The Palatable Gospel

By Nic Paton:

There’s a meme that has been doing the rounds, and this is the charge, primarily from the detractors of emergent spirituality, that its followers are compromising the Gospel in their attempts to make it “more palatable” to the world. Take for example, these comments critiquing the emergent POV:

“the error … in the emergent church … [is] we become whatever the audience needs us to be in order to make the gospel palatable.” (Paul Edwards talking to John MacArthur)

“Their hope is to make Christianity more palatable to the world” (Marsha West)

There are a number of ideas inherent in statements such as these.

Firstly, there is an admission that the gospel as normally presented might not be that palatable. However instead of directing the question towards themselves, the detractors aim it at Emergents. Instead of asking “What is wrong with my gospel?” they would rather say “Your gospel is wrong.” It hardly needs to be said that this posture is a matter of the splinter in the eye of another obscuring the log in one’s own.

Then there is an assumption that Emergents (from their critic’s point of view) share the same “market space”, asking the same question but arriving at different answers. That the Emergents “bottom line” is selling tickets to heaven (and escaping hell). That they are part of the same framing story, but offer an alternative ending. That Emergents are using the same ingredients and cooking up a competing dish, instead of “Pizza Evangelista” they are offering “Pizza Emergente”.

The very use of the term “palatable” reveals an assumption that spirituality is but a matter of “taste”, and by extension, attractiveness, to a targeted demographic, within a marketing paradigm. But it can be argued that this very paradigm is what Jesus referred to when he said “You cannot serve two masters … you cannot serve both God and Mammon”. Marketing is a matter of Mammon, while the Enterprise of God is often about losing market share, being unpopular, perceiving the potential in small “mustard seed” beginnings, and forgoing worldly profit for the eternal reward of obeying God and loving the world.

To these detractors, Emergents are in competition for the market of “lost souls”, vying to retain a Christian following in a culture in decline. But that Emergents are doing it wrong — in giving up the Evangelical, Modern worldview, they have in effect rendered this gospel null and void. There is often very little appreciation amongst these voices that perhaps Emergents have a different vision of God and Gods purposes, and that is why the meal they serve tastes so fundamentally different. Rather than simply sweetening an essentially bitter pill, this vision might involve an altogether different understanding.

In saying “You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth” [Matthew 5, The Message] it becomes apparent that God sees palatability not as compromise or unfaithfulness, but as a good and natural thing. To believe that that which is true must therefore be tasteless, unpleasant, unimaginative, gauche or dowdy is to deeply misunderstand the Lords Pleasure. It might be said that the call of the Gospel is to do the very thing that Anti-Emergents accuse us Emergents of: to allow by our worship of God, and our presence in Her Kitchen of Mission, the natural aromas of the creation to be savored and enjoyed by all.

Another problematic assumption of the “more palatable” critique is the notion that “My presentation of the meal of truth is the only way it can be served. To serve the meal differently is to abandon truth”. “My truth” becomes synonymous with “The Truth”, rather than a view on Truth. This pernicious fantasy of modernity, an excessive overconfidence in our ability to perceive the absolute, is something that remains a stumbling block in creating a Christian spirituality that can take us forward beyond the decaying carcass of Christendom.

As we have seen, the question of hypocrisy must be asked. What if those who accuse Emergents of compromise are themselves the compromisers? What if the charge that we are merely “making the gospel more palatable to our generation” is exactly what some evangelicals, fundamentalists, or Anti-Emergent’s, are doing?

To those who prefer declaration over conversation, absolutes over contextualised truth, the literal over the metaphorical, the rational over the mystical, the individual over community, the conservative over the creative, the historical over the cosmic, I ask:

Is your gospel of an ideal, absolute, holy, perfect (and punitive) God not simply pandering to the tastes of a generation who prefers individualised salvation, unsustainable material prosperity, a way of life which continues to violate the already disenfranchised, passive consumption over creativity, and continued exclusivism at odds with the loving, embracing God of Grace?

Instead of Emergent’s diluting and compromising truth, perhaps it is the modernist understanding which is doing just that; allied with the World system, the Modernist gospel is becoming discredited: as spiritual food it is as best stale, and at worst, putrid.

Yeuch; enough already. Pass the salt, please.

“Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the feast!”

Photo by Tom Leuntjens

Nic Paton—Postmodern Liturgist, multi-instrumentalist, VJ, and scullery theologian—lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and contributes to Emerging Africa.

How to Be a Spiritual Person

By Christine Sine:

I have been thinking a lot lately about what kinds of practices I need in my life in order to consider myself a spiritual person. It all began when I posted reflections on my blog a a few months ago on What is a Spiritual Practice? and Reimagining our Spiritual Practices. I asked people about how they connected to God and what practices most renewed their faith.

The responses to these posts were astounding. Most did not mention prayer or Bible study. It seems that most people encounter and connect to God not through their daily Bible reading or through going to church, but through either nature or the ordinary every day activities that fill their days.

Of course this is not an empirical study, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that most people encounter God much more powerfully when they are walking through the forest or when they are sitting at their work desk struggling with a problem than they do when reading the Bible. Parents see God reflected in the faces of their children, and aid workers see God reflected in the pain and the suffering of the destitute and the homeless. One person even talked about encountering God in the midst of “lostness” when we feel far away from friends, family, and the God we believe in. In this kind of faith, prayer is more likely to be a few words of blessing or a spontaneous word of appeal to God for the conditions that tear our heart apart than it is to be a half hour spent in intercession each week.

What this makes me aware of is that most Christian leaders and pastors are not good at helping followers of Christ interpret these encounters in the light of the gospel story and the Bible message. Neither are we good at enabling others to recognize these events as an important part of their faith walk that need to be both encouraged and nurtured.

I think that it is time for us to redefine what we mean by a spiritual practice or discipline. I am beginning to recognize that a spiritual practice is any activity we perform on a regular basis that connects us more intimately to God and to God’s purposes for us.

When we only view spiritual practices as prayer and Bible study, we really do divorce ourselves from the many encounters with God that occur throughout the day, and we make it very difficult for those around us to fully enter into the gospel story as it is reflected in their daily lives. We talk about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, but the only place that we enable others to encounter that reality is when they go to church or read the Bible. Which reminded me of a comment someone made to me years ago that I have never forgotten: Don’t you think that pastors and church leaders are preparing us to live in the world they inhabit not the world that most of us live in?

I think that this statement has a great deal of truth to it, and the ways that we practice our faith and teach others to practice faith really reflects it. I wonder, are we blind to the spirituality of the world around us because we live in a world of sermon preparation and book writing, in which life seems to revolve around scripture, prayer, and the reading of books?

Over the summer I will be posting several blog posts on “What is a spiritual practice?” I have already started this series with posts on The Spiritual Practice of Taking a Shower and Is Breathing a Spiritual Practice. I have also enlisted the services of a number of friends to join me in this enterprise. I already have bloggers signed up to write about their experiences of God in everyday activities including parenting, cooking, and walking.

One of the concerning trends in Christian faith today is that many sincere people of faith are disconnecting from the church, and I suspect that our lack of ability to help them connect their spiritual practices to the everyday world in which they live is one of the reasons. So this post is also an invitation. If you would be interested in participating in this summer learning party by writing a guest post for my blog Godspace please let me know. We all need to learn more of what it means to be spiritual people and how to practice our faith 24/7 in ways that connect to the world we live in and the cultures that we are a part of. I hope that you will join us in exploring ways to deepen your faith through everyday encounters and share ideas that can help others deepen their faith too.

Photo by tread

Christine Sine is co-founder (along with her husband Tom) of Mustard Seed Associates, a passionate organic gardener, and a contemplative activist.

How Churches Are Like Record Labels and Newspapers

By Fernando Gros, re-posted from Fernando’s Desk:

Neo-Baptist has fast become one of my favourite blogs for challenging and intelligent commentary on churchy stuff. In recent months the blog has rally found it’s voice in terms of humour, criticism and encouragement.

Today’s post, on Learning To Love Generation F, really got me thinking. The point really isn’t about Facebook, per se, but rather about how online “community” is challenging our assumptions about real world community.

For a long time I was a critic of what I saw of local (Baptist) church culture because it reflected and to a large extent aped, the corporate world. However, that’s something of a historical anecdote, but the corporate world today has, in many ways moved well beyond what we see in churches, with a lot of business leaders exhibiting a greater sense of the importance of relationships, self-reflection, education and critical thought.

I’m not saying that everybody’s working life is a haven of human flourishing, but many workplaces embody a culture of openness and collaboration that for sheer scope of freedom put our so called “free” churches to shame.

The 12 work-relevant characteristics of online life that are cited just highlight that. Consider, for example,

Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
Resources get attracted, not allocated.
Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
Intrinsic rewards matter most.

For a long time I was puzzled by the way some church leaders reacted to the Web and social media. There was a rush to dismiss websites and then blogs and even the compliments handed out to online communities were backhanded. At first I thought it was simply because these media allowed alternative voices to be heard and present themselves as challenges to the status quo.

Now I wonder if these new media, present a more fundamental challenge not just to power structures within church life but to the core of some kinds of ecclesiology.

Increasingly I’ve come to wonder if churches are, to some extent, analogous to record labels and newspapers. The latter two business built their limited resources and high barriers to wealth; printing newspapers and promoting hit records is an expensive game. But, the Craigslist, blogs, DAWs and MySpace have become deal-breakers — especially if you don’t lay awake at night dreaming of wealth and a home in the Caribbean. Both record labels and newspapers created wealth through the way a resource problem was answered and structured. You needed a label to get your music out, now you don’t. You needed a newspaper to create a PR buzz or post a classified, now you don’t.

This truly is a blessed time for those for whom doing is a reward in and of itself, regardless of the rewards. The way of doing for the “ordinary” person has changed, if they are really focused first on the doing.

How does this relate to church? Forgive me for waxing economical, but to me church is a kind of resource problem (or collective action problem). We “do” church because there are things a Christian just can’t “do” by themselves. In a way, ecclesiological power was like the power of the record label or newspaper in time when access to theological education and resources was scarce and expensive. A lot of theological education is still built on that model today (Matt Stone has been blogging on this topic lately).

There was a time where possession of a Bachelor of Theology degree put your near the top of the educated within a western society. But, today it is usually very unlikely that a pastor would be anywhere near being the most educated person in their congregation in most churches. Moreover, the explosion of christian publishing means that theological resources are more available than at any time in the history of the church. And, it doesn’t stop there, the possibilities for mentoring, retreats and spiritual direction are no longer confined to clergy and their professional development.

Which brings us back to the online thing. The open, flat, collaborative, fluid dynamic that marks out online culture is a place that problematises a lot of the assumptions that feed the church-as-answer-to-scarce-resources model. Put simply, we no longer need that kind of church or the denominational structures that were built to support it. If anything, that kind of church is becoming more and more repulsive to people of my generation and will be totally alien to digital natives.

That’s not to say that there are no more collective action and resource problems because there are. But, they have largely changed from problems of access to problems of choice. Or, to put it another way, the economics have shifted from a problem of scarcity to a problem of abundance.

We still need wisdom and to some extent leadership. But, there’s no question we need a different kind of church, different habits and to be blunt, different leaders.

Photo by Kathleen Bennett

Fernando Gros is a writer and musician, living in Hong Kong. A former pastor, chaplain, banker, and pizza maker, he blogs on issues on faith and globalisation.

Input Needed: Help Describe the ‘Emergent Village’

By Tripp Fuller, re-posted from Homebrewed Christianity:

While those of us who identify with the emerging conversation are generally taken back when people ask us if we are a denomination, The Handbook of Denominations is going to include the Emergent Village in its upcoming edition. Its editor is a former professor, blogger, author, friend, and really sweet podcast guest and would appreciate your feedback to the current draft. Without further ado Deacon Atwood will take over …

The Handbook of Denominations is a reference guide to the Abrahamic religious bodies in America today. In the 2010 edition I want to include an entry for the emergent church. Unfortunately, space is limited, and the tone has to be relatively neutral. Here’s a draft of what I have composed for the Emergent Village entry, which will have to cover the entire Emergent movement. If anyone has a reasonable estimate for number of emergent churches and number of participants, it would be helpful.
EMERGENT VILLAGE
Founded: 2001
Membership: statistics not available

The emergent church movement is one of the most creative responses to the challenges that all religious communities face in contemporary America. By the end of the twentieth century there was ample evidence that American society had entered a “post-Christian” period, meaning that traditional Christian institutions were losing relevance outside their own structures. Instead of reacting negatively to this development, emergent (or emerging) churches embrace a future that is open-ended. They believe that the Christian communities must be open to a radical transformation of individuals and society. Drawing on “post-modern” philosophy and literary theory, Brian McLaren and others in the late twentieth century started calling for the dismantling of imperialistic Christianity (Christendom), particularly those church structures that impede faithful living.

Emergent churches reject modern bureaucracies and prefer to build cohorts and virtual communities, of which McLaren’s Emergent Village is a prominent example. It relies heavily on internet networking (podcasts, blogs, etc.) and conversation to build relationships across theological and social divides. Rather than defending the crumbling ramparts of denominational identity, emergent churches encourage congregations to create their own eclectic collage from the rich resources of the Christian past. Sometimes called the Ancient-Future church, emergent churches blend various Christian traditions with modern music and visual presentations.

The emergent movement has many similarities to the Pietist* movement of the early Enlightenment in that the participants generally avoid the type of doctrinal polemics that have caused so many schisms in the history of Christianity. Emergent churches avoid drafting doctrinal statements or creeds, often noting that “Jesus did not have a statement of faith. They advocate for a “generous Orthodox” that encourages conversation among different types of Christians. According to one emergent theologian: “The writers of the New Testament were not obsessed with finding a final set of propositions the assent to which marks off true believers.” Instead of fearing or attacking post-modernity’s rejection of objectivity and absolutism, emergent churches seek to rediscover the transformative power of Biblical and liturgical narrative.

Unlike liberalism, which simply rejects those elements of Christian doctrine that are inconsistent with a modern scientific worldview, post-modern (or post-liberal) emergent thinkers draw heavily on the Christian tradition, especially the mystical dimensions of faith. Unlike conservatism, they draw on the wisdom of the past without feeling the need to defend obsolete views of nature. In general, emergent churches do not reject the discoveries of modern science, but they do use post-modern theory to critique scientism or any other rationalistic ideology that undermines humane values and spirituality.

Emergent churches also encourage the deconstruction of dogma and ecclesiastical structures to uncover ways in which Christian symbols have been coopted by the powerful to oppress the weak. Unlike many evangelical churches, emergent churches often draw upon feminist and liberation theology without rejecting the basic evangelical call for personal conversion. Emergent churches see the contemporary marginalization of Christianity as a way for Christians to reclaim Jesus’ vision of a servant people living by faith.

Several emergent communities have adopted “missional living,” which means that the focus of life together is active engagement in service rather than merely meeting for worship and prayer. Shaine Clairborne’s Potter Street Community in Philaldelphia is a famous example of the “new monasticism” of the emergent church that was inspired by the writings and preaching of sociologist Tony Campolo. Emergent church leaders claim that Protestants and Catholics tend to miss the point of Christianity, which is found in Jesus’ teaching and example. As such, they tend to be critics of market capitalism and actively promote peacemaking as a central mark of faithfulness to the Good News of Jesus.

Note: Be sure to leave your comments over on Tripp’s blog!

Tripp Fuller is a Baptimergent, tag-team minister with his wife Alecia, proud father of Elgin, PhD student at Claremont, and co-host of Homebrewed Christianity.

Where In the World is the Church Emerging?

By Mike Clawson, re-posted from Emerging Pensees:

Even as debate erupts across the blogosphere about whether Emergent is fizzling as a movement, those of us still committed to the friendships and ideas we’ve found here are going ahead with ideas for how to keep the ball rolling and continue to get more and more people connected with the conversation. A few days ago I posted a question here at my blog and at the Emergent Village Cohort Leaders Google Group about what Emergent Village could do to help emergent-leaning folks in rural areas get connected with one another and with the broader emerging conversation, whether through cohorts or other means. The ensuing discussion was very productive, and has resulted in a project to create a comprehensive google map of what’s going on in the Emergent Village world.

In keeping with Emergent Village’s desire to be a network of emerging people and communities, the goal with this map will be to create a resource to help network folks with what is going on in their own local area, or help them start something new if there isn’t anything already. This will include existing cohorts, as well as any “emerging churches” who don’t mind being listed on the Emergent Village website.* The map will also include individuals who are interested in being a part of a cohort, but don’t currently have one near them. Our hope is that as more people add themselves to this map, it will become a lot easier for them to find one another and start new cohorts.

We’ve decided to start by open-sourcing this map, basically letting anyone and everyone who wants to add themselves or their faith community – no gatekeepers or approval system, though those of us in the cohort network will help make sure it stays free of trolls. We’ll start passing the link to the map around through blogs/Twitter/Facebook, etc. (that’s where you come in :) and inviting folks to add their churches and cohorts (or themselves if they’re not yet part of one and want to be). Hopefully it will snowball, and in a few weeks or months we’ll have a thorough and exciting map of what is going on and where. How cool will it be to be able to see just how much this conversation has grown in the past decade!

So here’s the link again. I hope you’ll help us create this thing!

*Of course we realize that there may be emerging ministries out there who do not wish to be “affiliated” with Emergent Village in any official way, for any variety of reasons, even if just on a google map. Nonetheless, those of us in the Emergent Village are happy to partner with any faith community that doesn’t mind calling itself a “friend of Emergent Village,” and hope that many communities will choose to add themselves to our map.

Mike Clawson is a follower of the way of Christ, a “postmodern” Christian, an amateur theologian/ philosopher, a husband, a father, a student, a friend …

Here's My Enthusiasm For Emergent

If you are waning in your enthusiasm for Emergent, I get it. Sometimes things don’t quite work out like we want them. I too have had my moments when I just wanted to walk away from the conversation. I too have wondered if the movement is dead. There have been days when my emotions have gotten the best of me, when I have asked myself, “It would be so much easier to walk away, wouldn’t it?”

So many good voices have shared the real and raw emotions of this process. Good stuff. If you need to get up to speed, here’s a primer. Nick got honest that he was disappointed. Jonny asked what are you disappointed in? Makeesha got pissed and then got honest too. Julie agreed but then didn’t. Josh said the church is dead. Drew said Emergent wasn’t even a movement. And then Tony absolutely threw down in his honest response. Matt questioned the who is in and who is out stance? And Jonathan got all practical and wise. ;-P James waxed poetic. And then Nick got to really share his heart to Zach Lind.

Whew! Sounds like a cohort.

Welcome to the real world people. It’s messy and ugly sometimes. We don’t have it all figured out. We don’t have a neat little package ready to sell. Those who call themselves Emergent are human just like the rest of the world. And yet, I can imagine there were so many dialogs just like this in ANY historical movement. Moments when someone from the outside was saying, “Look! They’re fighting each other now. They are SO done.”

To which I would say, “No.” This is our moment of clarity. This is the moment in the room when everyone is standing back, just waiting for everyone to give up so they can say, “See. All talk and no action. We knew it was all just a hoax.” This is the moment when the glamour has worn off, the book deals have faded, and everyone is faced with the question of, “Do we still believe.”

I do.

And here’s why. Emergence isn’t a fad that requires me. It’s not something that I can control. It’s something I can only participate in. It’s happening whether I like it or not. It’s unwieldy and chaotic. It goes here when I want to go there. It makes me wait when I don’t want to, and calls me when I’m busy. Kind of like the Holy Spirit. And it is in these moments that my own intentions are questioned. And I don’t like that. Who does?

True change doesn’t happen over night and when it’s easy. It happens over time and when it’s really, really hard. It deepens the moment the superficial reasons have faded. And it continues because our hearts are still being tugged along by the simple idea that following Jesus is meant to be so much more than what we’ve known. That is the reason to continue.

Thankfully I have found that I don’t have to be the participant in every question and conversation. Just the one’s I am already participating in. I don’t have to have all the answers, or perfect theology. Jesus does that for me. I really just have to be willing to listen, to help those around me discover why Emergent captured my heart and imagination, and to tell the stories that moved my heart. I just have to tell why it gave me permission to discover a more wholistic faith, why it allowed me to discover Jesus in the margins, and in the mission, and in the conversation of love.

So if your enthusiasm is waning for Emergent, for what it’s worth take some of mine. Sometimes we need to steal a little enthusiasm from those around us. It reminds us that we’re human, and that the conversation is best enjoyed in the company of fellow travelers. It’s part of the journey.

I can’t help but think that in ten years, we’ll all look back on June 2009 and say, “Remember the low points? Remember when we just didn’t want to continue … and we did. Those we’re sure good times.”

Jonathan Brink is Managing Director of Thrive Ministries, a missional discipleship agency. He lives in California with his wife and three kids.

Preparing for Amahoro Africa, June 8-15

By Mike Todd:

I’ve arrived in South Africa in anticipation of the Amahoro Gathering, which starts Monday night. Between now and then I’m hanging out with my friend Tom Smith and his family.

The theme of the Gathering this year is The African Reformation:

The missiologist Andrew Walls has long argued that the West has entered a post-Christendom era and that world Christianity is entering a post-Western era. Many are looking to Africa, the cradle of humanity (and to Asia and South America), for the emergence of a reformed and renewed paradigm in Christian thinking and practice. It is time for emerging Christian leaders in Africa to give voice to what is being birthed — not so much to give answers, craft doctrines, or create structures — but to ask the difficult questions and grapple with the very real challenges of interpreting the gospel in a truly African way and establishing God’s Kingdom in a still fractured continent.

However, in a globalized world where we are only as human as our interdependent bonds with those on other continents, this is not a conversation that can take place in isolation. North and South, East and West, we need each other.

This is most certainly a spiritual calling but it is equally a social, political and economic one. Everything must change.

This is the unique space of dialogue and engagement that Amahoro Africa will once again host at its annual gathering in June 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Let me try and tell you why I’m here:

• I am here because I love Africa.


• I am here because God’s church needs reformation—at home, in Africa, everywhere.


• I am here because I love the work that Claude, Kelley, and the team at Amahoro are doing on behalf of our African sisters and brothers, our Africa neighbours.


• I am here because I believe that Africa will someday save the west. As a resident of the west I’m here to contribute in any way I can to that eventuality.


• As I said to Tom in the car this morning after he picked me up at the airport, I come to Africa to stay sane. I go home to bang my head against a brick wall.

Photo courtesy of Mike Todd

Mike Todd and his wife Sue live in community in Delta, British Columbia, where they’re trying to figure out what it means to be an apprentice of Jesus.

To Garden with God

By Christine Sine:

Over the last few years I have become a passionate gardener and so have been intrigued by the growing interest in gardening, particularly vegetable gardening that has been one of the widespread responses to the recession. A growing number of churches seem to be converting their green lawns into vegetable gardens. Even Michelle Obama is planting an organic vegetable garden at the White House.

I am particularly intrigued by what Stephen Bartlett is doing in Louisville, Kentucky. Like me, he has a passion to help people discover not just the joy of gardening but also the wonderful lessons that we have to learn about our awesome God in the midst of the garden. “Soil is miraculous,” he says. “The amount of thriving life and myriad interactions between the life in just one handful of soil is beyond the human capacity to understand.” (Read the entire article)

I find Stephen’s approach refreshing because I believe that this current trend for vegetable gardens will not survive beyond the current crisis unless we develop a theology that not only recognizes God as the master gardener but that encourages us to learn about God from our gardens and connect to God through our gardening.

Genesis tells us that God created Adam and Eve and placed them, not in a wilderness but in a garden “to work it and take care of it.” Even more intriguingly, we learn that God walked in the Garden of Eden with them. This doesn’t surprise me because I always feel that God still walks in the garden with me today. Celtic Christians believed that creation was translucent—the glory of God shone through it, and monasteries first planted gardens in an attempt to recapture something of the garden of Eden. The garden is alive with lessons about God’s love and faithfulness and generosity. How easily we take for granted the rhythms of the seasons that sustain and nourish all of life and rarely give a word of thanks to the God who has ordained these patterns.

I started gardening because Tom and I wanted to produce some of our own vegetables, and in Seattle a garden is not quite a garden without a couple of tomato plants. However my passion for gardening grew as I started to unearth the many lessons to be learned from the garden and began to discover, like the Celts and monks have long before me, that the glory of God was revealed through all that I was doing.

I recently held my second Spirituality of Gardening seminar—something that even six months ago I never thought would become a part of my ministry. At the same time I have put together an e-book on reflections, prayers and garden techniques from my 15 years of gardening called Gardening with God. Working on this book of reflections has been a really fun project even though it has added more pressure to my life than I like. Over the years I have thought a lot about where and when I encounter God in the garden but it is really only as I sat down to write that I was inspired and awed by how wonderfully God was revealed through all I saw and did.

I am intrigued by how much of what I do in the garden is a metaphor for life and what God is doing in my life — from the planting of seeds to the producing of compost the garden is an incredible assurance of the faithfulness of a loving, caring God who is intimately involved in all we are and do.

I read about the resurrection in the Bible, I experience it every time I plant a seed and watch it burst into new life. I read about God’s generosity, but I experience it every summer when the garden overwhelms me with 200 lbs of tomatoes. And I believe that God wants us to live sustainably, but I am convinced of it when I pull a 100 lb of squash from my plants and there is no hole in the soil to show where it has drawn its nourishment from. God’s methods of production are all sustainable and renewable.

There is another dimension however that I am just starting to discover what orthodox Christians have known for centuries — the sacramental nature of gardening. In his delightful little book Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening, Vigen Guroian shares his own reflections as an Armenian orthodox Christian. As I read his book, I wondered how differently would we view God’s creation and our faith if each time we planted a seed we entered into an experience of the death and resurrection of Christ. And what about if we saw the watering of the garden as a partaking in the baptism of Christ after all each time we water it does bring new life to the plants we are tending.

The Bible uses so many garden and farming metaphors — from the parable of the sower and the separating of the tares and the wheat to the imagery of the harvest. We are all impacted by these but rarely understand their significance. Gardening teaches us to live in more relaxed and sustaining way. It connects us to the very heart of God our creator and also to the ways of Christ our redeemer who is constantly planting, pruning, fertilizing, and growing our lives into the ways of the kingdom.

This does not mean that everyone needs to become a gardener, but I do think it means that all of us need to take the time to reconnect to the God revealed through creation. In the midst I think that many of us will discover new depths to the love of God that we never knew existed. Maybe all of us need to enter more fully into the story of God as it is revealed in the created world around us. Why not meditate on this verse from Isaiah 45:8 as a start:

Christine Sine is co-founder (along with her husband Tom) of Mustard Seed Associates, a passionate organic gardener, and a contemplative activist.