I have a tendency towards impatience. I love seeing things grow and change, but find the wait intolerable.

I'm the kind of backyard tradie who paints a wall, and then applies the second coat too early. When I cook I read the instruction to "let the marinaded meat sit in the refrigerator for two hours" as an unnecessary step in the recipe.

Yet, when it comes to seeing young people grow, I'm strangely patient. It goes against every bone in my body to wait and let things mature properly, yet I'm content to see slow and steady growth in the lives of youth and children.

Over many years I have been invited by youth leaders and ministers to help them ‘fast-track’ the growth of their youth group.

Often, under pressure from the senior minister and parents, a church seeks a quick solution to grow a small youth group.

Yet, when a church implements a fast-tracked path to youth ministry growth it nearly always ends up like my un-marinaded food. It looks good on the outside. But it has failed on the inside.

In my church, our youth ministry is unspectacular. In comparison to the youth groups in many of the churches in our region, ours seems small and insignificant. The ministry that our youth leaders deliver week by week is excellent. But it's small in size. At present, if every teenager turns up at once, we might get around ten or so youths.

Yet, a big change is set to happen to our youth group in only a few years. Currently, in year five, we have close to 15 kids. Every year below has similar numbers.

If I want a large youth group at my church, then I need to be patient.

By the start of 2011, our youth group will double overnight with keen kids, eager to learn and serve. This is simply because the year five kids have grown up and graduated to youth group. A year later, it will grow by another 15 with the current year four kids, making the group 40-strong, even if no new people arrive. By 2016, our youth group will have 100 people, if only the kids from our children's ministry keep flowing through, and keep coming along.

But, if each kid brings along one new friend per year, and that new friend then brings along one new friend in twelve months' time, and so on as the pattern continues, our humble youth group will have grown from ten kids in 2010 to three thousand, one hundred and seventy kids in 2016.

This is why we've employed a full-time children's minister, not a youth minister. Very soon we're going to need a full-time youth minister. And, if the numbers grow exponentially, then we'll need a few more youth ministers in years to come. Plus, if those new youth group kids bring along their families, then we might need more children's ministers on team within a few years, too!

How have you planing for growth in your youth and children's ministry?