Missionary William Carey called himself a “plodder”. In the twentieth century, Warren Weirsbe wrote a book called In Praise of Plodders. We are here to talk about the virtue in plodding through life (in other words, replacing a desire for heroism by doing what you are supposed to do as part of a rhythm of life, without  “freneticism”). The core question: Are you frenetically productive or calmly productive? Join me, Jason Dohm, and Kris Bains as we discuss this important matter.

Welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of scripture. And so, of course, we've got Jason Dome here. Hey, Jason. Hello, Scott.

And Chris Baines from New Zealand. Good to see you Chris. Hi Scott, Jason. Great to be with you both. Yeah, so your country just got locked down because they found one case of the, What variant?

Some variant. One possible case. It's so hilarious. This is a great moment to talk to you when this just happened. Anyway, so Chris is a regional facilitator in New Zealand for Church and Family Life.

He is also a pastor at Community Bible Church north of Auckland on the North Island of New Zealand. I would love to be there except for the current moment that is taking place there. He operates a ministry called Eternal Purpose Ministries. Chris, we're sure grateful for you and all you're doing out there in New Zealand. It's good to see you.

So we're here to talk about plodding through life, rhythmically doing what you're supposed to do on a regular basis without a spirit of freneticism, not a frenetic life. You know, most people want to do something really great for God, something so astounding and just feverishly bend everything to do that. We're here to actually talk about living consistently and to be productive, calmly productive, and we want to say that, you know, life is not a sprint, it's a journey. Can you picture Jesus rushing around? Probably not.

I think it was Spurgeon who said that by perseverance, the snail reached the ark. So anyway, there you go. Over to you. Let's talk about this whole matter of plodding through life. I think one thing to say, and probably the first thing to say is that this notion comes right off the pages of Scripture.

I'd like to just read Galatians chapter 6, verse 9, where Paul writes, and let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. So, Paul himself was a plotter, he just kept at the work, one foot in front of the other, and sometimes the gains were very small, undiscernible, incremental, but they did add up over time. And that's, I think, what we find is that the believers who have this fixed in their minds to just keep going, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, little incremental gains that add up over time find that they're enormously fruitful. I like what you said, adding up over time. CS Lewis in Mere Christianity said that good and evil both increase at compound rates.

So we're talking about increase, but how? And the misunderstanding often about plotting as well is that you think you're resigning yourself to a mundane, boring life, and that's just not it at all. I don't think The conference atmosphere doesn't help with this sometimes. One of the things I appreciate about the church and family life conferences is we just plot. We plot through doctrine, plot through the Bible, and people come home and continue plotting.

But how often do the believers attend a conference and they're fired up, but often say it's a bit like they come away like a firework not on fire for God. And a firework is, you know, up in the air explodes, by Tuesday it's all over. But I think of the temple and the lamps continuously burning, And that's what we want in our lives, the Holy Spirit continuously working, continuously working, where we are steady, plotting in the important simple things. BF I'd like to kind of rapid fire, give you three quotes from William Carey. William Carey was a missionary to India in the 1700s.

He's widely known as the father of modern missions, and he spent about four decades laboring just piling up little incremental gains, but was tremendously fruitful. And plodding is actually a terminology that he used. So let me give you these three quotes. At one point he said, I am a plodder, it is true. I have no genius, but I can plod.

And then later on he said, I can plod and persevere. That is my only genius. So when you put those two quotes together, here's what you get. If you're not a genius, plodding can be your genius. Just keep going, just keeping Going and persevering can be the genius that you might lack in talents and abilities and allow you to even outpace it.

It really is the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise can outpace the hare if the tortoise keeps at it. And then here's the final quote. If anyone should think it worthwhile to write my life, I will give you a criterion by which you may judge of its correctness. If he gives me credit for being a plotter, he will describe me justly.

Anything beyond this will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit to this, I owe everything." So he attributed all the fruitfulness of an amazing missionary life to plotting. And he says, I can persevere in any definite pursuit. In other words, having a fixed objective in his mind, he can sort of keep that point on the horizon in view and just keep working towards it little by little by little by little.

Mm-hmm. Love it. You know, there's an illustration that we're given in the Bible that bears witness to this, and that is we're likened to farmers. You know, in James and in 2 Timothy 2, you know, we're soldiers, runners, and farmers. But the farmer, all of those have to do with continuing on.

But a farmer does simple things slowly. If you meet experienced farmers, they're not running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They're not. They're slow, because they're working with slow processes that they just consistently contribute to. And I think that's one reason why the Lord compares us to farmers.

Yeah. I think when we talk about gospel ministry, mission is just like Jason, you were saying with William Carey, there's such a clear link with plodding and perseverance because none of those things happen overnight. And when we think of our evangelism, we just sow the seed, we sow the seed. God has given us a task of sharing the gospel. He's not called us to save people.

But there is that temptation at times where people get a little bit tired of the fact that they've been out, they've shared, they've told people, what do we do now, rather than leave that in God's hands? And yet, when you continue to plod, you continue to plod with a focus on faithfulness, not a focus on fruitfulness. I think really that is God's intention. Leave the results in His hands, you've done what you can do, share the gospel, but leave the results in His hands, and don't get creative. So, there's something that happened to me maybe 12 or 13 years ago, which was like a bucket of ice cold water in the face.

And that was a visit to Chapel Library in Pensacola, Florida. I was already familiar with their reputation. They print and reprint over 800 titles. They're great titles, and they ship them all over the world. We actually work with some churches in Africa that get skids full of great literature for them at no cost.

So when I visited them, I expected to see something impressive. And you know, what you see is a very small staff in a kind of very modest buildings and there's really nothing impressive to the eye down there, but what has happened was, for a period of decades, they have had this point really clear in their minds out on the horizon, and they've just kept making progress towards it. And it's made them disproportionately fruitful, certainly to any church I've ever been a part of. And probably because the churches I have been a part of, even been a part of leading, we've sort of shifted strategies from time to time and hit the reset button, where Mount Zion and Chapel Library never did. They just kept making progress towards this thing that they thought they should be doing.

And they've been disproportionately fruitful. I think plotters set themselves up to be disproportionately fruitful, and that's what we want to be. Yeah, and I think that's a good illustration for what Chris is saying about various aspects of spreading the gospel. That's what Chapel Library has been doing, and in our personal lives as well. There's so many areas that plotting is really, really important.

You know, David in Psalm 71, he says, Oh God, you have taught me from my youth, and to this day I declare your wondrous works. He's talking about this accumulation, this pile up, you know, day after day, being taught by the Lord. And the most significant things we ever do are the simplest things that we do. And it really begins with, at least some point in the day, I would just say it probably should be in the morning where your whole soul is calibrated. You're before the Lord.

You're just reading for the benefit of your soul. And those just getting up in the morning and having that happen at the first part of your day is the most powerful thing you'll ever do. But it's so simple and nobody sees it and nobody knows it but you, but it shapes your, your, your thinking. And it actually, those things end up coming up in the day and they come back. Often I find myself talking to somebody and that verse that I read this morning was just perfect for the moment.

But just those consistent things, you know, like filling your heart with the knowledge of God early in the morning. I think I learned the hard way that it is those simple things. If you keep it simple, as Voddy Bokum says, you keep it going. And there's a tendency to do more than is realistic with good intentions. And there's times where I've counseled believers who are very excited about the Lord and they tell me how their weeks look like this.

They're going to read for an hour in the morning and halfway through the morning they're going to listen to a sermon at lunchtime. They break, they're going to read another book and they last about three or four days and then they go back to nothing and always try and encourage them just keep going in the simple things. And I guess this relates to our church ministry as pastors. We plot every week, about 10 years ago, in a different church, somebody gave a criticism. And they said, we come here and all you do is you sing worship songs, you pray, you read the Bible, you bring a sermon, then you worship, and that's all you do.

And I said, and that's all we're going to do. Those ordinary means are ordinary, but it's not on me as the pastor or any pastor to give the vitality to that. Yes, we're engaged enthusiastically, but we're relying on the people coming prepared to see Christ in those things, in the normal things we do every week. Because otherwise, what would we do? We try to change church every week.

I think it was a pastor from a church years ago said to me, if you strive to gain, you will strive to maintain. So keep it simple and keep it going. So our church is in Ephesians now, and the text for this week is the text for parents to bring up their children in the training and ammunition of the Lord. What is that? That's a 20-year project.

That's a 20-year project. And I'm sure there will be some discouraged mothers watching the podcast. And they're discouraged because the increments from day to day are so small. So we would want to encourage them to just keep plotting in this two decade process that God has given you, and to just understand that at the end of Proverbs 31, the Proverbs 31 woman's children arise and call her blessed. But it's at the end of a really long process of plotting and really small, almost undiscernible, incremental advances that you don't see from day to day, but they really do add up.

It's like growing a tree. You don't see it in its progress every day, But you turn around and after two decades, there's a big tree there. I've often said to my wife, Becky, that I appreciate that for many, many years, she's served in the ministry of missing out. And part of a godly wife's role, in many ways, is seemingly to miss out. Yet she's not truly missing out on what God is doing in the lives of her children, but it does require sacrifice.

But yeah, God works the fruit in time. You know, back to the local church thing, I mean, there's so many areas, I think, that come to mind, family life, our person life, church life, but it's striking that the Lord actually commands our rhythmic pattern in church life. And you have the patterns in the Old Testament that I think teach us something about our lives now. You had the morning and the evening sacrifice. That's why Spurgeon wrote his book, Morning and Evening, because there's a repetitive blessing that we get.

And we don't decide whether we feel like going to church every Sunday, we just... That's what we do. It's part of that simple life that God has given us. Pete Or even our children and their schoolwork. No one day's curriculum is revolutionary to your life.

No one week's curriculum is revolutionary to your life. No one week's curriculum is revolutionary to your life. But getting a good education actually will revolutionize your life, and it's the cumulative effect. They're plotting too, Our children are plotting in their schoolwork as well. I think in Galatians 6 and 9, you mentioned Jason, and just the verse before is where it says, you know, sew to the Spirit and your reap everlasting life will sew to the flesh.

And sewing just gives such a picture of plotting too, of that week by week, another day, another week, another year. And it's so important to, I guess, have that perspective that plotting, it prepares us for the difficult times, the times of crisis. I guess in persecution, you'd be more prepared if that church has been plotting, but also things that perhaps we experience more often where there is offense or difficulty in a church family, how important it is then for a commitment, let's plod through this. This is God means to work this out rather than just go to the church down the road or just leave. Let's keep on plodding, let's keep on being grounded.

And I think of one Corinthians 15, 58, where it says, "'Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. It doesn't always feel like the work is abounding, but I guess I take that as a promise that by faith, God's work will abound if we continue to be steadfast and we continue to be immovable, knowing that this is not in vain, even if we can't see it now. Amen. You know, being immovable in the matter of gathering your family around the Word of God is so critical. And just continuing to do that regardless of what else is happening as best you can.

I know things happen, but you have to have a steely eye to making that happen because everything wages war against it. I remember a couple years ago I was getting ready to go preach at a father-daughter retreat. And I called up my girls, and I asked them what was the most helpful thing I did as a father. And all of them said, Oh, Papa, sitting down in the morning reading the Bible was the most helpful thing you ever did. And you know what?

It was nothing. We opened up our Bibles and we read, and then I went off to work. It was very simple. Mm-hmm. It turns out it was everything, actually.

It actually was everything. But it was just a very simple thing that we did. But I think fathers having consistent patterns like that brings a family into that kind of plotting. If the father doesn't do it, it won't happen. And so it's just a great opportunity that fathers have.

So take it from William Carey, if you lack genius, this can be your genius. You can keep going and get the stack up little incremental gains and outpace others. If we were geniuses, we might not be talking about this. I think William Carey is bringing it down to our level as well, isn't he? Because some people would say, but I'm not a William Carey, but that's the whole point.

William Carey identified himself as that person who's a normal person plodding in the ordinary means of God, the ordinary means of Christ, just doing what God had required him to do. It's not a personality thing. I don't think by personality, I would naturally be a plodder, but I've again learned the hard way That it's it's very helpful. Hey a study of his life is really inspiring. He was a cobbler He apprenticed as a cobbler He was a cobbler by trade and he turned him into him himself into a language scholar and college professor by degrees, by increments.

Wow. Amazing. Yep. You know, I'm looking at James 5, 7 and 8, Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand." So I think we're called to a simple life, doing the ordinary things. You know, theologians call the things in the church the ordinary means of grace, and satisfaction and devotion to those is the most important thing. Okay, so let's wrap this up. I want to throw this at you before we conclude.

What kind of advice would you give now after having this discussion to the folks that are listening about plotting? Well, I'll take the first crack at it. So, plotting is inherently discouraging if you let it be, because the gains aren't really apparent and aren't really spectacular, and they're not drawing the applause of men. If it was any of those things, you wouldn't call it plotting at all. So you really have to steal against that understanding that what your strategy isn't to capture quick gains, but your strategy is to keep going and accumulate small gains.

And that's going to come with some discouragement and the key, the genius is to keep going. I would agree with all of that and just say how, God values it when we are faithful in the small things. So I would just say with plotting, it takes time to sometimes cultivate the appetites to get into a flow. So by faith is the way it begins and you continue to keep consistent in those simple things day by day, day by day. And then what you find over time is that that's your default.

And you're ready for a crisis, you're ready for a situation where your schedule is thrown out. But then you come back to that place of plotting and plotting should be at default, life's going to be interrupted, Ministry and Christian life is still a rollercoaster ride. But when we think of our Lord, and I was reading those verses in Luke where it says, they did not receive him, Luke 9.53, because his face was set for the journey for Jerusalem. I think, well, there's the ultimate plodder of all plodders was Christ who looked not just to the cross, but through the cross. And may he be an example for all of us.

Amen. Amen. So let's do it. Let's stay on course doing the simple things and finding ourselves being faithful. God entrusts good things to faithful men who continue to do the things that He's commanded.

And I would just say, you know, get in the groove, establish routines, and do them every day. And don't worry about the outcome of your life. God will take care of that. And the future really is for the plotters. So thanks, guys.

Great discussion. Really appreciate it. And thanks for joining us in Church and Family Life podcast. We'll see you next time. See you next Monday for our next broadcast of the Church and Family Life podcast.