Rend Your Heart, by Jan Richardson
Day 33: Place-Making and Contending for Shalom
“Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by.
And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’"
- Ezekiel 36:33-35
Today, we continue diving into the ideas around place-based shalom and the heart of God for his people.
Author Christie Purifoy wrote, ““We are created in the image of a place-making God who not only made the whole earth, but also carved out special places in it, like the Garden. When we understand that, we are living more fully and more wholly into who we were created to be originally – after all, our story begins in a garden!”
Our story does indeed begin in a garden, and it will continue eternally in the new creation. If it is possible for Eden and the new creation to somehow meet in the here-and-now, it just might be in and through the kind of “place-based, contending-for-shalom” work that we are called to as God’s image bearers today.
One such group doing that work is New Garden Farm, a ministry of Church of the Redeemer in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their mission is “to cultivate a ‘front porch’ farm where the parish, community, and the land are all nourished by the Gospel.” The description of their work includes space, land, God, generativity, and claiming what might be dismissed as "dead space:"
“God has been deeply faithful over the past several years, as we have transformed nearly an acre from gravel-covered wasteland into productive, intensively and sustainably farmed land.”
"Everyone has the right to live in a great place. More importantly, everyone has the right to contribute to making the place where they already live great."
– Fred Kent, founder of Project for Public Spaces, an organization dedicated to creating public places that foster communities
You may be wondering how a church-farm contends for shalom, or how it can nourish the community with the Gospel. New Garden Farm has four different areas of focus that together help these goals to be realized:
• they give away some of their food to the hungry, thereby engaging in the "true fasting" that God has chosen, ie Isaiah 58:7
• they sell some of their food to people in the community, thereby building relationships with those outside the church and providing them with healthy, locally grown foods
• they grow East African foods specifically because their city and church have a large East African refugee population, thereby welcoming the stranger and the "poor wanderer" of Isaiah 58:7
• they offer a training program that combines farming skills, discipleship, and income opportunities for East African refugees, thereby helping them to contend for shalom right where God has planted them
New Garden Farm is an example of a rich, holistic approach to community and place-based shalom that can serve as inspiration for us all. Watch the video below, and take hope – then ask yourself, is there a way for you to take action, too?
What are "dead spaces" in our city or in our community from which life, beauty, rest, and hope could sprout up? It requires time, sacrifice, diligence, discomfort, humility, and faith vision. We are invited into creativity with the Spirit such that those far from God might say "I am so glad those followers of Christ are here. It makes me wonder."