When the Seed Suddenly Becomes a Tree

Jesus put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 

— Matthew 13:31-32 (ESV)

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“Dad, we're gonna grow a tree.” 

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It was a declaration, not a question, from my (then) six-year-old daughter as she struggled to fish something out of her pocket. She was looking for — and eventually found — a tiny seed that had been given to her by her kindergarten teacher. 

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We grabbed a flowering pot, filled it with soil from a half-used bag that was sitting in the corner of the garage, burrowed the seed deep into the loam, watered it, and placed the little pot in a sunny spot on our back lanai. 

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The next morning, my daughter jumped out of bed far earlier than usual and ran to the lanai to peek in on any progress, only to return red-faced and border-line petulant: “There's. no. TREE!”

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I laughed.  

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There was also a bit of a hitch in my soul.

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I was knee-deep in ministering to a tiny church that was stumbling and sputtering along — and this after having ministered to a tiny church plant that never grew much past, oh, 50 adults at best. 

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Pretty much every ministry work I’ve been drawn to (or into) has been a stumbling, sputtering thing, and for every one of them, right at the start — in my own way and words — I prayed, “Dad, we’re gonna grow a tree.” 

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And every morning found me red-faced and border-line petulant: “There's. no. TREE!”

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The steady stream of articles that are shoved in your face — “Top 25 Fastest-Growing Churches in America!” — can stir illogical expectations about growth and reach that mirror a six-year-old's expectations for a seed that’s been barely buried for 12 hours. 

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But to be fair, a roughshod reading of Jesus’s parable from Matthew 13 can do the same. 

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The story jumps so quickly from seed to sapling to something that resembles a great yawning oak that you can easily lose all sense of time. 

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More often than not, kingdom work is a long-game work. 

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Stuff doesn’t just “spring up” overnight. 

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But then sometimes...

During the final session of this year’s ChosenCon, a dear friend of mine who works with 5&2 said, “It’s amazing we get to be a part of this.” Knowing him as I know him, I know he wasn’t just talking about me (and my work with Come & See) and him (and his work with 5&2); he was talking about everyone in the room. 

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He was talking about all the Chosen fans around the world who have offered gifts and prayers. 

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He was talking about you.

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We get to be a part of this. 

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And the “this” we get to be a part of is not normal. 

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I can attest to that personally. (I already have.)             

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The short-order growth and reach of The Chosen is staggering. 

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How has the seed of “The Shepherd” grown to a sapling — and then right on into something like a great yawning oak this fast?! 

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It actually sends me off to another parable, this one in Mark’s gospel (4:26-29), in which a plant just grows and grows, and the man who planted its seed “knew not how.” 

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When I was approached about writing something for the blog, I didn’t know where the assignment would take me. Where it led me was into a season of simple, prayerful thanksgiving for getting to be a part of this. 

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I’m convinced that in due time, the stumbling, sputtering seeds of past ministries will absolutely continue to grow into something like great yawning oaks. 

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I am. 

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But I confess, it’s been pretty fun to be a part of something so staggeringly abnormal in growth and reach. It’s actually been quite the apologetic for God and an unstoppable kingdom that even the Gates of Death will not prevail against. 

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My invitation is a pretty simple one, two-fold in nature: join me in giving thanks to God for allowing us to be a part of something so special — and then let’s ask Him to do even more, as only He can.