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How good at waiting are you? On a scale of 1-10—if 1 is a hungry toddler and 10 is a meditating monk—how patient would you say you are? Here’s a quiz to evaluate yourself:

1. When a preacher stands to preach, do you:

a. Put away your watch and phone so you can listen without any thought of time

b. Wish sermons had a game clock and ended at the buzzer (“Sorry you only got two points today, preacher”)

c. Listen to the sermon until the 30-minute mark, then hold up your car keys and start jingling

2. At a fast-food drive-through, the cashier is having a long conversation with the driver in front of you. Do you:

a. Feel joy that they’re experiencing community and consider asking them to join your small group

b. Avoid honking, but dream of things you would like to say to that cashier

c. Attempt to drive your vehicle between that car and the drive-through window to get your food

Keep reading to find out when we want OCC students to wait…and when we don’t.

Theologian Philip Kenneson wrote, “Being patient often feels like death.” I don’t know exactly what he means, but I do know: I’m an impatient person, and waiting kills me. I have speeding tickets from eight states. (I’m not proud of that. At my baptism, I think my accelerator foot got left out of the water. It never got saved.) I’m getting better—it’s been several years since my last ticket—but waiting is something I’m still learning.

That’s true for our students too. They grew up in an impatient culture: we do taxes with QuickBooks, get money from Quicken Loans, use a phone service called Sprint, and wear swimsuits called Speedo. (Some do; I don’t.) We diet with SlimFast, put pictures on Instagram, and even have a mountain named Rushmore! So when our students enroll, they want to change the world for Jesus now.

But maybe it’s no accident that God sent Jesus to minister before there were cars and planes. Walking was the primary first-century mode of transportation, so Kosuke Koyama calls Jesus “the three-mile-an-hour God.” That’s normal walking speed, and Jesus is a God who moves at walking pace. He is a not-in-a-hurry God who makes time for lost and lonely and hurting people.

Jesus walked slowly because that’s “the speed of love.”

Ministry is a slow business. Listening to someone haltingly tell their story. Walking beside someone escaping addiction. Giving answers—again—to someone working through doubts. Helping a church slowly catch a vision for evangelism. (2 Timothy 4, “Preach the word…with great patience.”) These things take time.

“Being patient often feels like death,” and we want our students to die to the need for now. Learning patience is part of ministry preparation, and we want to instill in them a willingness to walk at “the speed of love.”

Sometimes waiting is a good thing…but sometimes it’s not. I’ll explain, but first: we’re expecting a huge freshman class this fall! That’s good news, because “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” (Matt 9:37)

But it’s also a problem, and I’ll let Reagan Wehmeyer tell you why. Keep reading…

Reagan Wehmeyer is a great young leader who just graduated from OCC. (He’s now the youth minister at Connect Christian Church in Carl Junction, Missouri.) When I did Reagan’s graduate exit interview a few weeks ago, I asked about OCC’s strengths. He mentioned chapel, faculty, Bible classes, and said, “The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve enjoyed it. 99% of my experience has been phenomenal.”

Then I asked him about Ozark’s weaknesses: “What can we improve?” Reagan didn’t even have to think: “Cafeteria lines. I love the food and the people, but the noon cafeteria lines are a problem.”

He’s right, and that’s why I’m asking for your help.

Since 2017, our enrollment at OCC has grown 42%! That growth is roughly half undergraduate students, half seminary students. And this fall, we may have as much as a 25% bump in new undergraduate students alone!

But as enrollment has gotten bigger, the cafeteria lines have gotten longer. When students pour out of class at noon for lunch, their wait in line can be up to 30 minutes. Our cafeteria crew works hard, but the current serving area only allows a certain number at a time. Nobody likes waiting when they’re hungry. (“Hangry” is a real thing.) Some students also have a 1:00 p.m. class or work shift, and that wait can make them late.

Sometimes waiting isn’t a good thing, and I’d love your help to fix this problem.

It’s time to expand our cafeteria serving line area. Some remodeling this summer will allow us to add another serving line, which—with a few other changes—will help us get students through the lines much quicker this fall.

This project will involve new construction (moving walls), new equipment (serving bar, warmers, cabinets, turnstile), and drainage work, and the project’s price tag is $75,000.

I saw a T-shirt that said: “I had my patience tested. I’m negative.” Since patience is the fruit of the Spirit’s work (Gal 5:22), we want our students to “test positive”—to learn to wait well.

But sometimes a little “holy impatience” is a virtue. Scripture tells us there are times when we should not wait:

· When you can “settle quickly” with the person taking you to court. (Matt 5:25)

· When you can reconcile with a person who has something against you. (Matt 5:23)

· When you can receive God’s grace. “Today is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:2)

· When you can give help. “Do not withhold good…when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Come back tomorrow, and I’ll give it to you’ when you already have it with you.” (Prov 3:27-28)

We don’t want to “withhold good” from our students. This remodel will bless our growing student body and—in the midst of full class, work, and ministry schedules—allow them to spend time where it’s needed most. Would you pray about a generous gift to our general fund to expand our cafeteria serving area?

I’m grateful we have a “three-mile-an-hour God” who takes time for each of us. But Jesus also reminded us: the Great Commission is urgent, and we cannot wait in fulfilling it. “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 9:4)

So thank you for considering partnership in training these Great Commission leaders. Because of them, the streets of heaven will someday be more crowded. We will get to stand with people—introduced to Jesus by graduates you helped prepare—and join them in singing the praise of our glorious Savior.

I can’t wait.

Yours in Christ,

Matt Proctor
President

P.S. After the letter I sent in March—thanks to folks like you—the MPB bathrooms are now scheduled for renovation work this summer. We are grateful for you!

Your gift is a sacred trust. We promise to honor your generosity by using your gift in the most effective way to train men and women for Christian service. The project described here reflects OCC’s ministry needs at the time of writing. Your gift will go to the general fund to be used where it is needed most when received to prepare students to take the gospel to the world.