The Long Haul

Posted on February 21, 2013 
Filed under Opinion

Mark ThompsonFrom Mark Thompson’s blog:

‘How long should we think about staying in any one parish?’ asked an eager theolog, only months away from his own ordination. ‘Well Calvin spent all his life in Geneva’, answered Peter, ‘why don’t you give that a go?’

Read it all here:

It was a theological students’ conference a long time ago and a long way away. John Chapman had just given a talk on ‘What to do when your theological education is on the snout’. Peter Adam, one of the great principals of Ridley College Melbourne, gave a number of reflections on Christian ministry.

A number of memories flood in when I think about that conference. However, one  of the most powerful is of Peter’s answer to one of the questions he was asked.  (It is worth going to any conference Peter Adam is speaking at [Such as this one – Ed.] just for the question time!) ‘How long should we think about staying in any one parish?’ asked an eager theolog, only months away from his own ordination. ‘Well Calvin spent all his life in Geneva’, answered Peter, ‘why don’t you give that a go?’

Of course, once you start to think about it, the number of influential long-term ministries begins suddenly to multiply. Charles Simeon’s over 50 year tenure of Holy Trinity Church Cambridge springs immediately to mind. He managed to outlive extraordinary opposition and make an indelible mark on the Church of England. John Stott’s 25 year stint as rector of All Soul’s Langham Place in London (augmented by his curacy there prior to becoming rector and decades as rector emeritus) was just as influential more than one hundred years later. Dick Lucas was rector of St Helen’s Bishopsgate for 37 years, influencing preachers all around the world. In Australia, Bruce Hall was rector of St Paul’s Carlingford for more than 28 years. Phillip Jensen was rector of St Matthias Centennial Park for 26 years. Paul Harrington has been rector of Holy Trinity Adelaide for 20 years. Broughton Knox, Moore College’s greatest principal, carried that responsibility for 26 years. And then, of course, two of Sydney’s most important archbishops served for more than twenty years: Frederic Barker in the nineteenth century (27 years) and Howard Mowll in the twentieth century (25 years).

The value of a long-term view and the lasting impact of long-term leadership was raised again for me recently as I read comments by Al Mohler, the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the leading evangelical figures in the United States. He writes,

Consider the alternative. Corporate CEOs, university presidents, and leaders of all sorts seem to come and go in a revolving door of forgettable leadership. Short terms for leaders are the rule rather than the exception. The average tenure of corporate leaders is amazingly short, and their leadership impact is frighteningly temporary. (The Conviction to Lead, p. 193)

Christians live their lives, serve each other and the gospel of Christ, against the horizon of eternity. That’s a rather long-term view. It puts short-term gain and momentary acceptance/popularity into perspective (both of which can loom all too large when we are only thinking about the next five, six or seven years). It encourages us to make the hard decisions — and to make the sacrifices — that will be beneficial in the long-term. There should be no surprise then in Mohler’s suggestion that effective public Christian leadership, leadership that has a lasting influence for good, needs time. As they say, ‘It takes time to see fruit grow on trees’.

‘Calvin spent all his life in Geneva’ and it remained a centre of vibrant reformed evangelical Christianity for the next hundred years, while in other ways his legacy has continued right up to today. Perhaps we all need a good dose of ‘long-term’ vision.

– First published at Theological Theology, 21 February 2013.