The Earthen Institute’s Prairie Apprenticeship Program exists to give glory to God by offering committed and thoughtful students a place to plant, cultivate, and harvest as whole persons in the whole world that God has made.
Like the world we live in, Christian discipleship is often fragmented and disjointed, separating body and soul; calling and the earth; creation and community; church and mission; work and worship; beauty and truth; Scripture and ordinary life. Our program attempts to demonstrate a biblical way of life that is integrally connected and whole. We aim to practice these truths by walking with the Prairie Apprentices through a summer-long program of work, prayer, study, and community.
Apprentices will engage in the real work of a small-scale, sustainable, organically-based farm. This involves real farm work! We operate a direct-marketed vegetable farm using a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model in which members (customers) come weekly to our farm during the growing season to pick up their share of the produce. We also raise Red Wattle Hogs — a rare and heritage breed of swine. Each day, Apprentices will get their hands dirty in the real stuff of Creation while learning a craft in this rapidly expanding form of agriculture.
Apprentices will enter into a rhythm of work and life that centers on prayer and worship. Even during the busyness and stresses of a real farm business we will daily and regularly seek to enter into a life that has Jesus Christ as the hope of each task, the strength for each obstacle, the wisdom for each problem, and the sole audience for whom we push on.
Apprentices will pursue a high level of rigorous study as part of the program. The summer reading list will be vast and varied with topics and titles selected for their insights into discipleship-as-earthen-vessels. The study components of the program include substantial required reading, weekly seminar discussions, and the creation of a personal project, paper, or reflection that engages an idea or theme touched on in the program.
Apprentices will participate in the life of a community. This is not a “manufactured” community or a semi-permanent community created for the Apprentices, but includes our families, our church community, our small Iowa community, and the community created around the life of our farm. The Apprentices will be invited to participate as members of these communities during the program.
1. The Apprentices will join a cohort of farmers with a deep and broad understanding of small-scale, sustainable agriculture. Apprentices will… enhance their own personal lives by developing skills and knowledge to enjoy home gardening in the future… have a brighter outlook of future employment in the rapidly expanding and diversifying field of small-scale, sustainable agriculture… have their vision sparked for the development of future agricultural businesses… create agriculture or creation-based ministries alongside existing non-profits, churches, camps, colleges, and seminaries that share a similar vision of engagement with creation as an opportunity for spiritual formation.
2. The Apprentices will engage a company of believers who are maturing into Christ-likeness. Apprentices will… develop a greater sense of humility, reverence, and awe before the Lord… experience greater lamentation for their own sin and the brokenness of the world… take greater joy in the Gospel of grace… aim their heart to better reflect the holy will of God… see the Spirit-indwelt life of discipleship on the earth as a life of creativity, adventure, beauty, mission, and redemption.
3. The Apprentices will be a cohort of students with a greater understanding and appreciation of a life of deliberate reflection and study. Apprentices will… enjoy reading and love to learn… better articulate their thoughts… disagree without being disagreeable… be able to see and draw connections and conclusions between their studies and work… have produced a project, paper, or reflection articulating the intersection of one of the themes of the program with their own personal experience.
4. The Apprentices will experience a cohort of brothers and sisters in Christ who love one another in their communities. Apprentices will… see the reality, relevance, and centrality of the local church… take part in the life of a family by eating together, hanging out together, taking care of children and elderly together, listening to each other, praying with and for each other… serve one another… take the lead when appropriate and willingly defer when appropriate.
Farm. Our farm is called “Prairie Whole Farm.” It is a real farm in which we try to make a profit. At present, the two central components of our farm are the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) garden and the herd of Red Wattle heritage hogs. The 2014 season will mark our third CSA year. Phillip Jensen has also worked at a CSA outside of St. Louis, MO. We have structured our CSA so as to encourage the gathering of people to our place. This is important to us. Once a week all of the paid members (customers) of the garden come during pick-up hours to receive their weekly share of produce. During our first year we had 10 members. The second year we had 20 members. For this year to come, we plan to expand to 40 members. Gardening on this scale is hard work!
Apprentices will spend a significant portion of most days planting, weeding, pruning, tilling, harvesting, digging, and problem solving. Our farm is a work in progress and we learn many new things every year. While Apprentices learn much from what we have discovered over the past three years there is vast opportunity for them to contribute their own creative problem-solving solutions, development of new products, ideas, etc.
Apprentices should expect to assist with chores for our herd of Red Wattle hogs twice a day. There will also be a variety of other tasks relating to their care, such as feeding, watering, giving shots, building fence, grinding feed, breeding, farrowing, etc. We direct market most of these hogs to consumers and others who are interested in breeding animals for themselves. We also have laying hens and a milk cow.
Tasks will often be assigned according to what needs to be accomplished on any given day. However, if there are areas in which an Apprentice is particularly interested, we try to accommodate those as best we can over the course of the summer.
Field Trips. Over the course of the Program, we will make field-trips to several unique, small-scale, sustainable farms across Iowa. Each of these farms are owned and operated by committed and thoughtful Christians who deliberately farm in a certain way based upon their faith convictions. The tours include conversations with each farmer about the integration of their faith with their farming.
Prayer & Worship. Each day will have a rhythm of prayer and worship. We want all of our work here to be directed to the Lord as an act of praise, so while we deliberately break and reflect and wait in prayer before the Lord, we also hold forth our work as a form of prayer and worship.
Likewise, each week has a rhythm as Sundays are intentionally set aside as a Sabbath rest, “unto the Lord.” No regular work will be done on Sundays aside from the essential chores. With our weekdays full of study and work, Apprentices particularly enjoy having their Sundays free. We encourage Apprentices to attend a church of their choice on Sunday mornings. (There are a number of churches we can recommend in the area.)
Each week throughout the course of the program there will be scheduled times of one-on-one conversations for discipleship mentoring and spiritual formation. These sessions provide opportunities for Apprentices to articulate reflections on what they are learning, to be challenged in their thinking and for them to receive personal shepherding. Laurie Jensen provides this spiritual direction for women and Pastor James Roland shepherds the men.
Study. The format for study is relatively simple. Reading material is assigned with normally 1 book each week for the 12 week program. Apprentices will be given sufficient time to complete the required reading during the course of the week. One half-day each week will be set aside for in-depth group seminar-type discussions of the week’s reading material.
The study portion of the program will culminate in the creation of an original project, paper, or reflection by each Apprentice examining a certain theme of the program in more detail and with personal reflection. The initial planning stages of this project will commence near the beginning of the program.
Community Life. As a community, we share family meals that include children, grandparents, and great-grandparents. They may include other members of our churches and communities. These meals are deliberately arranged for engagement and are formative moments for all of us as we are present with each other, talk and share a common table. These are the real things of life and are not inconsequential moments in the course of our program. Meals often include group planning and preparation for the day’s activities. The meals situate the other elements of the program within the broader context of family and community life.
In addition to the micro-community that the Prairie Apprenticeship Program generates, our CSA farm also creates a broader community, and we want to enhance and encourage that element this coming year. Each week a number of families from our local community come to our farm to collect their produce and take part a bit in the life of this farm. We intend to develop pick-up days to include things like live music and group meals.
The 2014 Earthen Institute’s Prairie Apprenticeship Program will be 12 weeks in duration beginning on Monday, June 2nd and concluding on Saturday, August 23rd.
Each Apprentice will have his/her own furnished bedroom and access to full cooking facilities, full bathroom, and laundry. While there is a definite communal aspect to the program, an effort has been made to provide a place of privacy in the living accommodations that is quite distinct from the lives of the resident families.
Many of the meals will be eaten together each week. When not eating together, Apprentices will be responsible for their own meals. This will be a separate personal expense but each housing unit contains sufficient cooking facilities and equipment for the preparation and cooking of regular meals.
Many of the noon meals will be eaten together on the farm and occasional evening meals will be eaten with the resident families. Apprentices will be responsible for their own breakfasts, 1–2 noon meals, and 4–6 evening meals each week.
The tuition for the 2014 Earthen Institute’s Prairie Apprenticeship Program is $875. One of the primary purposes of the cost is to encourage the Apprentices to take their work and study during the program seriously. Tuition covers housing, utilities, community meals, all required readings, and transportation for field trips.
Partial scholarships are available for students with expressed need. Please inquire for additional information.
To apply please send cover letter, resume, and three letters of reference to: Phillip Jensen, Prairie Apprenticeship Program, 2981 Orchard Avenue, Ida Grove, IA 51445.
Cover letters should seek to address the following questions: 1. Why are you interested in the Earthen Institute’s Prairie Apprenticeship Program? 2. What themes of the Program most appeal to you? Why? 3. How do you hope to change over the course of the Apprenticeship Program?
Letters of reference should include: 1. A Pastor or someone with spiritual authority over you who can speak to your spiritual/Christian life. 2. A professor or teacher who can speak to your academic ability. 3. Someone who can attest to your ability and willingness to meet the physical requirements of trying farm work.
Application Deadline is March 1.
Phillip Jensen — Director, Prairie Whole Ministry; Farmer, Prairie Whole Farm. B.S., History, Iowa State University. M.A., Theological Studies, Covenant Theological Seminary.
James Roland — Pastor, Hope Evangelical Free Church. B.A., History, Northwestern College, St. Paul, MN. M.A., Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Alan Jensen — President, The Earthen Institute. Professor, Practical Theology, Evangelical Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Kathmandu, Nepal. Iowa State University Extension (retired). Missionary, MTW — Nepal, Training and Development. B.A., Early Childhood Development, Iowa State University. M.S., Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State University.
Laurie Jensen — Mentor/Teacher. Missionary, MTW — Nepal. B.A., Physical Education, Iowa State University. Graduate Certificate, Spiritual Transformation, Northern Seminary.
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