The Church Land Theology Project (CLTP) is looking for small groups of folks who have something to say about their relationship with church land. These groups can be comprised of anyone from grounds volunteers to pastors; anyone who cares for and cares about the land a church body is on. For the current round of interviews, the project seeks groups with 10+ years of experience in relating to land. Over the coming months, Andrew Hudson will be interviewing small groups about their relationship with land for a publication to come out late spring.
The CLTP is a joint project of MCCN and Mennonite Men that aims to give voice to the wisdom and theological insights of people who work with church land. By ‘church land,’ they mean congregational, college, seminary, or any other land corporately owned. “By holding land together,” says CLTP staffer Andrew Hudson, “church people have the possibility of a group relationship with the land–of belonging to it. That belonging was a key part of the worldview of the Old Testament, and it was a key part of the scriptures that shaped Jesus.”
The criteria for the current interviews are:
- Is there a group that works together on church land? For the interviews, we are looking for 2-5 people, who work on land owned corporately by a congregation, seminary, camp or similar community.
- Has the group been relating to the land for 10+ years? This is not a hard-and-fast rule, but we generally are looking for groups where at least some of the members have been there for a decade or more, with other members who have been through several seasons.
- Do they have a story about their relationship with the land? This can take many forms: it can be a journey, it can be discipleship, it can be theological, it can be self-discovery. If a well-established group of people has a story about their relationship with land, the CLTP is the place to share it.
Andrew is coordinating the project as his internship at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. There, he is pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree in pastoral ministry. Andrew worked in organic agriculture before coming to AMBS, a background that is helpful in designing conversation questions.
Interested in talking with Andrew or recommending someone for a CLTP conversation? Contact him at arhudson@ambs.edu.
Photo caption: Andrew Hudson in the AMBS garden, October 2021. This community garden is one example of public land, thoughtfully tended. Andrew is the current co-chair of the garden committee. Photo by Jennifer Schrock.