That is the discussion for this week’s essay. 

    I speak often of proper long-term planning in sermon preparation. One of the reasons is that proper planning allows the preacher to play a long game, to keep the full scope of 52 weeks in view when preparing each individual sermon. This requires a lot of patient reading, praying, drafting, and thinking. It is a serious commitment of time to the central calling of the Ministry of the Word. It returns the most “bang for your buck” and represents the highest ideals of two millennia of preaching. 

    Patience takes more than time. It takes intentionality and focused will. This week I want to focus on a few concepts that help frame long-term sermon preparation so that you and I can work with patient focus through the entire year. 

One word that encapsulates this concept is campaign. Before this term was used to describe a prolonged political-electoral process it was used in military planning. The best comprehensive definitions, taken from my favorite dictionary app are as follows. 

        a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end; ...

        several related operations aimed at achieving a particular goal (usually within geographical and                temporal constraints)

These are the second and third options, the first definition describes the now common political use of the term. What each definition has in common is that the describes multiple actions, goal orientation, and some kind of external limitation.  

    As I mentioned earlier, the word historically described military operations. An army in the field orchestrated its actions to achieve the overall aims of the commander. This might require opposing armies to conduct battle operations several times in the “campaign season” but also encompassed all the logistical, maneuver, training, and practical considerations required to keep an army in the field ready to fight. Until modern times the campaign season was brief depending on the geography and space involved. Yearly campaigning requires a general to keep all the necessary constraints in mind should the chance for decisive engagement present itself. Generals thinking in terms of single battles often have tactical advantages that dissipate over the course of a campaign rendering their tactical skill moot. 

    Think of your sermon calendar as a year-long campaign, divided into smaller campaigning seasons each contributing to the overall strategic plan for the year. We want every sermon to succeed. We want it to be Biblical, applicable, and timely. We also want each sermon to contribute to the big picture of the campaign of which it is a part, and to impact the plan for the year. 

This kind of planning is systematic and cumulative. The most significant opportunity for planning comes months in advance when laying out the goals for the full year and each individual campaign. The logistic requirements of laying in “tools and ammunition” can be attended to with months of lead time for necessary preparation. 

    The cumulative angle is what has always fascinated me. When executing a yearly theme, and working through several smaller campaigns, you--the preacher can remain fresh, focused, and engaged. It keeps the congregation interested through long-term creative thinking and it allows you to establish some basic goals for each individual sermon and the complete year. 

    Thus, we return to patience. You will get some clever ideas in your long-term planning that will not bear fruit for many months. You have time to draft, experiment, file, revise, and think. Everything you read and every ministry opportunity can be pondered in light of the big picture. You have time to produce an abundance of pegs on which your congregation can hang the insights from each sermon. You have time to take the time. You have time to make multiple passes through your preaching texts. You have time to read good commentaries and introductory literature without the pressing element of immediate utility. Your preaching plan becomes your study plan, and your congregation will always know where they are being led. Tell your leadership. Inform your elders. Summarize and generalize for your congregation. Then do what you promise.

     Which brings us back once again, to patience. You will produce stuff in February that will not become exposed until June. You will be tempted to pre-empt yourself. You will think about going off-plan. You will want to “jump the gun”. Don’t. The plan works best when you work the plan. Patience is a skill that we develop by being patient with ourselves and the program we establish for ourselves. Virtually every preacher controls their time, but not everyone has control of their schedule. 

    All this time helps us to get a broad understanding of our weekly text so that we can extract the right message, for this congregation, at this point in its life, amid this campaign. Patience is not waiting, it is working. Patience transforms generic messages, which may be powerful and on point, into a word from God--for this time and this place. Patience produces particularity. And the best preaching is always particular rather than general. 

    When you and I preach this Sunday, our goal should be to speak God’s Word here, and now, for this congregation. The ripple effect of good preaching is only possible because the preacher has been diligent with his time and specific in his goals. The impact of patient preparation overflows to the benefit of the whole Body when a particular part of that Body is properly nourished.