Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 7
The discussion contrasts patience with sloth/indifference, arguing that patience is not an excuse but an evaluative filter for whether actions match God’s character; what “urgent” Christian causes (political, cultural, church-growth, activism) feel righteous to you but might fail that patience filter?
Another way to ask: Patience isn’t laziness; it’s a way to check if our actions match God’s character. What “urgent” Christian cause you care about might feel right but still fail the patience test?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the transcript, urgent causes most likely to fail the patience filter are those driven by compulsion, pressure, and force—especially political urgency and “enterprise” approaches that try to win quickly rather than form patient, transformed communities.
- Brian voices the fear: patience can sound like “slothfulness… indifference… lethargic,” but Kevin answers that patience is “not an excuse” but “a means of evaluation: Does this fit the character of God?”
- Kevin argues a “high pressure and overwhelming” approach is less likely to create “belonging and healing and transformation” than a patient community.
- Brian applies this to the U.S. election: “There is a sense of urgency everywhere… a sense of compulsion,” and he notes a “forceful reality” behind politics (“at the bottom of the ballot box is a gun”).
- Brian says even if they won’t vote, they must ask: “What other things have we soaked up… totally counter to the ways of Jesus?”
- Kevin critiques church methods as a “high-pressure sale,” trying to “compel people and convince them and use words.”