Eyes to Acres

 "Eyes to Acres”

Wendell Berry died this week. Dolly Parton died last week. Gloria Steinem died just a day or so ago. What a cast of characters!. Berry may have been the least known.

Wendell Berry lived on a farm in Kentucky, a gentleman farmer who mourned the disappearance of the small farm and the benefits of that environment. He was an open critic of the industrial farms, as he would be of industrial medicine and industrial government and industrial churches. He saw something beautiful and valuable in small things.

As a gentleman farmer, he took time and found time for writing. Yes, he probably made more money from his writing than from his farming, and perhaps could not have survived on the farm without the additional income. It’s all about the money, right? No, not always. But he was a careful and thoughtful writer. He wrote fiction and poems, as well as essays and editorials.

One of his phrases that grabbed my attention a few years ago was the title of the post today: eyes-to-acres. That is, the farmer needs to be able to know his farm. He needs to be able to walk his property. When he does so, he is able to note erosion that takes place; the decline in soil health; the runoff into the stream. The land is the treasure, and if the treasure is depleted, then so is the farm. But what if you have 10,000 acres? Can you walk it? Can you see the signs that are telling the story? Or can those depleting affects be easily corrected with a boatload of chemicals?

Not only is there the land, but there are also the animals. Does he know the sheep and cows by name? I am not sure that naming the animals is important, but you must know them. You look at their mouths and their eyes and their hooves.

They are your investment, but more than that, you love them. They are not merely commodities. They are part of the farm. They are a part of the farm community of which you yourself, and your wife and children are a part. It’s not just a business. It is not just a machine.

I’ve thought of Wendell’s words in relation to the church. Mark has told me more than once that our church is the first church he has attended where the pastor knew his name. Of course, other churches he attended were larger, more successful. According to American standards, we don’t measure up, unless “eyes-to-acres” matters; unless a person’s name matters.

Now our philosophy of ministry includes the idea that the pastor is not the only minister in the church, but that we all are. The whole Body is important, and all its “parts.” Therefore, we are all ministers, and therefore we should all “walk the property” and care for and love the “creatures” of the farm, the people of the church. We all have the responsibility to know each other’s names, and to pray for one another, by name. We need to look in one another's eyes and know one another’s souls.

I know that large churches have explanations for how they accommodate these things. That is fine, but I’m not sure Wendell Berry was buying it.