Patience is a Virtue

Recently, I’ve begun reading The Patient Ferment of the Early Church by Alan Kreider. It is a well-researched and demanding book - one that resists being rushed. I find myself reading slowly, not only because of its depth, but because I want to savour what it is teaching me. What follows is not a full book review, but a reflection on the opening section (and there is so much more that the book explores!).

Kreider focuses on the steady growth of the early church in deeply challenging circumstances. While there were moments when growth may have been sudden in places, overall, it unfolded slowly - over centuries, and well beyond the lifespan of any single generation. This long, gradual process is captured in the word ‘ferment’ in the book’s title.

One of Kreider’s central insights is that patience was the key virtue emphasised by the early church:“It [patience] was centrally important to the early Christians… They talked about it and wrote about it… And they concluded that they, trusting in God, should be patient - not controlling events, not anxious or in a hurry, and never using force to achieve their ends.”

Before Emperor Constantine aligned with Christianity in AD 312, Kreider notes that church growth was “odd.” It was not organised or driven by mission programs; it simply happened. Even more striking is that mission and evangelism were rarely written about or formally taught in the early church. I find this staggering, given the sheer number of books, strategies, and resources devoted to these topics today.

As a local church minister, I was deeply shaped by the church growth movement. I invested significant energy in trying to understand culture, reshape church, and create growth. Reading Kreider, I felt convicted about my past - and continuing - tendency to anxiously and hurriedly control events.

Even before beginning this book, I sensed that despite all my effort, I had not been fully trusting the Spirit to be at work - especially beyond my time as minister in a church. Looking back, I am grateful that God has been patient with me, and that he continues to offer glimpses of his quiet, patient work unfolding around me.

There is good reason for the saying, “patience is a virtue.” I know I need to practice it more, and to become more like our patient Saviour - who, even in suffering, could pray, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”

I’m encouraged that patience is a virtue for every Christian, and that the early church grew not through experts or professionals, but through the quiet, faithful perseverance of ordinary believers living out their faith day by day.

This is not a call to passivity, but an invitation to let our action arise from a patient, trusting attentiveness to God. What might change in our rural communities if we learned to inhabit more fully the patience of Jesus? In a society marked by anxiety, urgency and noise, perhaps such patience - alongside faith, hope, and love - might offer something steady and quietly compelling.

To finish, I want to share one more insight from Kreider, that I have adapted into a blessing:

“As we ponder patience and follow Jesus, may we grow into the resilience and distinctive way of life that marked the early Christians - so that others might encounter a good hope that quietly, patiently, draws them in.” 

Sam Abramian

Director: East of England