Recently our girls asked if we could make a stuffed crust pizza like the large, national brands. When I found a website for copycat recipes and started the dough, I was surprised by two details: it could be made the same day, and it used a ton of yeast. My normal recipe comes from Tony Gemignani’s The Pizza Bible (p. 44), the holy scriptures on the slice. That recipe uses only a fraction of the yeast and requires a two day wait.
Since there’s no such thing as bad pizza, I gave it a shot. The dough grew quickly, doubling in size within a few hours into a soft, pillowy dome. But when I prepped it for baking it tore down the middle. I had to be delicate. Eventually I formed the dough into a disc, put it on the peel, added the toppings, and slid it onto the blazing oven steel, and waited 10 minutes. Admittedly, it looked good. I sliced it up, queued up a movie for the family, and ate.
Worst pizza I’ve made in 10 years.
It made Little Caesars taste like The French Laundry. It was better than a gas station pizza but worse than a bowling alley pie. Brooklyn would ban me; New Haven would expel me; Rome would defrock me.
The crust had zero chew, leaving one daughter to cite a lack of flavor. Instructions called for garlic butter on the crust before and after baking. I usually don’t even apply it once. Yet this copycat still tasted like styrofoam with sauce.
So what happened?
The dough was missing an essential ingredient: time. A good New York style dough baked in a home oven can’t depend on a wood fire to give it extra taste, so it needs time in the fridge (preferably 48 hours). This cold fermentation makes up for the lack of yeast and adds a savory, nutty flavor to the crust.
Which brings me to the topic of the growth of the early church.
How did a small, marginal movement become the most influential global faith in just a few hundred years? It was totally improbable. Yet it happened. They didn’t write books on evangelism. They didn’t host seminars on how to talk to your neighbor about Jesus. And they certainly didn’t host seeker-sensitive worship gatherings. So how did it all happen? In his wonderful book The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, Alan Kreider attributes the phenomenon to a few distinctives, including patience and ferment.
Early Christian writers loved explaining patience, a virtue that is at the center of God’s heart (Exodus 34) and the teachings of Jesus (Matthew 5-7). Patience is a disposition of humility that does not rush. It endures hardship and turns the other cheek. It refuses to force an agenda. Instead, patience embodies the character of God in the midst of trials and trusts that God will eventually make things right. Galatians 6:9-10 was important for early Christians: “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”
But what is ferment? It’s the product of a slow, internal process where growth happens at a microscopic level. We may not see the fruit of our work, but those seeds are still worth planting. Ferment resists the urge toward instant gratification. It’s a slow cooker in a world of microwaves; it’s a 401k, not daily sports betting.
Patient ferment…
- reminds us that our witness is not compromised through a lack of results; but our witness is compromised when we anxiously rush into un-Christlike decisions.
- tells us there are forces in the world we cannot control. But we can control our response to forces in the world.
- knows that we must not compromise our values in order to score political victories..
- challenges our addictions to war, violence, greed, and power.
- questions whether we need to be in control.
- takes time.
- forms a church of people, not one of buildings, bands, and brands.
- insists that God will always be God and that we will not.
This is a necessary message in our anxious season. Whenever we want to give up or give in, we are reminded of what God is doing on the inside. There is something hopeful bubbling beneath the surface. Better things are coming. Don’t rush the process. The good things are rarely hot and ready, and they certainly never arrive in 30 minutes or less. Trust patience; it’s the missing ingredient.
O taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him. O fear the LORD, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. (Psalm 34:8-10)
