The Theology of Compost: Finding God in the Dirt

 

Princeton Seminary’s Farminary

by Rev. M. Courtenay Willcox

There are so many things to say about compost, and I can add specific observations about my own compost pile, which is neither beautiful nor bodaciously effective, but it is still effective enough, and that is enough. What makes a beautiful compost pile?

The compost pile at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Farminary mirrors the mysterious, beautiful choreography of what creation set in motion. It is a big, dark, steamy, warm-to-the-touch pile that is turned regularly. Organic material is breaking down. It doesn’t smell rotten; it smells rich. It flips the idea of wealth. In Farminary terms, being rich means having robust compost and being able to run your fingers through the loam. It gets under your fingernails and stays with you. It retells the story of dirt, of death and resurrection, and makes it clear that death is never the end. Much has been written about this particular pile of compost, a centerpiece of the Farminary’s regenerative agriculture farm and part of Princeton Theological Seminary’s curriculum. The farm’s mission focuses on theology, ecology, and food justice, while encouraging students and visitors to learn about compost, stewardship, agrarian rhythms, and “living soil,” a vibrant ecosystem. Much has been written about this particular pile of compost, a centerpiece of the Farminary’s regenerative agriculture farm and part of Princeton Theological Seminary’s curriculum.

Eleven years ago, Farminary's brainchild, Dr. Nate Stuckey, suggested joining agriculture with theology to then-Seminary President Craig Barnes. Before it became the Farminary, the parcel of land had been a cow farm, then a sod farm, then a Christmas tree farm. Serendipitously, the seminary owned the 21 acres. When Nate began, the soil was completely depleted and unproductive. Over the last 11 years, the Farminary acreage has experienced a resurrection of sorts. In addition to compost, the three-season farm produces various vegetable varieties, all planted in the rich compost. It also supports roaster chickens, laying chickens, sheep, goats, miniature cows, and an apiary. As I walk through the grounds, I am fed and consider my call to tend and care for the earth. There is a dawning here that perhaps I need to do more of this earth-connection work.

An article from the Presbyterian News Service reports,

 “The Farminary is a … context for theological reflection. Over the past decade, it has become a vital space for spiritual formation, communal healing, and deep engagement with the ecological challenges of our time, … Dr. Nate Stucky, Director of the Farminary Project, says, “It’s a place where the rhythms of the land shape our understanding of God, community, and calling.”^[1]

There is a symbiotic relationship between the Farminary’s fecundity and the seminary’s refectory. They feed each other: the Farminary supplies the refectory with fresh, organic vegetables, eggs, and chicken, and the refectory returns its scraps to the Farminary, which are sufficient to feed the dirt. The Farminary also provides food to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and a food distribution center in Trenton. There is also a symbiotic relationship among some of the plants on the farm. Our tour guide and seminary professor, Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner, reminds us of the Trinity Garden, the three sisters: corn, squash, and beans. They are planted together in sequence. Corn is planted first, then beans, which put nitrogen into the soil and climb the corn stalks, and finally squash, whose leaves shade the beans. These plants grow together in synchronicity. In regenerative agriculture, there is also the concept of restoring the dirt. Nothing says this to me more clearly than the movable chicken pen. I watched as the 10-foot-by-10-foot chicken-wire pen was pulled from its resting place, with about 25 chickens moving along with their enclosure, to another location. This gives the chickens a new supply of bugs to eat, and the soil benefits from chicken manure.

There is a deep theology in the Faminary’s compost pile. After my recent tour of the farm, I observed four components of compost. It became a conversation point. I spent considerable time in a lively discussion with Farm Manager Larry Rogers about the finer points of compost. I loved it and learned from it. I was grateful to Larry for his generosity with his time and shared knowledge.

The second is that the compost pile removes and uses refuse from the farm and the seminary’s refectory. Food scraps and other organic material are not sent into the waste stream but find a second life in compost. Garbage is different than trash.

Third, there is the process of composting. It is a dying that results in resurrection. There is a breaking down and a heating up of everything in the pile. It takes organic material, such as eggshells, banana peels, and coffee grounds, and transforms them. No longer in its original form, garbage is transformed into humus and then used to feed and enrich next year’s crops.

The final component is that compost is restorative and productive. This rich loam helps rebuild depleted soil, feeds growing plants and vegetables, and supports herbivores, such as cows and goats, and omnivores like chickens. In this sense, creation, the earth, and all that is associated with it, become our conversation partner, modeling both an understanding of creation and an understanding of God. John Calvin said that the more you know yourself, the more you know God, and the more you know God, the more you know yourself. The Farminary takes this one step further, helping each of us understand that the more we know creation, earth, and soil, the more we know God, and the more we know God, the more we can love, appreciate, tend, and care for the earth. And it all starts in the compost pile.

 

Courtenay Willcox is a transitional pastor at Northampton Presbyterian Church, Moderator of Presbyterians for Earth Care, and a very grateful Gigi to three remarkable granddaughters 

Docs Offer a Guide to Regenerative Agriculture

 

by Eric Diekhans

I grew up in the Midwest, surrounded by farms. Cornfields and pastures framed my neighborhood, and my grandparents had a small farm in southern Illinois—much of it leased from a coal company. Driving down country roads in winter and early spring, I never thought twice about the long rows of barren earth left after the corn or soybeans were harvested.

Then I watched the twin documentaries *Kiss the Ground* and *Common Ground*, and my eyes were opened to the powerful forces shaping modern farming—and to the possibility that those same fields could help save the planet.

Both films center on regenerative agriculture, a set of practices rooted in Indigenous traditions that focus on restoring soil health rather than extracting from it. What makes these documentaries compelling is not just the science but the people.

In *Common Ground*, we meet farmers who took enormous financial risks to abandon conventional methods. One farmer describes watching his soil turn to dust after years of chemical use, then slowly come back to life after he introduced cover crops and stopped tilling. Within a few seasons, earthworms returned, water soaked into the ground instead of running off, and his yields stabilized without expensive synthetic inputs. Another story follows a rancher who shifted to rotational grazing—moving cattle frequently to mimic natural herd movements. Instead of degrading the land, the animals helped restore it, with their hooves aerating the soil and their manure feeding the microorganisms below the surface.

These stories highlight something easy to miss when we look at farmland from the road: soil is not just dirt. It’s a living ecosystem.

Modern industrial agriculture, built around monocrops such as corn and soybeans, relies heavily on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and genetically modified seeds. These inputs can boost short-term yields, but they carry a cost. Tilling breaks apart soil structure, leaving it vulnerable to erosion. Chemicals kill not only pests but also beneficial microbes and insects. Over time, the soil loses its ability to retain water and nutrients, creating a cycle of increasing dependence on more inputs.

Regenerative agriculture flips that model. Practices such as cover cropping, composting, no-till farming, and diverse crop rotations rebuild soil organic matter. This organic matter acts like a sponge, holding water during droughts and reducing runoff during heavy rains. Healthy soil also fosters a vast underground network of fungi and microbes that exchange nutrients with plant roots, making crops more resilient and reducing the need for fertilizers.

Perhaps most striking is the role soil can play in combating climate change.

Both films argue that regenerative agriculture is not just about sustainability—it’s about reversal. Through photosynthesis, plants draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the soil as organic carbon. When soil is healthy and undisturbed, that carbon can remain locked underground for decades or even centuries. But when soil is tilled and degraded, much of it is released back into the atmosphere.

Regenerative practices increase the soil’s capacity to store carbon, effectively turning farmland into a carbon sink. Some scientists and advocates in the films suggest that, if adopted widely, these methods could draw down a significant share of excess atmospheric carbon. While that claim is debated, there is broad agreement that healthier soils mean less carbon in the air and greater resilience in our food systems.

The films also challenge a common assumption: that livestock is inherently harmful to the environment. While cattle do produce methane, regenerative grazing can offset some of that impact by sequestering carbon in soil and restoring grasslands. The key is not eliminating animals but managing them differently.

Still, the documentaries only briefly touch on the barriers to change. Transitioning to regenerative agriculture can be costly and risky. Farmers may face several years of lower yields as their soil recovers. It requires new knowledge and equipment, and often a willingness to go against decades of conventional wisdom.

Which brings us to a broader question: why does our system make it so hard to do the right thing?

Today’s agricultural economy is shaped by powerful agribusiness interests and government subsidies that favor large-scale monocropping. Farmers are often locked into a system in which growing corn and soybeans is the safest financial choice, even though it degrades their land over time.

Here’s a not-so-crazy idea: what if even a fraction of the billions of dollars in federal farm subsidies were redirected to support regenerative practices? What if farmers were rewarded not only for what they produce but also for how they care for the land?

The fields I grew up seeing as empty during the off-season are anything but. Beneath the surface lies one of our most powerful tools for healing the planet. The question is whether we’re willing to invest in it.

Eric Diekhans’ fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and the anthology Uncensored Ink. He is the recipient of a local Emmy for Children’s Television and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in screenwriting. He is a member of Lake View Presbyterian Church in Chicago. (www.ericdiekhans.com)

Good Soil: A Review

 

Jeff Chu

By Mindy Hidenfelter

In the growing field of compost theology, the ecological practice of composting intersects with spiritual renewal. The connection between farming, faith, and life experience is highlighted in Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand by Jeff Chu.

Author Bio from Jeff Chu’s website:

Writer, reporter, editor. Editor-at-large at Travel+Leisure. Teacher in residence at Crosspointe Church in North Carolina. Parish associate for storytelling and witness at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley in California. Ph.D. student in theology at the University of Stellenbosch. Minister of Word and sacrament in the Reformed Church in America (RCA). Cook. Gardener. Author of Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America (Harper, 2013) and co-author, with the late Rachel Held Evans, of the New York Times best-seller Wholehearted Faith (HarperOne, 2021). For a while, I also served as co-curator, with Sarah Bessey, of Evolving Faith. Resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where my husband and I moved in 2020.

Before that, I was a seminarian at Princeton Theological Seminary, where I worked as a farmhand at PTS’s Farminary. Don’t be deceived: When I got to the Farminary, a 21-acre experiment in sustainable agriculture that doubles as the world’s best classroom, I didn’t know anything about farming and I had more experience killing plants than nurturing them. But my work there changed me. That land taught me about the story of life, death, and new life that God has written into creation. Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand, my memoir about my time at the Farminary, published by Convergent, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

In brief, author Jeff Chu finds himself working at Princeton Theological Seminary’s 21-acre “Farminary.” In his book, Good Soil, “he unpacks what he learned about creating ‘good soil', both literally and figuratively, drawing lessons from the rhythms of growth, decay, and regeneration that define life on the land.” (from the dust jacket).

Many notable authors and podcasters have crafted thorough reviews of Good Soil, as well as related conversations with Jeff Chu on compost theology. Here are a few you can check out to learn more:

Book Review in The Presbyterian Outlook by Amy Pagliarella (March 25, 2025)

Evolving Faith Podcast Hosted by Sarah Bessy and Jeff Chu (Season 1, Episode 3, July 8, 2020)

Jeff Chu: Cultivating a Theology of Compost, interview by Katie Noah Gibson (March 21, 2025)

Jeff Chu: Good Soil podcast with Kate Bowler (Season 14: April 1, 2025)

Mindy Hidenfelter serves as the Coordinator for Presbyterians for Earth Care.  She holds degrees in forestry/wildlife science and natural resource management and has experience in urban forestry as an ISA Certified Arborist in both state government and the non-profit world.

Building Resilient Communities Through Sustainable Food Forests

 

Rev. David Gill with Ark. IPL trainers and interns 
at Providence Park on International Day of Forests

by Scharmel Roussel

“Wisdom requires that we look honestly at how our land, our food, and our policies affect the health of our neighbors,” according to Rose Rains, an intern with Arkansas Interfaith Power and Light working in community gardens and edible orchards.

Rose and other AIPL interns are working to establish food forests, supported by grants from American Forests’ Catalyst Fund and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS). Seven interns attended the national conference of Presbyterians for Earth Care in October 2025 and left with a renewed commitment to sustainable urban agricultural methods that conserve water, protect soil health, add valuable tree canopy coverage, and feed low-wealth neighbors facing profound food insecurity.

“This is not simply an economic issue,” according to Rose. “It is a spiritual and moral issue. When families must choose between medical co-pays and groceries, we must ask whether our systems reflect our values.”

At the PEC Conference, interns met Joyce and James Skeet, who led a workshop on “Soil to Soul Awakening.” Three interns later traveled to the Skeets’ Spirit Ranch in New Mexico for hands-on biochar training. Since the trip, AIPL interns have been working to integrate biochar systems into community gardens in Little Rock, using knowledge gained from the trip, funded by the travel budget provided by the American Forests’ Catalyst Fund grant. Interns are also presenting hands-on biochar workshops for fellow urban farmers through AIPL’s extensive network of growers.

“When we made biochar, we gathered large branches of juniper, ponderosa, and pinyon pine from the surrounding area,” said intern Philip Cottingham about the trip to Spirit Ranch. “This firewood comes from trees deteriorated by rampant beetle damage.”

“Wood burns evenly (in the process),” Philip continued. “When the biochar is removed, it must be inoculated with compost (blended and mixed with compost). The biochar acts as an attractor to microbes, replenishing microbes back into the soil…”

After the New Mexico trip, Rose was inspired to join a March 2026 walk to Washington, D.C., calling for faith-based action on food and public health. Rose set out on a purposeful walk from the historic VERTAC Superfund Site in Jacksonville, Arkansas, to Washington, D.C. The march was a call to re-center national policy around stewardship, nourishment, and the biblical mandate to care for “the least of these.”

“When soil is compromised, food is compromised. When food is compromised, bodies are compromised. And when bodies are compromised, families and communities struggle to flourish. Scripture calls us to stewardship — of land, of people, and of future generations,” Rose said of her symbolic walk.

In Washington, D.C., Rose is asking for:

● Re-evaluation and strengthening of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

 ● National adoption of the Double Up Food Bucks Program, which increases purchasing power for fresh produce

● Broader expansion of fruit and vegetable prescription initiatives nationwide

Rose emphasizes that these efforts are rooted in prevention, not partisanship.

“Churches have long led the way in feeding ministries, food pantries, and benevolence funds,” according to Rose. “What would it look like if our national systems reflected that same heart for nourishment and dignity?”

On March 21, 2026 – International Day of Forests – Rose, Philip, other AIPL interns, and volunteers planted 100 fruit and nut trees at Providence Park and shared another 40 trees with volunteers and neighbors. Additionally, 45 shade trees were planted for canopy. Providence Park is the site of a tiny-home village opening in 2026 to house chronically homeless adults moving off the streets and into permanent homes. Providence Park will have a community kitchen and dining hall for residents, as well as wraparound services, including an on-site clinic for mental health, dental, and other healthcare services.

In preparation for the International Day of Forests, Megan Ruth Wilkins, Educator and Trainer for the American Forests’ Catalyst Fund grant, worked closely with Providence Park staff on preparations that included soil, mulch, irrigation, tree and berry bush orders, tree protectors, garden tools, gloves, first-aid kits, lunch, refreshments, and all the details for a successful event for more than 50 people. Interns mixed biochar tea to nourish trees and prepared a bacterial spray to help trees defend against diseases. The March 21 event received advance local television coverage.

Providence Park will hold a grand opening on May 1. The following week, an interfaith prayer gathering is planned, with prayers and meditations for each tree – one by one.

Similarly, Jimmy Parks, AIPL Urban Agriculture Manager, and Trainer/Intern Kevin Holloway prepared for planting in the vegetable beds and in the pollinator gardens near the edible orchard.

The orchard and vegetable gardens will be part of a food forest at Providence Park, providing vulnerable residents with nutritious, locally grown food produced using sustainable methods. The edible orchard will be surrounded by a living fence of berry bushes on trellises. The American Forests’ Catalyst Fund grant has funded an extensive irrigation system for the edible orchard site.

“For us, the food forest is about caregiving and building relationships,” said Errin Stanger, Founder and CEO of Providence Park. “We are drawn to walk alongside the most vulnerable, and our heart is to serve and care for those most in need. Our vision is to cultivate a community of love and service—growing food, dignity, and connection alongside our formerly chronically homeless neighbors.”

Currently, interns and volunteers are learning about tree equity while planting and maintaining fruit trees, nut trees, and berry bushes. Later, when previously unsheltered residents are ready to learn and work, they may also gain employable nursery skills. Workforce development is part of the intention at Providence Park.

AIPL supports vegetable gardens, edible orchards, and food forests at more than 20 locations in low-wealth areas of Pulaski and Faulkner counties in Central Arkansas.

AIPL employs more than 20 part-time trainers and interns. AIPL earned the 2026 “Restoring Creation” award from PEC. A webinar titled “Canopy of Creation: Trees, Faith, and the Work of Justice” was offered to a national audience on March 16.

Scharmel Roussel is Executive Director of Arkansas InterFaith Power & Light.