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In order for conversions of pagans, conversions to Christ, to be visibly genuine there had to be careful catechesis that was more than a short course to change their ideas; catechesis needed to be substantial enough and unhurried enough to effect changes in people's reflexes and lifestyles. Remember, ancient Greco-Roman intellectuals didn't value patients; the vast majority of the population were non-intellectuals for whom narratives and common sense had habituated them to be impatient. How would these dispositionly-trained impatient people be re-formed, re-shaped into patient people where their patience would be their Christian identity?

In many ways, it is the challenge of the church today and it's one reason why Reformed Catholicity, which is immediately and powerfully churchly in its form and context has much to commend itself for the fruitfulness of the church's mission in the world. Precisely in the ways the Reformed churches are unlike the world, the pagan world around us, which is most hurried, most impatient, and market-driven and materialist-driven, the church's Spiritual identity, Spiritual vocation, Spiritual calling in the world, [and] Pilgrim identity may find expression in patience. Catechesis becomes critically important.