{"id":13912,"date":"2007-11-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-08T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2007\/11\/08\/effectiveness-at-what-price\/"},"modified":"2007-11-08T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T01:03:46","slug":"effectiveness-at-what-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/effectiveness-at-what-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Effectiveness at What Price?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>

In the book Compassion<\/em>, Henri Nouwen and his co-authors make an interesting observation about our society’s impatience. The authors allege that we live in a world structured around impatience; entire economies are built on that principle; the one-hour time slot has become a tyrant. Although I think that technology is the dominant image of this in our days, Nouwen and his colleagues – writing 25 years ago – saw travel as embodying this impatience: <\/p>

The transportation business is, in fact, a commercialized impatience. Impatient people might be difficult at times, but too much patience would mean the bankruptcy of many companies. <\/em>(Compassion, p. 90)<\/p>

Nouwen and his co-authors aren’t only implicating our culture and economy for feeding the idol of impatience. They are warning the church about the threat that impatience poses to discipleship.<\/p>

Surely there are valuable aspects of the many industries that play to our impatience. Travel is one; but the list of services that are both convenient and train us to be less patient is long – fast food, mobile phones, TiVo, and the internet (yes, I know you’re reading a blog).<\/p>

Despite all the conveniences surrounding us, the impatience we are trained in is only seldom a Christian virtue. More often than not, and especially in our relationships with others, impatience plays herald to underlying individualism, self-centeredness, and pride. So what of the impatience that makes its way into church life?<\/p>

?\tDo we say more about ourselves than our pastors when we criticize a long sermon or service?<\/p>

?\tAre strategic planning sessions really just an excuse to take control and “make progress” so that we can feel the thrill of productivity?<\/p>

?\tAre we stifling the discipleship of those we lead by not living in ways that could be characterized as patient?<\/p>

The New Testament uses “patience” in at least two ways: (1) to describe endurance through suffering until the day of redemption; and (2) to depict how we relate to one another, especially how leaders relate to those they serve. In our world of convenience and multi-tasking, in our culture of impatience, are we trading in discipleship for effectiveness? Are we leading others to do the same?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the book Compassion, Henri Nouwen and his co-authors make an interesting observation about our society’s impatience. The authors allege that we live in a world structured around impatience; entire economies are built on that principle; the one-hour time slot has become a tyrant. Although I think that technology is the dominant image of this Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[1115],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3532,3726,4662,5160],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-13912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-chris-blumhofer","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-burnout","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-time-management"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nEffectiveness at What Price? - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta 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