The rotten old tree

There is a big tree, bigger than all the other trees in the forest. However the other trees don't worry about it because it is dead- it doesn't take any water, it doesn't compete for sunlight, it's just dead wood. Consequently they keep growing, but they can never be as big as this other tree. They're stronger for sure, but not as big.

But then this big tree splits in two, right down the middle, and from the stump a little green shoot begins to sprout. It grows faster than is biologically possible, but it outgrows the last big tree and all the other trees in the forest die because this is sucking all the water and sunlight. They fall over at the base of the big tree.

The church is dead wood. It is bigger than almost any other organisation in the world- it is older and more engrained in culture than any other religion or institution. But it's dead, it is no threat to the other trees. But the structures will fall. The man made facade will die. And from within will shoot up an organism with real life- not just a church, but a kingdom. It will defy all the laws of growth, it will grow explosively and expansively, and then every knee will bow and every tongue will be forced to confess- Jesus is Lord.