Divine Mandate and Collective Responsibility

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (EPHESIANS 6:12).

At the Ministry of Life, our foundational belief is deeply anchored in the rights and responsibilities bestowed upon humanity by the Creator, intricately woven into our understanding of God, humanity, and the entire creation. This isn't a mere entitlement but is understood as being made in the "image of God" — our Divine Mandate. This mandate calls upon us to actively engage with the world, to cherish its intrinsic harmony, and to be dedicated stewards of the land. Through such stewardship and commitment to the Word and natural law, we pursue a deeper comprehension of God's grand design, ever inspired by His wondrous creations.

Scripture elaborates this divine stewardship in the book of Genesis, where God creates humans in his own image and places them in the Garden of Eden "to work it and to guard it" (Genesis 2:15). This stewardship is not merely an environmental responsibility; it's seen as a spiritual duty. The Earth is a manifestation of God's creation and humans, as God's representatives or stewards, are tasked to care for and maintain the balance of this creation. Every action taken, every decision made concerning the environment, is thus a reflection of one's commitment to this divine mandate and this certainly, before anything else, includes the care and education of our young.

Humans have a unique role in the divine scheme of creation. We are the bridge between the physical and spiritual realms, with the capacity to influence both. Our actions can either enhance or disrupt the divine flow of blessing into the world, shefa. Therefore, the right to stewardship is also a challenge; it comes with accountability. How well we manage our resources and respect our environment is a measure of our understanding and fulfillment of the Divine Mandate.

The challenge that we seek to address at the Ministry of Life is that many young Americans have no idea (nor care) how to care for themselves independently-to grow their own food, butcher their own meat and become stewards of the land. There are (very deep) reasons for this collective degradation that we will begin to rectify at the MoL, but for now, we will restrict ourselves to generalizations. While the American Dream of home ownership is firmly rooted in our collective consciousness, it is a dream that has lost it's luster. The manner in which people buy homes, and in which cities expand, is very unnatural and sick. So sick that it, alongside our deteriorating gut health, could be defined as the social petri dish that harbors all manner of sickness and disease. Subdivisions of row after row of cookie cutter homes, inviting people to commit to a lifetime of debt servitude in order to live in something they might never really own and which, through their construction, completely rob nature of her bounty. Inhabitants are forced to work in jobs they most likely despise simply to fund their own coffin. Life is not meant to be lived in servitude to other living "things". We are meant to be free men and life and death are meant to be transcended. Farms surrounding Eber are being lost right and left and razed to the ground for subdivisions of single family homes and fertile, irrigated lands all around the world are being destroyed for the sake of a flawed developmental model that only creates more of the same sickness that ails us all. This has to change.

It is our right and responsibility to craft an alternative model. From my experience working with the homeless in Texas I know that simply providing accommodation for someone in need is not going to help nor change anything about the broken nature of that person's situation. It might make you feel good, offering them a roof, but it does little to change their plight because a roof is only an outward expression of an inner lack that they are unable to fulfill. At the MoL we will build our own homes and we will invite others to join us as we build them, creating a team of builders who can then set about building and teaching others to build a future where mortgages aren't necessary to live in a space wholly your own.

Focusing on low-cost natural building techniques that complement and harmonize with the land rather than pillage it, we will create visually attractive and spiritually attuned living spaces that inform and guide a new form of social development that is more productive and appealing to a generation whose future will be dominated by machines but where the source of individual wealth and fulfillment will be creative. As we stare down the barrel of a future where the masses are lost in a digital world where God cannot be found, we strive to create a ministry that promotes and protects God's creation and establishes a partnership with our natural world that enhances health, provides fulfillment and purpose and inspires creativity through wholesome living and cooperation amongst families with a similar desire for wholeness.