Cultivating Community

New Garden Farm – Where Fellowship Flourishes

It was a pleasure to get to know Steve Hebbard, Farm Director for New Garden Farm a ministry of the Church of the Redeemer at New Garden Park, an Anglican Church in Greensboro, NC.

Steven grew up in the suburbs of California and moved to Austin, Texas in 2005. At that time he had no experience working in a garden. That all changed when Steven became involved with a book discussion group that choose the book, Art of the Common Place, by Wendell Berry. Steven’s friend led this book club. They would do weeding and other gardening work in a local community garden while also having deep and meaningful talks.

It was in this community garden that Steven fell in love with gardening. He recounts, “I looked at my life and I wanted to love the place where I lived, God grew me deeper into the garden and gave me a vision to garden with the poor. I left my job and got an internship at the oldest organic farm in Texas”. God raised Steven up to use the garden to connect with the impoverished and marginalized.

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This led to Steven running a homeless housing program that was situated on a farm in Austin TX. Then in 2017 Steven met Reverend Alan Hawkins at a conference. Alan shared that the Church of the Redeemer, in Greensboro, North Caroline, had recently moved onto a piece of land they purchased from a plant nursery. As Steven and Alan grew their friendship, God was refining Steven’s calling to do church based farming with the poor.

Steven shared, with Reverend Alan Hawkins, his vision and experience of bringing a ministry that connects the land and the poor through the church. Hawkins saw this as an ideal match for the vision God have given him for the Church of the Redeemer. So, God threw the door wide open for Steven and his family to move to North Carolina. As Steven said, “God’s perfect timing occurred. God is now allowing me to use farming to minister to refuges. In turn they are reaching out to the community to draw others into the church”.

Steven uses the term “radical hospitality” when talking about garden ministry. I asked him to expound on what it means. Steven beautifully explained that when you work with the homeless you begin to think more thoughtfully about the word “homelessness”. Steven stated, “You originally think the reason someone is homeless is because that person does not have a house. But when you begin to investigate people’s stories, you say, oh no, it’s because bombs went off and exploded the concept of home. The word radical comes from the word rooted. When you put that seed in the ground it begins to put that tap root down and that root grows deep into the ground. That root is in fact called the radical”. Community meals on-site outdoors gives the farm the opportunity to serve radical hospitality.

Steven then translates that into the spiritual application by sharing, “My wife and I have a passion for deep rooted things. As we began to work with the homeless that process allowed us to see how ravaged the background was of the people who were homeless. My first thought was these people are houseless. In reality, there was a catastrophic breakdown and a family and community are behind every one of their stories. The radical nature [asked] how can we create a community that can root these people back into family and community? [So they are] connected to the ground, connected to each other and doing something they are passionate about”.

The land at New Garden Farm took a few years to repair and restore since it was covered with a foot of gravel in many areas due to the nature of the landscaping business that had previously owned and used the property. Steven shared how they had to remove everything before they could begin to build the soil back up.

New Garden Farm uses compost and loamy soil, layering rows, and adding in leaf mold to build up the soil.

Beyond the farm, Steven shared that he and his wife also have a home garden. In it they enjoy spending time with their young children. Their favorite items to grow in their garden include Butternut and Hubbard Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Cherokee Purple Beef Steak Tomatoes, and wintertime carrots.

As Steven and I concluded our tour of New Garden Farm, I asked him to share, beyond all the many details and insights of the farm, what was on his heart. I know you will feel these parting words deeply, and I hope it inspires you to have “radical hospitality” to use your gardening passion, to share the love of Christ.

Steven paused and shared, “I think there is a great capacity for the land to bring us together, and we’ve never needed it more than now. COVID really alienated us from each other, and many folks became very lonely. Churches who used to be filled to the brim don’t have that now, and many churches are teetering. The land has a way of bringing people together, bridging divides and making things that seemed uncrossable, become things we are doing together. It’s almost like our bodies are responded to this alienation in the way God made them to respond. How do you bring people together? God said, ‘care for the land. Cultivate and care for it. This is what I made you to do.’ As we do that, it turns out God [uses it to] bring us together”.

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