The Miracle of Acorn to Oak

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Few things get our attention as much as speed. We want the fastest computers, the fastest routes to work, the fastest ways to get rich, the fastest... well, everything.

This is why the fastest-growing churches get attention, but the slow and steady often do not. Or immediate healings through prayer, as opposed to slower healings through the hands of a doctor with the spiritual gift of healing through medicine. Or the “Saul” to “Paul” conversion stories, as opposed to those who take months to ask questions and explore, moving gradually to faith.

The point is that we often equate the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit with speed, rather than effect.

In truth, fast-growing churches are not always long-lasting success stories. They tend to be personality-centered, and when that personality has a trainwreck, flames out, or moves on, the “speed” ends.

There are also benefits to slow but steady growth. Roots have time to run deep, character is tested and refined, processes can be put in place that serve ever-increasing numbers, and efforts at discipleship have time to produce multi-generational leaders. There is much to be said for a church going through season after season of growth followed by consolidation.

The bottom line is that weeds grow fast; oak trees grow slowly. A typical grass weed lives for a single season, sprouting in the spring, dying in the fall. An oak tree can live for hundreds of years.

A now-retired pastor whom I respect greatly served faithfully at the helm for three-plus decades. He had been used by God to help build a great church.

He once told me that his church has never grown more than about a hundred or so people in average attendance a year. No big bursts, no breakout seasons, just a steady growth of about a hundred people, year after year.

But after 30 or more years, he retired from pastoring a church with more than 3,000 in average attendance. It continues to grow and thrive under its new leadership.

I believe that the founding leader should be honored. I believe the church he led is a church that leaders and church planters should learn from. I believe that his “slow-growing” church has been marked by an incredible moving of the Holy Spirit. But it was never “fast” enough to get attention and thus be seen as a great work of God.

But it was a great work of God.

It reminds me of a story about an Eastern king who asked one of his counselors to give him a sign of the wonderful, miraculous works of God.

So the counselor told the king to plant four acorns.

The king did, but then he fell asleep for 80 years.

When he awoke, he was amazed that the four acorns he had planted had (to him) instantaneously become four fully-grown trees. He thought a miracle had occurred because to him, it had only seemed like a moment.

Then the counselor told the king that, in truth, 80 years had gone by.

The king looked down and saw that he had grown old and that his clothes were in rags. “Then there is no miracle here,” he sadly said.

But then the counselor said, “That is where you are wrong. Whether accomplished in a moment or in 80 years, it is all God’s work. The miracle is not in the speed of its happening, but in the happening itself.”

And that would be true.

So let’s not always look to celebrate what happens in a year, but more deeply at what can happen over 10 years. The true, deep miracle of going from acorn to oak. Because the miracle of God’s work is not always in the speed of things happening,

… but rather the miracle of the happening itself.

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James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.