“Come grow with us.” So the banner greets everyone as they drive by Christ Lutheran Church on
Lower Sacramento Road. The banner bears a cross set among freshly-plowed rows: a fitting symbol for a
church that wants to start a community garden.
This isn’t the first time that we’ve hosted a garden on our property. Back in 2022, the members of
Christ Lutheran Church wanted to make use of the gifts God had given them to grow: to grow vegetables,
yes, but to grow spiritually, too. The community garden provided a chance for people to work shoulder-
to-shoulder and see the (literal) fruit of their labors. It provided a chance to make new connections with
people that we hadn’t met before. Unfortunately, the project was put on hold as the previous pastor moved
away. The banner still stood—“Come grow with us” the banner beckoned—but the community garden
didn’t bring much harvest the last few years.
At no point could I have doubted the sincerity of the banner’s message. My family and I were
wrapped up with warm welcome as we arrived in a new state, a new city, a new home, a new church. It
was obvious that this is a congregation that wants to grow: to grow in God’s grace, to grow in God’s love,
to grow in love toward one another.
I wasn’t surprised. This congregation has been shaped and formed for the last 64 years by the
gospel of God’s love for us: that in Christ, God has loved all people and granted them the forgiveness of
sins and opened for them the door of eternal life. That message changes people’s hearts. When people
come to know and experience God’s love through the gospel, we can expect that love to overflow out of
their hearts and into the lives of the people around them.
What did surprise me was how much room we have to grow: our church has a huge property, with
lots of wide open space. So much so that our soccer field—which is huge—gets lost in the vastness of the
rest of the land on which our church rests. There are a lot of things that we could build on this property.
But instead of building, we want to grow. It looks like a miracle from the outside: a tiny seed is
planted in the ground, and in a few days or weeks two green leaves pop out of the soil. The stem thickens,
two leaves become 4, then 8, and soon you don’t bother to count. From one small seed grows a plant that
can make a meal; a flower that can make your day; a tree that can make a shady place to rest.
It makes a lot of sense that Jesus often used agriculture to illustrate what the he does in our lives:
he feeds our bodies through the plants of the field; he feeds our spirits, too. He adorns his creation with
beauty: flowers and trees, sky and water, mountains and valleys. He fills our lives with beauty, too: the
love of family and friends; the many gifts of musicians, writers, and artists; the warm welcome of a new
church. We can rest under the shade of a tree; we can rest in the shadow of his love for us.
The community garden seems like a natural fit for our congregation. As I looked at my new
congregation, the huge amount of land we’ve been blessed with spoke an unavoidable message: we have
so much to share, and so much room to grow. Towards the end of 2023, I asked if we could pursue
restarting the community garden and see what might grow out of it.
We want to grow in our appreciation for all of God’s gifts. We want to grow in our love for one
another. The people of Christ Lutheran Church want to grow for our community: we want to provide a
place where families and neighbors can work together to put food on tables. We want to grow in our
community: we don’t want to hold our neighbors at arm’s length, but welcome them in. We want to grow
with our community: as Lodi grows and expands, we don’t just want to grow vegetables, but we want to
grow in our love, our relationships, our faith.
And we want to share what we grow with others. So, we’re inviting you to come and grow with
us: to take part in our Community Garden and spend some time with your kids, your neighbors, the
church down the street. Come and see what you can grow, and what God might grow in your life, too.
A new banner will greet you, so the wording’s a little different than when I first arrived, but the
message is the same. Come on down to Christ Lutheran Church and “Let’s grow together.”
If you would like more information please follow Christ's community garden Facebook page using the QR code
