The Farminary Project at Princeton Seminary integrates theological education with small-scale regenerative agriculture in the conviction that the skills and character vital to faithful Christian leadership must be formed in direct relationship with God’s good creation. Located at the Seminary’s 21-acre farm, this project is a garden of innovation and an incubator for leadership.
There is a profound correlation between the character of the agrarian, who cultivates the flourishing of life throughout an ecosystem, and the faithful Christian leader, who promotes wholeness and healing within the world that God loves. Like adept agrarians, Christian leaders must learn the pastoral sensibilities of nurturing seeds, persisting through seasons of slow growth, promoting bountiful harvest, and holding life and death in reverent wonder.
Issues of agrarian thought and practice—ecology, sustainability, food justice—require our faithful attention as stewards of creation and scholars of theology. The Bible and the Christian tradition—which look to God as Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all creation—have rich theological resources to inform contemporary conversation about ecological questions.
Princeton Seminary believes that the formation of faithful Christian leaders happens most effectively in a residential community of rigorous intellectual engagement. Whether on a farm or in a classroom, we bring together the life of the mind and the practices of faith in anticipation of new life. As students study and tend the soil alongside one another, they experience a deep dimension of Christian community and learn to love God, creation, and one another in new ways.
“My call as a pastor centers on shaping a community where people can connect and be real with each other and God.”