Be Gardeners Not Electricians

Often, in all sorts of spheres, we want things to happen quickly. We are impatient to see the effect of what we are doing. That is not just so in church matters, but it does hold there. We expect God to work with our efforts swiftly. Sometimes we need to learn to slow down. In "The Healthy Churches' Handbook" (Church House Publishing, 2004) Robert Warren tells a story of how three consultants were working with a church. The priest was getting frustrated that nothing seemed to be happening, so one of the consultants, a nun, pointed out: "Brother, you need to understand that real change does not happen on an electrical timescale but a horticultural one" (p. 31/2). The Kingdom is not to be plugged in and switched on - it is to be grown!