Bamboo Driven Youth Ministry - The Next Big Thing (new blog post)

Bamboo trees are funny.  Not "ha ha" funny.  Strange, different sorts of plants funny.  You may already know this little tidbit of info, but I just discovered it.  Some types of giant bamboo trees have a unique growth pattern.  You plant the small seedling in the ground, and the first year, it doesn't do much.  You water it, care for it, make sure it's safe and has good soil.  Still, not much growth.
Year two rolls around, and all that hard work results in, well, nothing.  It's alive, but it just sits there.
Year three?  Bumpkis.  Nada.  Small, green little plant is sucking up nutrients and food, and your time, but not moving.
Surely in year four, it will take off.  Nope.
Year five?  Explosive growth!  Eighty to ninety feet in one year.  That little booger will take off and grow in visible ways everyday, until it reaches it's full height.
Now what if a bamboo farmer wasn't aware of this amazing pattern?  They'd give up, quit feeding and caring for the plants, and throw them out, or go find a new job.  It takes someone who has rasied bamboo to help them understand the patterns of growth so they can stay the course and see everything hit maturity.
Youth ministry is the same way.  Students will come, you'll pour into them, build into them, pray for them, feed them spiritually, feed them emotionally, feed them physically.  To what we see, nothing happens.  They sit there, green, and not growing. 
Eighth grade year?  Nothing.
Freshman?  Nothing.
Sophomore? Nada.
Junior Year?  Zilch
But then, sometimes in their senior year, sometimes in college, sometimes in their 20's, it will all take off.  Their faith becomes their own.  They begin serving locally and globally and God uses them in AMAZING ways.  The very kids you were CONVINCED would never become anything, they grow into beautiful, tall, strong trees.
Don't give up!  Don't stop.  I've been in this a few years.  I have former students in their 30's.  They will surprise you, I promise.  You do NOT know which ones God will use, I guarantee it.  His ways are not our ways, at all.  Be faithful to care for your little trees this week. 
Growth is coming. 
And it's amazing.