Patience

The following quote from Mark Dever's little book, "What is a Healthy Church?" stood out to me:

"Will healthy churches grow in size? They often do, because they present an attractive witness to the gospel. But we should not assume they must. Sometimes God has other purposes, such as calling his people to patience." (pg. 100)

Patience. When you are faithful to your calling as a pastor and your church isn't experiencing numerical growth, God is calling you to patience. When you are discouraged because needed changes aren't happening quickly enough, God is calling you to patience.

"God is working for eternity, and He has been working from eternity. He's not in a hurry, and we shouldn't be either." ("The Deliberate Church, pg. 39)