Ecclesial Agriculture [Fr. Tony Bleything]

The American church needs tree farmers in the city.

Want to know why?

Because when trees are planted the environment is sustained. Once trees are removed in order to make room for some other vegetation (i.e. corn), then the earth must be plowed to make it ready for planting. This process of plowing, planting, and harvesting leads to erosion of the soil. Depending on the area, this process of plowing, planting and picking can take place about ten times before the earth erodes, and once it erodes the only thing left is desert.

Crops fields make more sense according to the bottom line. If I plant corn in the spring, I can harvest it in the summer/fall and I can do it again next year. If I plant a walnut tree, I have to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait before I can harvest any walnuts. There’s no money in waiting.

American church planting has been in the business of crop farming not tree farming. We’ve been trained to think that planting churches is about producing fruit. And that fruit needs to come in the fastest way possible. How can we prove to our ‘investors’ that our call is legitimate if there is not fruit? But there is a cost to our plow and plant mentality, it’s destroying neighborhoods. Or maybe it’s not destroying our neighborhoods, it’s just making them look the same and eventually it will destroy the neighborhoods.

What if…what if. What if we were in the business of planting churches that looked more like trees? What if we aimed to plant churches that were planted and nurtured for years before they began to bear fruit? Churches that grew up into beautiful monuments and markers of the neighborhoods they inhabited, churches that helped to stop the erosion of our cities rather than contribute to it? Churches that provided safety, stability, beauty, and rest to the weary traveler?

The Kingdom of God is a like a mustard seed…