A Christian-Agrarian

  

  What is a Christian-agrarian?  Herrick Kimbal introduced me to this term.  The Christian part is easy enough to understand, but agrarian sounded a little different.  Basically it is someone that promotes living off the land.  Traditionally this would be a farmer, but the difference that is purposed in using the word agrarian is to differentiate the modern factory type farming from the traditional family farm lifestyle. An agrarian might not be a farmer, but has the desire to see the earth made fruitful in a sustainable way.   By adding Christian to agrarian it is the acknowledgement that life with Christ gives lasting purpose. It is the Creator who was the first gardener.  He created the world to produce sustenance by skillfully working the ground.  It could be understood that a family can be fulfilled in a richer way by a Christian-agrarian lifestyle.  Herrick has written a book to share this lifestyle and has sought to live it out as an example.  The name of the book is: Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian.

     The agrarian lifestyle is not anything new though it is counter-culture right now.  It is the lifestyle that was most common in this country until the Industrial Revolution.  Many people believe we lost something when families stopped producing their own food.  Herrick makes the case in his book that it is not just making a living that counts, but how you live.  He shows how work itself has tremendous value.  He challenges the idea that money is the most valuable thing by focusing on the value of relationships, hard work, and living life as it was intended. Herrick talks about a subject that I hold close to my heart: freedom.  Here's a quote from the fourth chapter of his book:

 "We see value in the satisfaction that comes with being able to take care of your own food needs and not being dependent on the industrial providers, even if it is just in part.  This is freedom.  This is part of what makes The Good Life good." 

A Christian-agrarian sees creation as a place to practice stewardship.  This stewardship is passed on to children with a multi-generational vision.  Herrick contrasts this lifestyle to systems that separate people from the ground where things come from and that vie for the time that is needed for relationships to be close.

Herrick wrote this book a number of years ago, but just had it published as a Kindle book making it very affordable. You can get the book downloaded to your Kindle device.  I just read the book in one day and it leaves you with a desire to leave this world a better place. Part of the book is a vision for a good life and another part is Herrick's testimony of how he is working that vision out. At the end of the book is an epilogue that has a special effect because it is an acknowledgement of seeing the fruit of his labors, and seeing much of his vision being fulfilled.

I strongly recommend this work as its message is much needed today.

Here is a link to where you can get this great book at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J532CC2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00J532CC2&linkCode=as2&tag=whizbook-20
If you don't have a Kindle, you can get a free program to read the book on your computer or a smart phone. Herrick has a link to this in his blog.
If you want to be introduced to Herrick's writings you can check out his blog at:
http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com