The following is a missionary analogy of a Coconut Tree:

 Tree with a Mission

                       Lessons from a Coconut Tree       

Have you noticed how most coconut trees grow along the shorelines and how many of them lean out over the water?  Have you ever wondered why the coconut tree produces so many bulky fruits?
 

A good look at the way God designed the coconut tree and its fruit quickly reveals a good reason for it growing near the seashore and for its unusual fruit.  A coconut with its tough and buoyant husk, its thick white layer of starchy meat, and its own self-contained water supply, is designed for long periods of floating in salt water.  When coconut trees grow near the seashore, ripe coconuts can easily fall, bounce, or roll into the sea.  For a time, ripe coconuts may accumulate on the shore but sooner or later a big wave will sweep many of them away.  This is the way the coconut has spread to countless islands and coastlands throughout the tropics.  We can see that the coconut tree is a tree created with its own mission – to spread to distant shores and islands where there have never been coconut trees before.
 

The coconut tree then is a good picture of what the Church should be like.  The Church has a mission, a mission of taking the Gospel, planting churches, and making disciples for Jesus throughout the whole world.  There are several lessons to learn from the coconut tree.
 

Firstly, a green coconut will not last a long sea voyage nor will it germinate if it does reach a new shore.  A coconut must be fully ripe before it is ready to make the long trip.  Those going as missionaries must be mature Christians well prepared and trained.
 

Secondly, if all coconuts fell to the ground and sprouted into trees underneath the parent tree, soon there would be many trees crowding each other.  They would grow into weak spindly trees unable to produce much fruit.  All their energy would be used in competing with the other trees for sunshine.  When a church concentrates all its energies in its home location, it too is in danger of becoming weak and inward looking.
 

Thirdly, the most beautiful coconut trees in the South Pacific are like those shown on many calendars – those that lean out over the water fulfilling their mission.  The church that is leaning out to the lost and unreached peoples of the world is also fulfilling its mission.
 

The example of the coconut tree shows us that the task is not complete until our own particular church itself is taking up the challenge of missions and reaching out to plant churches in other locations.  Only then is the circle of missions completed: the missionary comes, the church is planted, the church grows and matures, and becomes independent, and finally the church sends out its own missionaries.