My Dear Champions
I greet you in the precious name of Jesus, the name that is above all names, to whom one day every knee that is in heaven and earth will bow. The name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is infinitely precious to us all, and we are so thankful to Him for demonstrating His boundless love at the cross. We are so grateful that He has revealed Himself to us and has shown us how to live and have our being on earth. It humbles us that in His grace He has even shown us how to farm and how to steward all the gifts and resources He has bestowed on us.
It is with this wonder and awe for Jesus that I bring to you something that I believe is very important and of great significance for the future. I have spent weeks before our Lord in submissive and inquiring prayer, and now I have a peace and conviction that what I am about to share is in the belief that it comes from Him. As you examine and meditate on what I now share, I pray that you all join me in the same conviction.
The name “Farming God’s Way” started to emerge in my heart in the early to mid nineties and then a great friend and very Godly organic farmer from Missouri came out in 1996 to share his system of farming with us in “Farmers for Jesus”. His name is Carroll Montgomery and he is the pioneer and founder of the “Christian Agricultural Stewardship International” (CASI). Carroll has had a tremendous influence on me and helped shape much of FGW, especially in the birthing of our own more recent move to farm without harmful and expensive chemicals. Carroll mentioned in his talks and in the introduction to his manual that we should ‘farm God’s way’. This inspired me and then in 1998 with confirmation from Cath, Piet Dreyer, Alan Norton and Dave Slaven, we changed the name from “The Hinton Outreach Programme” to “Farming God’s Way”.
The name Farming God’s Way is very precious to me and I am sure it is to all of us, as is the FGW logo, and in our hearts we will always farm and teach God’s Way because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. But I believe that it is time to change the name, but not the heart or the message, to “Foundations for Farming”. I would like to share the reasons for this change:
- In the early days we received many objections to the current name from within and without the church, and in more recent years some very Godly and respected brothers have voiced the same objection, pointing out the limitations that the name causes for the wider spread of the message throughout the church and the world.
- After syncretism, legalism in the churches in Africa is probably the next most serious problem we face. I believe that the name “Farming God’s Way” often induces a ‘gospel of works’ approach. The Lord has given us a wonderfully simple technology and implementation management system, and it is true that we must actually do it and put it into action, which in itself is a very effective model to show our people how to apply the Gospel to all of life. However we often hear, at the very next level down, of trainers leaving out the heart and centrality of Jesus and our Faith in Him and His Grace and Love as our prime motive and way for doing it all. They seem very prone to just preaching a list of do’s and don’ts.
- The name “Foundations for Farming” allows us to establish, very early and very strongly and clearly, the ‘age old foundations’ (Isaiah 58:12), on which the Lord builds. The very first foundation is the Father, Jesus the Rock of Ages, the Holy Spirit and His Word and our faith in Him, His Grace and Love as we have just seen above. This will enable us to keep the vision and models very pure and scriptural as a template and yardstick for the world to follow and compare. However this will also enable us to be as shrewd as serpents when teaching the world by starting with ‘creation’, or ‘the Creator’, or ‘God’ as our entrance point, depending on how we discern what is best in their situation. Our objective will always be to lead them to faith in Jesus in His perfect time. This is in no way denying Jesus (Matthew 10:16-33).
- Just two weeks ago, the new Minister of Education, David Coltart, a very sincere Christian, asked us to come and see him in his government offices and enthusiastically asked us to take FGW into the schools in Zimbabwe as a full subject at secondary level, and has just included it at the primary level as well. We have already submitted the concept note for the curriculum, and a professor from the University of Pretoria has offered to help put it into the Zimbabwean curriculum format. We are hoping she will then help to lobby for it to go into the South African schools curriculum, in the Lord’s time. Unprompted, the Minister said that we would have to call it by some other name in order to be able to use it.
- While I was seeking God and asking for fleeces to indicate His will to me, a friend told me that the Alpha course began as something like “Coming to Christ”, and they then had to change it to “Alpha” as a way of getting more secular unsaved people to come to the first introductory session, which has become one of the keys to the phenomenal success of Alpha as an evangelistic tool world wide.
- I then also remembered that Boet Pretorius told me when he asked me to go up to Zambia some years ago to introduce FGW to his principals, that they had to change their name from “The Foundation of Christian Education” (FCE) to “The Foundation for Community Education” for much the same reasons.
About six months ago I was meditating with the Lord about the captivity and yoke of poverty over Africa, and I felt Him say that he had shown us our intrinsic problems of poverty and their solutions, and now He wants us to also start working on the external effects on our continent from the outside world. As a beginning, he impressed on me that the vision so far, has now become a platform to speak into the way many other nations exacerbate the problem through dumping commodities and materials. He has also shown us how misdirected international aid also exacerbates our poverty by increasing the dependency syndrome, which in turn discourages our people from being faithful with the use and development of our own abundant resources. The Lord also confirmed to me that the ‘prosperity gospel’, as it is largely preached into Africa, actually increases our poverty problems by subtly causing an increase of selfishness and carnality in the deep recesses of our hearts. It also breeds a tendency towards a ministry of works, which is so abhorrent to Him. I felt that the Lord was saying that we should begin to actively lobby into those nations about these problems, and also that we must prepare for Him to show us how to counter the huge Islamic onslaught. I know it is a big call, but we have a very big God!
Please don’t think that this new opening will deviate us from our first priority, which is to go the poor where they are on the ground. I rejoiced at Boet’s recent letter when he shared how he has seen the need to keep the vision and teaching pure and to concentrate on very godly models. Please hold that in your hearts and focus there, but I have seen that the Lord is also raising up others to meet this new call. Ever since I received this instruction from the Lord, amazing people and opportunities have come forward. It began with Adrian Willard graciously offering his wonderful ability to make things happen on a national and international scale. Adrian very faithfully served our leader of Newfrontiers, Terry Virgo, for twenty five years in Terry’s remarkable message of God’s grace, and in his vision to plant and strengthen many churches in many countries and continents. It is very humbling to think that Adrian has offered to serve the vision God has given us. Scott has poured his heart and support towards it, and Craig has come along side me to make sure that the home base and outreach doesn’t falter. Then Josie felt led to go to the UK to help open the international office. It is so comforting to know that she will continue to stay close to me through skype (when we get our satellite comms), and keep up her warm relationship with all of you, as well as to help Adrian coordinate the development of more training materials.
I hope and pray that all of you will come into this exciting new era in complete unity! Since the call, the Lord is continuously opening up huge avenues for what will always be FGW in our hearts and will now be called Foundations for Farming (FfF). Yesterday I returned from a conference with all five of the faithful Anglican bishops in Zimbabwe and their aids. I shared vision with them and they have enthusiastically asked us to begin to take FGW into all their churches. The invitation came from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office in Lambeth Palace where they had heard about FGW and the Archbishop’s assistant was dispatched to Zimbabwe, at the invitation of the local bishops, to help facilitate the initiative. This well could be an opening for FfF to be taken into all the Anglican churches in Africa and perhaps beyond.
Many of you will have heard Dr Goodwill Shana speak so brilliantly at our last two Champions gathering. Dr Shana is the current president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), and is also the chairman of the Combined heads of Denominations in the country. He has become a very close friend who has given his full recognition and support for FGW, and has asked us to train into all the rural and peri-urban churches of the EFZ. I am flying to the UK tomorrow (Sunday 3rd May) to join Adrian to speak to the Evangelical Alliance of Britain about their interest in supporting the training of FGW in the evangelical churches in Zimbabwe. Perhaps this will be an opening to receive an introduction and support base, from which to later teach through the evangelical church associations in many other countries.
Last week Lee Davey helped facilitate an incredible conference in Harare, where the international leaders from four major missionary organisations came and heard the vision here at Westgate. They are Dr Carl Moeller, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, which was foundered 50 years ago by Brother Andrew. Then there is Glen Dubois who is the leader of Missionary Ventures International, who work in over 80 countries from seven Regional Offices around the world. Next is john Ogden who is the CEO/Chairman of the Christian Motorcyclists Association, who has over 135 000 members worldwide. And then there is Chris McQuirk who is a Regional Director for the Jesus Film Project, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International. Lee says they were very touched by the Lord’s vision and have offered partnership support, and some said they want all their missionaries trained in FGW/FfF. We have now secured the funding to overdub Johann’s magnificent film into English and Shona.
I have received an invitation to lecture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna in June, which will have quite an international content of speakers and students. We are also developing a strong relationship with a wonderfully prophetic Christian financial expert Gottfried Hetzer from Germany. In 2005 Gottfried predicted with amazing accuracy the current worldwide economic depression, long before it happened. Gottfried is gifted with a deep understanding of world events and economics and especially in relationship to the Kingdom of God. He recognises the very real significance of FGW/FfF has in redressing the micro and macro poverty problems of Africa and beyond.
Johann’s incredibly anointed film is going to have a great effect on the African and international scene and will be a wonderful gift to the spread of the Lord’s entrance point plan to address the poverty problem, and bring countless people to Christ Jesus.
Way back in 1989 I felt the Lord say that we must have faith for FGW for the whole of the continent because the cause of the poverty is primarily spiritual and covers all the African nations. Perhaps we should remember that it is not the name that will begin the deliverance of our people, but the vision the Lord has given us, because the Lord says in His Word that, “without vision my people perish.” We need to quickly reach as many perishing ones as we can, with as few hindrances as possible.
The Lord promises to clear these pathways and keep them straight if we acknowledge Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3: 5-6), so a very important foundation is that we are always remain determined to do everything God’s Way. In 1 Timothy 3:15, we see that the Church is a pillar and foundation of Truth. Doing Church God’s Way is to adhere to the structure that God has laid down in His Word. The Lord Jesus builds His Church and the Holy Spirit appoints leaders (apostles and elders) by the laying on of hands. Our all-wise and holy God calls us to submit to the system and the leadership that He has laid down. In order to preserve the purity and the unity of FfF, I pray that we will all keep in line with our Lord by humbly submitting to His Word and our own local church and family of churches. This is an important foundation for all our true champions to build on.
I have shared all this at length in order to describe the background to the new phase, and to explain why I believe that the Lord has directed us to change the name. I exhort you all to carry on with the wonderful vision the Lord has given each one of you for your own lives and ministry, as well as that which has drawn us all together, but to also keep in mind the bigger picture of God’s plans for FfF, so that we remain sensitive to His leading, and in unity and love for Him and for one another. It would be wonderful if we could all get accustomed to using the name “Foundations for Farming” as soon as possible. May the Lord pour out His blessing on you all.
With very much love
Brian and Cath
P.S. Having first sent out this letter to the senior champions forum members, one of them got back to us and pointed out a concern about the fact that “F” is the sixth letter of the alphabet, and that some people might see it as representing the number 666. I have not studied the Bible numerics concept, so we contacted Ken Clark who is Craig’s pastor and a very gifted Bible teacher and he tells us that the numerical patterns don’t work at all in English and they only apply in Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible. So I hope that no one will see it as a stumbling block.
