Sow the seeds of 'Holy Health’ 

Sometimes you can be so close to issues, so involved with problems that have to get away to see them afresh. That’s why pastors from all around North Manchester, Indiana, learn about church growth, self-care and healthy congregational life at Pastor Jeffrey Hawkins’ organic farm.

Under a program Hawkins started in 2003, pastors from a number of denominations work on Hawkins’ farm one day a month. They practice organic, sustainable farming – where no pesticides or petro-fertilizers are used on plants and no antibiotics or hormones on livestock. Pastors learn that producing top-quality produce and protein takes time, patience and hard work.

Applied to the stewardship of their churches, pastors learn to focus on producing healthy congregations – led by healthy pastors and dedicated to developing healthy discipleship. It’s part of a philosophy Hawkins calls “Holy Health.”

For instance, take the common problem of boosting membership. Instead of turning to church-growth techniques and consultants - the ministry equivalents of farm chemicals and livestock drugs - pastors are inspired to work with slower-acting natural ingredients they likely already have or can develop in their congregations: deep relationships, attentive pastoral care, dedication, education and the talents of the laypeople.

Hawkins' ministry is called HOPE CSA, which stands for Hands-On Pastoral Education using Clergy-Sustaining Agriculture. (Check out the organization’s website!) It is enabling pastors to see their ministry in the context of God’s creation.

"It's helpful on the farm and in all of nature to see the big picture of the growth cycle,” Pastor Mark Sloss told The Lutheran magazine. “My role as pastor is to plant the seeds in good soil, not overtaxing it but doing what I can to help it stay rich and healthy, so the people of God might blossom in love and service."

While ruminating about the “Holy Health” model for congregations, pastors working on the farm find their own spirits restored.

"Sometimes churches can be just as high-pressured as the rest of society," Pastor Dennis Wenzel told The Associated Press. "If you don't have time to be at peace, how can you hear God's voice?"

-Rob Blezard, editor and webmaster

New This Week:

The narrative budget
Forget for the moment that most people don't understand how to read a line-item budget, the issue is how well a spreadsheet budget conveys your church's commitment to the Gospel to leaders and members alike. Most would agree it does a lousy job. An alternative may be a narrative budget, which puts the key figures into a form more friendly for churchgoers. Click here for a resource on the Narrative budget. >From the United Methodist Church's Center on Christian Stewardship.

God bless the volunteers

"Those of us who are running around busily trying to do more things than we really should anyway can get really resentful of giving some of our precious time to those who seem to have too much of it." Click here for the Rev. Dana Reardon's weekly column on stewardship.

20 Questions: How healthy are your money values? 
Here's a great tool congregations can use to help their members understand their financial stewardship. It's a friendly questionnaire to help families gauge how well they're balancing charitable giving, spending, saving and investing. Click here for the 20 Questions. From Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

First-mile, second-mile and third-mile giving