![\"Image](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/a\/a7\/4_Seasons_Roots.jpg\")
This photo shows you the difference between roots that are shallow and roots that run deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And both of them are varieties of wheat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One the conventional annual wheat that goes into our food system today\u2026 and the other a perennial variety that once covered these lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can you see the difference? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plains used to be a prairie with incredible biodiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grasses, shrubs, flowering plants covered the landscape and it was all sustained by an incredible root system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basically, roots are like fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They dig down deep into the ground and give the earth the support it needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The roots had held the soil together and helped prevent erosion and they also loosened up the soil so that oxygen could filter through the ground, helping to provide fertile and sustainable land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe root systems\u2019 ability to store energy and nutrients ensure that the prairie grass could always grow back quickly. And the grass, in turn, kept the rich soil in place as millions of bison fertilized it over thousands of years, depositing more nutrients into the soil\u2019s natural fertility bank.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole system was interconnected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We wanted to live and grow food on the prairie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We broke up the deep roots of the perennial grasses with farm equipment and replaced them with the shallow root systems of annual wheat and other grains that we could more easily control and cultivate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wendell Berry once wrote, \u201cWe came with visions, but not with sight. We did not see or understand where we were or what was there, but destroyed what was there for the sake of what we desired.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal became the mass production of food, which in many ways fought against nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We stripped the land of its nutrients and lost the root systems that sustained future growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And annual crops, with their shallower root systems require more water, because they can\u2019t reach deep into the ground to reach it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We thought success was abundant production, but we weren\u2019t paying attention to what we were sacrificing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So in the 1930s, without the deep prairie roots to hold the earth in place, we become susceptible to disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly 75% of the United States experienced a decade of drought that devastated agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shallow vegetation shriveled up, and the winds of what became known as the Dust Bowl blew away an estimated 850 million tons of topsoil in the Southern Plains alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, it feels like the church is experiencing a kind of Dust Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I wonder if for too long we were focused on growth, and cookie cutter ministries that were designed for mass production, and if we had vision but not sight\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we did what seemed quicker and easier, rather than the much harder work of tending our root systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So maybe it is no wonder that when the winds of disruption and change and awareness of systemic problems came along that fruitfulness began to shrivel and the topsoil blow away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the lessons maybe the church can take from agriculture today is a focus on reclaiming our identity and strengthening our root systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see, this image isn\u2019t simply a comparison of conventional vs. perennial wheat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It shows the work and research that is being done to develop new commercial varieties of perennial wheat that can come back in and revitalize our food system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Land Institute has been working for decades on this project and this variety, Kernza, a wild relative of annual wheat, is now being incorporated into the Cascadian Farm brand from General Mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Lee DeHaan from The Land Institute describes what they have seen as ecological benefits already, \u201cThe length, size, and long life of the roots enable the grain to provide measurable soil health benefits and drought resistance while preventing soil erosion and storing critical nutrients \u2013 potentially turning agriculture into a soil-forming ecosystem.\u201d (https:\/\/climatecrocks.com\/2018\/04\/11\/for-drawing-carbon-down-perennial-grains\/)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t we, too, want to be transformed into the kind of ecosystem that can sustain a more vital church?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t we want to be able to be resilient in times of drought and winds of change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t we want to be a faith-forming ecosystem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, the good news is, just like with the formation of this new variety of wheat, we have the tools we need already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We simply need to go back and reclaim and remember how we were designed and who we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colossians 2:6-7 (MSG) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just go ahead with what you\u2019ve been given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live<\/em> him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re deeply rooted in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re well constructed upon him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know your way around the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now do what you\u2019ve been taught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n School\u2019s out; quit studying the subject and start living<\/em> it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A while back, I took a year long course called \u201cOrganic Ministry\u201d offered through what was then the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center. Once a month, nearly a dozen of us gathered at Taproot Garden south of the Des Moines area. We would spend our mornings getting centered and discussing one of our resources. Then…<\/span><\/p>\n