Why Even Bother?
Because evil doesn’t stop itself.
In the book of Revelation, The Bible: speaking about the war in Heaven, between Heaven’s armies, and the forces of Evil states: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
In other words: “And they (God’s chosen) overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus), and by the word of their testimony (Your unique story of God’s hand over your life).
The verse goes on to conclude with the statement: And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. (Rev 12:3). We are the watchmen on the wall. Called to be a light in the darkness. It is in this spirit, that I write you. I pray God bless all that read this.
My name is Bro. Steven. This is my testimony.
I lived 38 years of my life with no knowledge of who Jesus Christ is. Now that I know who he is, I have committed to spend the rest of my days growing closer to my King.
I grew up in and around North Hollywood California. I was raised by a single mom, in the ghetto. I spent most of my time playing outside and trying to get the attention of the young ladies. I was separated from my earthly father at about six years old, and I carried that wound with me, until I re-united with him in my late 20’s…and for probably a good deal afterwards. Though my mother had raised me catholic, I was never a religious person. Never a believer of some sky daddy. How could I believe?? As both fathers were invisible and silent to me.
I learned to meditate when I was young and I enjoyed the intentional empty mindedness. I think that we as a people can often be very loud in our own minds. I’ve been a musician since I was a child, so I found meditation helped me get into the zone. As a young man I loved martial arts, music, art, and most of all science. I have always loved the natural sciences. Especially outer space. I didn’t know it then, but the heavens indeed declare the Glory of God.
You see, I believed in evolution, and thought the church made up God to take the money of people too dumb to understand Science. I had no clue that the world’s greatest minds; people that forever changed the world - men like Issac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, and Einstein all believed in God. They marveled at Gods’ genius design and sought to understand him. Inspired by his eternal Godhead in every way. I find it ironic that today, most of the modern scientific community now uses its work to reject God in open rebellious contempt for his lordship over their lives. Now we have a society that has cultivated knowledge instead of Wisdom. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing you don’t put tomatoes in a fruit salad. Society, with all its earthly knowledge - now tells us men can have babies. This is what happens when you reject intelligent design. You get stupid design.
Now…as I grew into my teenage years, as a rebellious teenager, I rejected the Catholic Church. In the 90’s and early 2000’s, the Catholics were hit by scandal after scandal concerning pedophilia, corruption, and coverups. Between all that, and the extreme plundered wealth and opulence of catholic church - I rejected the church and the God of such a people.
You see, I cited the deeds of fallen men to wrongfully reject our Christ. This is why we are called to be holy. Called to seek purity. For we are his representatives on Earth. As it is written, be ye holy; for I am holy. If you should suffer persecution – suffer for righteousness’ sake. For it is better, if the will of God be so - that you suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
You see, I can remember looking for reasons to not submit myself to God. Separated from my earthly father, I hated the God that would condemn me to hell as an orphaned bastard, but yet keep such nefarious representatives on Earth. I didn’t know that the Devil has more priests in his employ than God does.
In my arrogance I thought to question God. Like Job. To point my finger at him and accuse him. To Find him guilty of cruelty. Thus, because he is cruel, he is unjust, and therefore he can’t be all good. And because he isn’t perfectly good, he was formed in the image of corrupt man. And that makes him not worth knowing. I reasoned that the evil of the men in this World was enough for me to rage against. I reasoned that Because men are evil, the world is evil - And now ‘good people’ should burn the whole darn system down. This made me a happy little Molotov throwing anarchist. Completely Vindicated and Justified in my own lost mind. We see this same spirit playing out all over the world right now. If the fools only knew the corruption, they war against is the same spirit that resides in them.
“Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.” ~Bill Mollison.
For the majority of my life, I didn’t know God. I cursed the world and the God who made it. I was spiritually poisoned, but completely blind to it. I left home at 15 and spent the next ten years of my life homeless, drugged up, wasted and lost. I convinced myself that I was having a good time. As the Preacher Says: All is vanity under the sun. And vexation of the spirit. Though at a conscious level I was unaware that the spirit of corruption had hold over me, I was still an active partaker. Guilty in every way. I enjoyed the destruction.
You cannot defeat the devil if you are still enjoying his company.
I read all manner of occult books, studied magic rituals and rites and learned about sorcerers and warlocks like Allister Crowley, and Anton Levey who founded the Church of Satan. I studied other world religions, the gnostics, the stoics, and new age teachings. I was more apt to believe in little green aliens, or Bigfoot than angels or Jesus. Though I never participated in any rites or rituals, nor ever used a Ouija board, I was always around satanists, witches, and various purveyors of the dark arts. I spent my 20’s after this manner, seeking esoteric and occult knowledge, hanging out with twisted people and losing parts of myself to the world. I had a confusing and prolonged dark phase; Lorded over by the spirit of abandon, of rejection and of rage. Looking for evidence of the supernatural, I opened myself up to all manner of ill, corruption, rebellion, and foolishness, that my self-absorbed hedonistic imagination could entertain. Thinking myself wise, I became a fool. So, God gave me over to my own selfish desires. It was during this protracted season of my life that I got to meet the evil I was seeking after.
It wasn’t until I saw what real evil is…The kind you can’t shoot with a gun, the kind of evil that never sleeps. The kind that works multi generationally - did I even think to look for the divine good. Like most of the world, I had quite a lot of things backwards. The dark principalities of this world manifested in my life, and in the lives of those lost souls around me. You see, I was swimming in a sea, of lost and damned souls. I was completely entangled in the World. I was spiritually dead for a long time. Fights, deaths, division, discouragement, poverty, listlessness, and anger were the fruits of the spirit of myself and the company I kept. My friends were despair and lust. Most of those folks are still ensnared by the wiles of the devil to this day.
Though, it is with great reverence, and humility, that I am grateful to God almighty: That since my own rebirth in Christ - I have helped several of my lost brothers and sisters accept the eternal spirit of Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. I am so grateful to our God in heaven, that he still answers the prayers of his little children down here on Earth. All Glory to God.
I continued like this through my twenties and after some time I got tired of fighting. Tired of fighting the world. Tired of warring within myself. I did therapy. I self-medicated. It didn’t help. I calmed down some after my second child was born. But I still fought the mind virus within.
Eventually in my early 30’s, after divorcing my first wife - I began to rediscover the meditative calm, of connecting with nature, that I enjoyed as a child and young man. Before my lost years. I spent my time working, as a father does, and studying philosophy, and the natural sciences as a hobbyist.
Though, I eventually wrongfully concluded that Nature, or the Universe IS GOD. In my ignorance, I believed the creation was the creator. Silly as I was - I had finally begun to seek truth, peace, love and light for the first time since I was very young. Though I could only take that so far without the supernatural presence of God. For all of these are gifts from God. For they are of God. I had finally made some progress and began to set my life in order, here in the physical plane. I had a high paying professional job at a big company. I had money in the bank and a nice new car, but I was still in spiritual darkness. I felt like a sad clown putting on happy makeup.
Blocked to the light of God’s love, by my own love of the darkness. I had ascended into the highest ranks of Nihilism. Here the mind concludes life is meaningless…. And Existence? Pointless. I just figured life sucks and then you die. No spiritual manna. No magic, no point - Just a slow sucking sound until you die. I continued after this manner for many years until COVID.
It was in winter of 2020 that, while I was not looking, and no longer seeking, that God manifested himself in my life.
It first began with a series of really powerful and intense dreams. They occurred sporadic at first, maybe one every week or two… but quickened over time like labor pains. Eventually I was waking up every night, and always during the 3-o-clock hour. I didn’t realize it at first - but I was being awakened. Spiritually, and not just physically. I, like so many others in the last several years, was being Activated. Called to choose a side.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. For the great day of the Lord is nearby.
I would routinely wake up at 3am with these really specific and odd dreams fresh in my mind. Super vivid, I could remember everything. I often struggled to go back to sleep until right before it was time to wake up and go to work. I would go to work, and the dream would play out, as I had seen it in my dreams the night before. I knew that this was a spiritual happening and not an intellectual happening. You see, since I was a child, I have had these premonition dreams. Things that had not yet happened, but came to pass, exactly as it did in the dream. Being ignorant of Scripture, I attributed this to the natural “in-tune-ness” or physic nature of young children.
Whereas scripture tells us: And it shall come to pass… in the last days; The lord will pour out his spirit upon all flesh. Your son’s and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams.
Though I had these dreams when I was young, it had been many many years since I had experienced these dreams. So now that it was happening again, I took notice. This series of intense dreams and nightmares continued through early 2021 where on clear spring night, in early April, that during the 3-o-clock hour - I was awakened by my dreams and stepped out onto the back porch. Sleep deprived and frustrated, I looked up at the big beautiful sky that God has set before us and Said: “Alright! I’m paying attention!” “What do you want?!”
This is where I first heard God speak to me. In the calmest most peaceful voice, I had ever heard- He said: “You need to start saying yes to the things, you would otherwise say no to.” His word brought with it, a peace. A calm. It was a calm like I had never known. Like when Christ spoke the words “peace be still” during the storm.
I’ve taken to calling it a cosmic calm. Because the peace that comes with abiding with his spirit, is as deep as the cosmos are wide. His presence brings such joy, such grace and such calm, that I can barely speak of it without breaking into tears under the overwhelming presence of his pure love. There is no love like it apart from God. His calm stayed with me for all too short a time. His presence was gone by morning that same day. But I was different. I was now seeking after him.
Once I felt him, I never wanted to be outside his presence again. Every little thing – every act; every moment is different in his presence. Not just better, but anointed with and by Gods’ presence. His presence is our weapon. And I vowed to follow after him. This was All before I ever stepped into a church. And praise God I did, because that was just the beginning of my walk. And as iron sharpens iron, I needed the wisdom and tutelage of many a mighty man of God to help me grow in knowledge of our wonderful and amazing God. Because I had spent so much time in the company of evil, I knew with my whole being that the spirit that revealed himself to me was of God. The soul just knows when it’s in the presence of the divine. The soul is alive for the first time. Like its finally home after so much searching.
There was nothing under the sun that ever made me feel so loved. So much grace and mercy. It’s overwhelming. It drops you to your knees. My very soul was screaming at me to kneel in reverence before his eternal throne. Once I opened my heart, to his will over my life: my destiny, and that of my family was forever changed. You see God came into my life – and by the glory of his grace: through literal miracle, after miracle, I was made alive again. For the first time.
Forgive me Lord, because only a perverse generation seeks after signs and wonders, but in the short amount of time that I have been in the presence of the Holy Spirit – I have honestly lost count of the amount of wonderful, amazing, awe inspiring, literal hand of God stuff I have had the fine privilege of bearing testimony to. Our God is beyond good. Beyond words. It wasn’t just a single act or experience, but a continued and ongoing revealing, through our lords’ heart, and our willingness to serve that saves a soul. We are called to believe. Called to action, called to strife, drafted into spiritual warfare. We are fighting for eternity. The stakes couldn’t possibly be any higher. It is a miracle in itself that any soul should be saved. Our God has not just provided for the salvation of my soul, but that of my wife, and of our children, and of others we have been blessed to help lead to Christ. All from a simple opening of the heart. A simple submission, that reveals a whole other world of possibilities with him.
When God wants to do something big, he starts with something small. When he wants to do the miraculous, he starts with the impossible.
As was the case with father Abraham, I was moved spiritually to get out of my comfort zone. I understood spiritually that I was to get comfortable being uncomfortable. He wrote on my heart that I was: To abandon nearly all that - which I knew to be wise and orderly in my own life. I remember telling my wife, God is telling me that: “The things that are illogical, and make no practical sense: Are precisely the things I needed to start doing.” That’s an odd thing to tell your woman. An odd way to feel. But his ways are higher than our ways. I felt, as I do now, convicted. Compelled and inspired to obey that which I don’t understand. He has rewarded my trust in him.
Day by day, and more and more: I was seeking after him – intensely. And he always joined me. Over time his spirit and my spirit joined together in worship and praise of our wonderful healer. Our councilor, our almighty God.
As it is written: The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that WE are the children of God. The world no longer has anything to offer me. I am his completely. In love with all that he is. And I have only just met him. And for the first time rooted up and built on him. Once you know his heart, you can begin to see his hand working. I couldn’t see it before. I once was blind, but now I see. Now looking back, I can clearly see he was always with me. Even when I was not with him. There is nowhere where he cannot meet you.
I know that in my bones, it was not me that did any of this. But him. And by the sacrifice of our Christ, that a wretch of the base sort like me, may enter into the kingdom of heaven. I know I have not earned it. But that by his grace I have been made whole. Complete by his holy spirit and God head.
Eze 37:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.
Eze 37:4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
Eze 37:5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
Eze 37:6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
So, though I was as far off the mark as one can be. As coated in sin as any of God’s children – God still came to me. An continues to be with me.
Through all my damnable offenses: The eternal spirit of Father God manifested himself to me through this intense series of dreams, but then later on - visions, and serendipitous events and spiritual giftings of knowledge.
Things that I couldn’t possibly know – I just knew. But I couldn’t show my work. For it was not of me. But of God alone.
He has showed me and unfolded for me, things that were previously hidden to me. Parts of myself. Parts of the unseen realm, and snippets of the Lord’s will over my life. It was a very intense and rapid season of growth. An unpacking and reordering of so many things. A quickening. A Revelation of the Risen Christ.
By late spring of 2021, I had made up my mind to exit the beast system. I was done serving evil. I told my family our future was now outside of the beast system. I knew God was calling me to sow and harvest, and I would answer the call. In June 2021, I left my career corporate job, cashed in my 401K and started growing food for my family. Up until that point, I had spent the last decade sitting in an air-conditioned office, as an I.T guy. I only ever ventured outside to get into my car and travel to the next air-conditioned place, to stare at another screen. What a culture shock! I had never in my life, worked so hard, for so little! My family and I killed ourselves that summer. Thank God my wife and I are quick learners, because we made every technical mistake you can make in the garden. We did everything wrong. Though we had a descent yield; what we really learned was what not to do.
For me, this was a crucial time of learning of both the natural and supernatural. This is where I got rooted in God. As Noah did - I became a husband man and dressed my vines. Toiling under the Sun, and praying continuously while growing food, listening to the ole king James bible on my headphones, and communing with God in nature. It was GLORIOUS.
I didn’t know much theology but I knew that a spiritual awakening was happening, and I wanted to abide with God’s spirit more than anything else. My spirit just wants after God like a drowning man wants after air. I felt, and still feel, a calling on my life. To grow close to his spirit of truth. A calling to return to an ancient priesthood whereby I would stand firmly rooted in his grace. To minister unto the Lord. And to his human family. He has blessed me beyond words. Beyond reason. He will use us nobodies, to accomplish grand things, if you let him.
As Pastor Carter Conlon of Times Square Church wrote: “I want to remind you that God doesn't choose mighty or noble people. He chooses this world's nobodies, the weak and foolish people. He puts His Spirit upon us and enables us to do exploits we could never have done in our strength. All the glory goes to Him when the work is through us. God requires us only to have an open heart willing to hear His voice and obey it. We tend to look at our frailties and weaknesses, making us wonder why God would even want to use us for His glory. Yet, for reasons fully only ever understood by God Himself, we are the centers of His affection. We are the people through whom He chooses to manifest His glory on the earth from generation to generation. Oh, thank God. Will you allow Him to use you to be a testimony of His great power in our generation? It's time to pray.”
For me, it was simple: I simply vowed to serve after him, spirit to spirit. To follow after his calling on my life. To understand his heart. To learn his wisdom, but remain a fool for God. With the heart of a child. That’s it. Simple. (1Co 7:17, 20-24 & Act 10:15) No seminary. No cataclysm. No permission from some official. Just relationship. Just his spirit, and no others. (Joh 15:16 & Jer 1:5, 1Cor 9:14-16) Now, I was later baptized in the spirit, and in water, though not at first. Even later on still, I was eventually anointed by my elders, but again that all came later.
Covid was a wild time. Truly transformative. So many things changed for so many people. It has been a great revealing. Our 2021 garden was a very input heavy endeavor. A lot of money, time, energy, water, and external inputs for some veggies and eggs, with the occasional roast chicken. It got me thinking: If we had to depend on this garden, to survive - we’d all die. If there were no dump-trucks to drop off compost, or electric pumps to pump water to the garden, or stores to buy heirloom seeds, what would I do to feed my family? I realized that I had no practical sovereign living skills. Because of my ignorance, my whole family was completely at the mercy of a system that is forever in a state of falling apart. This world is a mess, and I depended on it for everything. Literally everything. Every meal, all our fresh water, every toilet flush, every energy minute of a very cold Ohio winter. Not a good situation.
Now as any grower can tell you: Keeping a leisure vegetable garden, is a far different undertaking, than a square foot crisis garden designed to provide rotational output for a family of six people, two dogs, two cats, a dozen rabbits, and a flock of chickens during a worldwide pandemic and national lockdown.
I thought - How did they do it before electricity? Before refrigerators? I studied the Amish, the pioneers, and other pre-electrical societies. The complexity of the technologies used by our forbearers is amazing. In December of 2021; I stumbled upon modern day communities assembled to practice sustainable farming and sustainable living practices. I found the Earthship hippies. The barefoot permaculture farmers. The Ecovillage communities. The off-grid people. The renegades and non-conformists. I found my people.
You cannot grow food in poor soil. You must first heal the land and water before it can sustain humanity which is at the apex of the food chain. Much of the Permaculture designers’ job, is to first nourish and protect the food web of life. The bottom of any structure must first be built before it can support the top of that same structure. So, we must first “feed” the food web of life, before the web of life can feed us at the very top.
I was ordained in January of 2022. That same spring God placed two key spiritual mentors in my life. I also took to the ground, as I began working in the garden, trying new ideas from those barefoot permaculture hippies. It was a beautiful spring of revitalization. Much spiritual healing and fruitfulness. I get to bring God into all manner of activities from blessing the crop water, and praying over the lands, to praying over culled animals etc. Here the spirit is constantly seeking to connect with God in the natural world. So as the whole of the civilized world was anxiously tearing itself apart with scorn and malice - I was anointed and set apart, to grow close to God, and repair the land. What a blessing it has been.
During this period of connection, observation, and social isolation, my cell phone broke, and I, being stubborn; figured I was done feeding my data to the surveillance capitalism system, and was content living as we old timers did, way back in the ole “pre-cell phone days.” I told everyone I knew, to reach out to my wife, and also my secretary, and I’d get back to them. I was shocked that people, including my wife hated it. Though I thought it was great. This worked wonderfully for me for several months. Without the constant chiming noises, vibrations, push notifications, texts, and spam calls – I was able to catch up on some much-needed time with God. It was a wonderful season where I enjoyed being unplugged from the Matrix.
Though this period of disconnect worked brilliantly for me: for my wife, family, and friends – not so much. My mother, and my wife conspired together against me, and forced me to leave the solitude of the farm, and to go into the city to get a new cell phone: so, I could be available to society. Naturally I was not happy about reconnecting to the machine.
It was here, at the cell phone store, where I met my now friend, brother, and fellow Eden Foundation Church board member Sammy Dyson. He and I spoke of regenerative agriculture, and spiritual and social concerns, and he as an evangelist, offered me to attend his non-denominational missionary church.
Though I absolutely did not want to go: God had already placed it on my heart to “say yes to things, I would otherwise say no to.” So, I obeyed the spirit that spoke life into my heart, and reluctantly said yes: though I really didn’t want to. And praise God I did, because this was another ‘yes’ that I proclaimed, to God, that radically transformed the rest of my life.
It was the week before Mother’s Day, in 2022 that I stepped into a protestant church for the first time since last stepping into a southern Baptist church in Georgia way back in Easter of 2012. That’s roughly ten years since I last stood on holy ground. I bowed my head in worship and praise, as the Worship team played and the pastor followed thereafter. Shortly into the pastor’s message, I broke out into tears. It was the first time I had cried since I was a young boy, and the first time in my life that I cried tears of joy. I mean I wanted to ugly cry. It was like the pastor had followed me around for the last month and crafted his message directly at me. I knew, through and through, that I was exactly where I needed to be, hearing exactly the message I needed to hear. I knew God had used this man to speak directly to my Soul. And I cried tears of joy because the Gospel shot right through me like a lightning bolt.
I returned to my family, and explained the nature of my experience. How his message covered so many aspects of our recent lives. I teared up at the kitchen table simply retelling the pastor’s message to my wife and children. As none of them had ever seen me cry before, they opted to check it out, and the next Sunday we all attended together. This was our first time ever going to church as a family together. During the sermon, I looked down the row at my family, and witnessed my whole house crying tears of joy in the spirit.
To be in God’s house, hearing his gospel, and seeing my family in solemn unity blessed me beyond words. My whole family loved the experience, and we all started attending mass together. I never had to beg, barter, or coerce my family to attend. We all felt the holy spirit, when we went, so we kept going. It brought us closer to each other than we had ever been. Unified under God. Eventually I mentioned to a church leader that I played guitar, and soon afterwards joined the worship and praise team. I later learned the congregation had been praying for a guitar player before my family and I showed up. Later on, I then got to reside over, and pray over the baptism of my wife, and four children. What grace. Praise God.
Starting in May 2022; I discipled under my dear friend and brother in Christ: Dr. Michael Cottrell, a Baptist, who allowed me to ask any foolish question my mind could conceive of. One of my first questions was: If God, who created man in his image, and walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden: Had a body? If he did, was it a physical body? Does he nourish his body? Does God eat? Does he eat special God food? Does he go to the bathroom? If he does: Can we call it “holy crap?” Thankfully God put men in my life, that understood my simple heart of a child, and had the patience and tenacity to put up with me.
I was baptized November 5th 2022, by a Pentecostal preacher, my pastor, dear friend, and brother in Christ: Pastor Paul Hundley.
I spent the full year of 2022 studying natural systems design, locally and abroad, and received my Permaculture Design Certificate in February 2023.
I spent half of 2021, all of 2022, 2023, and 2024 in church, or in the garden. I never wanted to leave. I had finally found my place in life. As a minister. A healer. This brought me great healing, joy, and sense of purpose. I joined all manner of church ministries, attended revivals, learned, taught, and grew deeper in my faith. Eventually growing to understand how to cultivate a deeper relationship with God, and eventually served on the missionary church board.
God was training me, in my ministries. Teaching my spirit how to minister, and walk in fellowship with the holy ghost. Teaching me to serve, and to serve better. I was later drafted into the deliverance ministry. Though not by my choice. All by God, and his timing. All organically, and never forced. The dreams, visions, and giftings of knowledge all continued to be gifted to me again and again. Not because I’m good, but because God is good. It is God who ordains. He who anoints. It’s like he would give me the answers through a spiritual revealing, and then, with the answers freshly written on my heart, he would put me through a test. A test, in which I already knew the answers. His tests played out exactly as he had shown me, and all I had to do was say yes to answer the calling. Time and again, this is how God moved over my life. This was my seminary, for I had no formal training. I just had my antenna out, and received downloads from on high. All Glory to God.
As an evangelist for both Jesus and permaculture - In spring 2023, I felt the time was right to hit the streets, and begin speaking at local churches, farm markets and with local farmers about the need for a creation care ministry within existing churches. Though many are interested, when they learn of the toilsome nature of developing natural systems with a negative carbon footprint– they remain interested, but not committed. You see: We are growing food, but not in the typical sense. This isn’t agriculture. It’s something else.
Modern chem-ag farmers sit in quarter million-dollar diesel operated tractors, navigated by GPS, in the cool of the cabin A/C, with coffee cup holders, while getting a tan. Though the hours are long - they are not out working in the heat running a scythe. Not usually. This is not a knock-on farmers. This is a knock on our industrial Chem/AG monoculture system. A system that produces rich lobbyists and poor farmers. Our farmers are hardworking honest people that love playing in the dirt. They are wonderful people that love God, nature, and their country. God bless them, for we need our farmers. I am merely pointing out that they, like so many others are running on a wheel they can’t get off of.
Nearly every community-maintained garden, local greenhouse, or garden center, as well as the entirety of the modern chem-ag infrastructure; relies upon, and cannot grow anything without:
Chemicals developed unsustainably, and at great cost to the environment.
Contaminated soils trucked in from other places and countries.
Water pumped unsustainably from our precious and finite underground fresh water reserves.
Plastics to containerize plants.
Oil, gas, diesel, and rubber;
Very expensive, and very pollutant dense machinery.
*Most of these commodities are imports to the U.S.
Even the most descent, most salt of the earth people in these spaces, are practicing their noble craft completely unsustainably. They are on a literal conveyor belt - a train that they can’t get off of. Consider all of the needed essential inputs to conventional systems like:
The continual and never-ending purchase of external soils, composts, amendments, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides that go into their gardens and agricultural systems.
If they stopped any part of their input stream, the whole operation stops functioning altogether. There is little-to-no redundancy in our man-made agricultural systems. It’s a very finicky house of cards with huge waste in the form of pollution, and entropy everywhere.
Any disruption to global supply chains, logistics networks, or computer systems, to name a few, can and absolutely does impact our very food security.
Now, consider the ever-important topic of water conservation, which in modern agricultural systems – there is none.
While there is no single silver bullet to tackle these sustainability issues, there are a series of simple solutions whereby we can begin to improve on the current trends. Upon studying, researching, and analyzing the available aggregate data; I eventually came to the understanding that nearly all of the chemicals, fuels, and various other toxic pollutants, that go into the American lawn care industry, could be eliminated: If we simply grew food, and wildlife habitat instead of lawns. We wouldn’t have to eliminate all lawns mind you... Just the ornate ones of little human value. Definitely keep the important ones.
Before forming this Church; As I went from church-to-church ministering, I saw well-kept lawn, after well-kept lawn, where deacons of these churches, or other companies, are employed nearly full time to simply keep up on the grass. Some of these churches have dozens of acres of well-manicured lawns, but don’t even go out and enjoy it, because of the heat, lack of shade, and mosquitos. Though these problems can be solved by the simple planting of overstory trees to attract birds, which are carnivorous insectivores. Trees of course breathe in carbon, which helps in reversing anthropogenic climate change and provides pleasant shade. The great American lawn yields no food for humans, little food for wildlife, harbors insect pests, and eats up the resources of the owner/caretaker/community/planet.
The core paradigm shift here is that Nature “gardens” very differently than the modern agricultural, and horticultural industries do. An embedded function of natural systems design is that they adapt well over time and have more resiliency than man-made systems. This is the old adage that no matter what happens to humanity, the Earth will recover and be just fine. Humanity, not so much.
I spoke with pastors, and deacons at various other churches about the need for a creation care ministry, where ministers grow food instead of lawns. I didn’t find a single church leader willing to sacrifice a portion of their ornamental church lawn, or budget, to simply grow communal food and feed wildlife. Not one. These men and women were more concerned with a budget for poisonous chemicals to kill dandelions, clover and other ‘weeds. Dandelions which are of course, completely edible and are loaded with antioxidants that fight cancers.
It occurred to me, that perhaps these fine men and women of God simply needed to see a functioning model. A prototype. Even those churches and community centers that regularly keep and maintain community gardens: are not building and improving soil on site. They are often wholly stuck on the same industrial wheel of death and degradation as everyone else.
Without healthy top soil humanity cannot feed itself. The fertility of the soil is the future of civilization.
Starting with a small raised bed garden, and eventually expanding out, I used time honored techniques of indigenous peoples from around the globe, along with simple hand tools do develop our pioneer site. Far from a perfect model; it has served as an outdoor learning laboratory where stress levels go down, people ground themselves, and adults get to play like children. There is also the extra benefit of yummy food to eat.
Even early on, while I was making costly mistakes - Upon harvest time, I learned of the exuberant over abundance yielded by all natural systems. In simple terms: Natural systems yield such an abundant surplus, that it would be irrational and pointless to not spread the wealth and donate to the community. It’s not rational that good food should go to waste, while so many are starving.
It was in August of 2022, that at a missionary church sponsored Jesus encounter; that while in prayerful meditation that I received the vision that would compel me to found The Eden Foundation Church.
I was given a complete vision, of Christ’s church, some hundreds of years in the future. Grown. Fully matured. Glorious. Sanctified and stewarded by the Spirit of Truth, which is our holy God. I have no words to convey the magnitude of this revelation. I spent roughly the next two years of my life analyzing, reverse engineering, and learning to articulate the vision, of a better more connected, more inspired world - united under Christ.
As the months progressed, there was a near continual revealing of how God’s Church would be built. How this Church would function. How it’s inner parts would manifest from a visualization, to reality. These “ah-ha lightbulb” moments: would hit me every so often as I pondered and decoded this vision. Every so often in my studies, or intellectualizations, or writings, on the Church – I would unlock some innate mechanic of this Church and vocally say: “Wow that’s deep. I would’ve never thought of that!” This was profoundly moving, and undergirded both my faith and conviction. I didn’t realize it until more than two years later - But God had given me a vision of the Church of the Millennia, out of the book of Revelation.
Eph 1:10 states: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Thus, The Eden Foundation Church was born of God’s vision. Not mine.
Our doctrine of faith; the theological, ecclesiastical, and scriptural foundations undergirding our prime directives have remained unchanged dating back to the Christian Reformation.
If our collective human history is any indicator of the times that lay ahead – Then I believe we are all in need of some new strategies. I believe our creation care ministry is a new and welcomed vision: marrying tradition, with cutting edge science backed environmentally beneficial Earth Care and People Care systems. I believe the time is now. The hour is indeed late. We find ourselves living in precarious times. Revelation is playing out right in front of the eyes of the whole world.
I believe our role on this planet is to heal, and if we love the natural world, and the people in it – we owe it to God to give it away for FREE. Expecting nothing in return. For in the deed, is its own reward. God has, and will always provide, as he chooses. The God of the Vision, is the God of the Provision. We don’t have to see the whole staircase to take the first step. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
This Church will evangelize the Gospel to all people everywhere. “The whole being of any Christian is faith and love. Faith brings the person to God; love brings the person to other people.” ~Martin Luther.
Thusly this The Eden Foundation Church is established, to serve God by aiding in the provision of our shared human collective hierarchy of needs. The Bible teaches us that God made man a living soul to enjoy and keep paradise. We were created to have a connection and relationship with the spirit of God in the natural world. Ordained by He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all: To heal the People and the Land. Spiritually & Physically. Unto the tenth generation.
All Glory to God. Amen.
~Rev. Steven Gulling. Founder & Servant to the Risen Christ.
