{"id":57278,"date":"1997-02-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1997-02-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/growing-saints-takes-time\/"},"modified":"1997-02-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1997-02-01T00:00:00","slug":"growing-saints-takes-time","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/growing-saints-takes-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Saints Takes Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The church should be a community of dates instead of pumpkins. Pumpkins you can harvest in six months. Dates have to be planted and tended by people who will not live to harvest them. Dates are for future generations.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3545,3609,3610,4042,4438,4696,5049,5159],"tax_ctp_topics":[378],"class_list":["post-57278","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-care-of-church","tax_ctp_tags-church-growth","tax_ctp_tags-church-health","tax_ctp_tags-generations","tax_ctp_tags-maturity","tax_ctp_tags-preparation","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-growth","tax_ctp_tags-time"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nGrowing Saints Takes Time - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/growing-saints-takes-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Growing Saints Takes Time - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The church should be a community of dates instead of pumpkins. 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