Posted 5 days ago
A Wild Imagination
Scott Deerwester & Andy Wade
We are facing an enormous challenge in the coming decade. The growing degradation of soil and water requires all of us to imagine new ways to grow our food that is more sustainable and to steward God’s creation more responsibly. The Wildcat Center is one example of a small group of Christians who have begun that journey.
The Wildcat Center, located in rural Carroll County, Indiana, sprouted in the imagination of Scott Deerwester after years of living in Asia, serving those living in extreme poverty there and in Africa, and later returning to rural Indiana in 2007. Scott reflects, “We had questions, lots of questions. Questions like, ‘What does the Kingdom of God look like with boots on?’” Theological foundations are essential: so is putting on boots and walking it out through creative application.
“‘Alternative‘” is a big word around the center” Scott says, “We’re all about ‘alternative crops, energy, computing, and economy’. The Center exists because we believe there is a better way to a lot of what we see around us, and we’re committed to exploring it, living it, and passing it on. We’re interested in new, imaginative ways of doing things for a variety of reasons.”
One reason is that what’s already out there isn’t working very well. Lots of people are hungry, poor and in debt, and unempowered to take their place in healthy, wholesome communities. We think that it’s very possible to do something about that.
Another reason is that the world has become a pretty scary place that shows every sign of getting even scarier. If even a small number of the crises that we read about every day – economic collapse, environmental disaster, global pandemics, climate change – actually hit, the way people meet their needs and live their lives today doesn’t do much to prepare for the sort of world that we’re moving into in the coming decade. We think that it’s possible to do a lot better.
Finally, we’ve looked at the lives and fruit of people who think, build and play in these areas. There are a lot of effective and creative responses happening and we’re not content to see their accomplishments sit in a corner, without broader impact on the lives of people who most need it. We believe in “getting real” about offering alternatives.
Here are some examples of what we’re doing at The Wildcat Center that, although sometimes simple steps, directly address the issues of food justice, sustainability, and security.
Our greenhouse, planned for this summer, extends the old-fashioned “hot bed”. Built four feet below ground level, with a trench eight feet deep along the south edge, the passive solar
earth sheltered greenhouse should give us a nine month growing season and a twelve month harvest. This is important because our world’s current method of mass-producing food and shipping it long distances is expensive, environmentally unfriendly, and often built on the backs of underpaid and even slave labor. Even if you don’t have room for such a greenhouse, the ideas we’re experimenting with will hopefully provide creative, “boots on” lessons for local growers you can support who are also utilizing just and sustainable practices.1. Can you think of any “old-fashioned” methods that can be adapted and/or updated to provide better sources of food security and/or sustainable methods for producing both just and healthy crops for you and your community?
In the Philippines, the most common fertilizer is chicken manure. Driving down the road, you’ll see the occasional truck full of the stuff, smelling, for all the world, like a load of burnt chocolate. Our plan for this year is to buy tons of chicken manure from a local egg farm instead of commercial fertilizer. Even with the trucking, the cost is much less than standard alternatives, and the results are much more gentle on the land.
2. What are some alternative sources of fertilizer you might tap into instead of using chemicals that damage the long-term productivity of the soil?
Awakening one day to the sound of chainsaws, I hurried out of the house to find the source of the sound. On the far corner of the property, a bright yellow truck was parked, with a crew cutting limbs away from power lines. The back of the truck housed an enormous wood chipper, where the crew would turn tons of trimmed branches into tons of wood chips. As we heat with wood, I asked if they ever had firewood to give away. Their counterproposal took me back a few steps. They asked how many tons of wood chips I could use. Not altogether sure why, I agreed to let them dump several tons in an open area near our pole barn. Over the course of the following summer, the wood chips turned into:
Footpaths through the garden
Initial experiments in making biochar
The beginnings of a plan to develop a network of walking paths throughout the property and we’re still discovering more uses!
Our garden turned into a showpiece, made with things that, before we used them there, had no value to anyone. The wood chips are one of many examples. Rocks plucked out of the field, where they serve only to put chips in disk blades, turn into foundations for cabins and beautiful borders that keep the grass out of the garden. Weeds in the woods, like garlic mustard and stinging nettle, end up delighting dinner guests. Leaves that the Japanese beetles ate turn into lace that rivals anything from Belgium.
We can become overwhelmed with the food and environmental needs around the world. Often the first steps forward are baby steps that break us free from the captivity of “the way things are” into the imaginative future of “the way God desires things to be.” Salvaging wood chips from the dump pile may not seem all that imaginative, but it’s a simple step that relieves stress on the city landfill and pushes us to think more creatively about the many ways this common waste product could be used.
3. What are some specific steps you can make today to “turn garbage into gold” and encourage sustainable environmental practices?
These are all simple things we’re experimenting with at the Wildcat Center. Not all of what you and I do needs to be “earth-shattering” in magnitude. What we need to do is to begin, today, to find sustainable alternatives to the ways things have been done, to share those experiences, and to help others venture into a new way of being and doing. This sharing of ideas and resources will become even more crucial as the coming decade wears on and we discover the issues of food justice, sustainability, and security become key issues in our turbulent world.
We are also experimenting with “bigger Things”, things we hope can help those living in poorer countries faced with drought and often forced to grow trade-protected seeds. Biochar is a prime example. Ancient South America had a practice of turning agricultural waste (plant stems, seed husks, and so on) into charcoal dust, which they plowed back into the soil. The result was a manifold and lasting increase in fertility and health of the soil. At the Center, we’re experimenting with ways that poor farmers can use similar techniques to multiply their harvest without having to buy genetically engineered seeds or toxic (and expensive) chemical fertilizers.
Our conviction is that the Kingdom of God is different. We intend the Center to be a place where anyone can explore and see that difference; that can offer a real example of what a life that’s more aligned with God’s Kingdom might look like. As people come and participate, learn skills and values, and offer both to others, both locally and abroad, we expect to see life change for many people in some very practical ways that both honor God and offer a healthier, sustainable way of life to those who embrace it.
Posted 11 days ago
March Seed Sampler
New Challenges and New Possibilities abound in the coming decade. None of the major trends we’re focusing on this year stand
alone – all are intertwined. This month’s issue covering food justice and sustainability is no exception, touching other key issues such as the environmental crisis, acknowledging and embracing our multicultural, multi-ethnic future, and realizing that global shifts in power will also be affected by where our food comes from and how it’s traded.From the negative news of the feminization of male frogs due to pesticide use to the imaginative use of solar power to promote a sustainable farming infrastructures in Benin, challenges and opportunities are all around us. How we respond to the issues of food justice and sustainability in the coming decade will, for good or bad, impact all of us. Our hope is that this issue of the Seed Sampler will not only provide insight into the issues but also practical ideas how to respond, stimulating further discussion and creativity.
Andy Wade
Seed Sampler Coordinator
Seed Smile | The Meatrix
Lead Seed | Reconnecting with our Food – Julie Clawson
Liturgy | A Blessing for Planting a New Garden – Christine Sine
Reflection | Americans Discover Food – Christine Sine
Seed Story | Wild Imagination – Scott Deerwester & Andy Wade
Seed Share | Rediscovering Eden – Andy Wade
Seed Share | Guerrilla Gardening – Lucas Land
Book Review | Jesus Freak – Ricci Kilmer
Resources-Sustainability | Resources
Posted 16 days ago
No Time for prayer…is that a problem?
Tom Sine
Increasingly those immersed in social media, email and their high pressured jobs tell us they no longer have no time for prayer. Often they feel very guilty and ask, “is that a problem?”
On a recent visit to Trinity Western University in British Columbia, Christine and I explained to students that not having time for God is a problem for all of us. One reason it is a problem is they are graduating into a much more volatile and high pressured future than their parents generation and, as a consequence, they will need to be more rigorous in setting aside time to be present to God and face to face communities if they are to weather these turbulent times and discover God’s best.
Several years ago before Christine and were as hardwired into all the new technologies we discovered we didn’t have enough time to really be as present to God through scripture and prayer. We are both morning people and that is the best time for us to focus on our spiritual practices. So we instituted a simple new discipline. No more staying up till 11 or 12 working on projects or watching a film. We instituted a 10 to 10:30 bedtime. It worked.
Going to bed earlier enables us to get-up by 6 am on work days. This makes it possible to have good chunk of time every morning to be present to God through the Anglican scriptures of the day, or spiritual practices and share a bit over breakfast. Since then I have added taking time most afternoons to be present to God in times of contemplation and praise. I find these disciplines really enable me to deal much more effectively with the growing challenges in my life. I also find I really miss these times of being present to God when things go out of control.
- What do you think about creating a regular time to be present to God as a way to take back your life in an increasingly time-pressured life in this volatile new decade?
- What might that look like for you?
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Posted 19 days ago
TEAR Australia considers a Christian response to climate change
Posted 21 days ago
A Lenten Prayer
by Christine Sine
Here is a prayer that I wrote for Ash Wednesday this year. It can in fact be used throughout Lent as a centering prayer for a Lenten discipline. I had planned to make it into a meditation video but have not had time. Maybe later in Lent.
We have chosen to fast
Not with ashes but with actions
Not with sackcloth but in sharing
Not in thoughts but in deeds
We will give up our abundance
To share our food with the hungry
We will give up our comfort
To provide homes for the destitute
We will give up our fashions
To see the naked clothed
We will share where others hoard
We will free where others oppress
We will heal where others harm
Then God’s light will break out on us
God’s healing will quickly appear
God will guide us always
God’s righteousness will go before us
We will find our joy in the Lord
We will be like a well watered garden
We will be called repairers of broken walls
Together we will feast at God’s banquet table
Posted 24 days ago
Called to the Table & Social Media and Faith
By Coe Hutchison
This blog has dealt previously with living in community. Here is a link to an article in The Lutheran magazine about a community in California and some of the neat things they are doing.
http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=8821&id=1
Social networking seems to be another hot topic and here is a link to an article in the same magazine about social networking. http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=8815
Once you get to this page there are a number of different articles about Facebook, etc. Check them out and enjoy. Thanks for all the great work and ideas.
Posted 29 days ago
Hey NW there still room to be at these great upcoming events
Rhythms of Grace workshop – facilitated by Christine Sine
February 20th
This day long seminar explores the rhythms that Jesus lived by which enabled him to prioritize his use of time and resources. We will discuss how to infiltrate these rhythms into the fabric of our lives today and encourage participants to develop an everyday lifestyle that flows directly from our Biblical faith.
Convergence: Women Leaders Connecting
March 5-7 -Troutdale, OR
We are women who lead others in following the way of Jesus. We come together to connect, encourage, and empower one another. We lead in a variety of ways, in a variety of settings, from a variety of theological traditions. We come together to learn from one another, build friendships, and explore our experiences as women leaders together.
Posted 33 days ago
Hunger Banquet
By Cindy Todd
As I have been considering Mustard Seed’s upcoming Seed Sampler and its focus on food justice and sustainability, I was doing a bit of research and study on my own. What I found was overwhelming. 25,000 children die each day from malnutrition and preventable diseases.
I want to move beyond shaking my head and commenting “isn’t it terrible” to more deliberate action. Oxfam has designed a hunger banquet which teaches about poverty and food inequity in a powerful, experiential way. Its not only about raising money but also about raising awareness. I’ve attached a slideshow Rollins College created in 2007 to use at their own Hunger Banquet.
We can move beyond shaking our heads…
Inspire. Connect. Create
http://actfast.oxfamamerica.org/
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Posted 40 days ago
February Seed Sampler 2010
We’ve all felt it, the desire to spend more time with God but we are just too busy. A companion anxiety is knowing we have allowed other things to crowd 
God out of our schedules. It’s easy to romanticize the days when life was less complicated, less fragmented, and meaningful time with God and others was just a natural part of who we were.
Unfortunately that nostalgic notion is only partly true. The world we live in today is the world we have – going back is not an option. With Lent fast approaching this Seed Sampler is designed to help you slow down, reign in the chaos and regain “the peace of Christ that passes all understanding.”
This Seed Sampler is a part of a series, 2010>>>2020- New Challenges- New Possibilities in which we are sharing new challenges likely to impact our lives and world in this new decade and creative responses to these challenges. In this issue we will focus on trends likely to shape spiritual practices for followers of Jesus in the next decade. We will discuss the impact of growing pressures on our time and coming of a more multi-cultural and religiously pluralistic futures. The Seed Shares will provide examples of how we might imagine new possibilities that engage these challenges. We urge readers to share your responses to these articles or new possibilities you have imagined or created and start a conversation.
Andy Wade
Seed Sampler Coordinator
Seed Smile | Bring Your Cell Phone to Church?
Lead Seed | What Will Shape Our Spirituality in the Coming Decade? – Christine Sine
Poetry | Be Still – Andy Wade
Video Reflection | Sounds of Global Worship – A Virtual Tour – Heart Sounds Intl.
Seed Story | Communication and Spirituality – Lynne M. Baab
Seed Share | There’s an App for That – Andy Wade
Seed Share | Journey to Mosaic – Andy Wade
Resources | Click Here
Posted 48 days ago
What Shapes Our Spirituality # 2
by Christine Sine
What will shape our spirituality in the coming decade has sparked quite a bit of interest and as I have far more to say than can fit into my article for the upcoming MSA Seed Sampler I will share some more of my thoughts here.
Yesterday I talked about the impact of social media and how have moved from consumption to immersion. Today I wanted to talk about the impact of the changing geographical centre of Christianity. In 1900 80% of all Christians lived in Europe and North America, but by 2005 that had dropped to under 40% and by 2050 will probably fall below 30%.
In the next decade, this trend will have profound implications for theology and spiritual practices as voices from Latin America, Africa and Asia contribute their perspectives to a discussion that has been dominated by Western thought for a thousand years. What many of us in Western cultures are oblivious to is that much of our theology has been shaped by a Eurocentric viewpoint that arises from the place of power and privilege that our cultures have held. It does not have universal validity and is often shaped more by our positions of privilege than by the gospel message. In a post colonial, post Eurocentric Christian world those of us from European backgrounds will need to become listeners and learners. We will not only need to listen to voices from other cultures we will need to allow the theological perspectives of other cultures to shape our theology too, humbly seeking forgiveness for the wrongs of the past and working for reconciliation and justice.
In Foolishness to the Greeks, Lesslie Newbigin states:
The fact that Jesus is much more than, much greater than our culture-bound vision of him, can only come home to us through the witness of those who see him through other eyes.
To fully understand Jesus and embrace the entire gospel message we will need to reinvent discipleship so that it to compels us to give up our positions of power and invites us into a journey together with sisters and brothers from around the world. It should embrace our need to learn from believers in different cultures who emphasize distinct aspects of the gospel message based on questions that have arisen within their history and context. Often their theologies have been shaped by the pain and suffering inflicted by Western colonialism and domination. Liberation theology for example, grew out of a culture of oppression. It places high value on not just individual repentance but on creation of a new community with structures that promise justice and wholeness for all. In Africa and Asia there is strong emphasis on issues of poverty and racism, and Australian aboriginal theology grapples with concerns about displacement from their native lands.
God’s family is drawn from every culture and tribe and nation. In this coming decade we will need to recognize that all of us are on a journey together learning to understand and walk together in partnership with our sisters and brothers from around the world. When we know we are all part of God’s family, we will willingly seek for understanding, reconciliation and new ways of sharing life so that we all become one as God intended.
