Lessons for Faith from the Garden with Matt Erickson

About this episode

Andrew Camp discusses gardening as a metaphor for faith and pastoral ministry with guest Matt Erickson.

Host Andrew Camp welcomes Matt Erickson, senior pastor of Eastbrook Church in Milwaukee and author of The Pastor as Gardener , to discuss gardening as a metaphor for pastoral ministry and discipleship. Erickson shares his family roots in gardening, favorite crops, and how crises—including the pandemic, racial justice tensions, and a friend’s moral failure—led him to agrarian biblical imagery such as 1 Corinthians 3:5. He describes how themes like seed, compost, pruning, soil, and seasons reshape views of suffering, formation, place, and community, critiquing technological distraction, rootlessness, and efficiency-driven “exploiter” mindsets in favor of care and attentiveness. Practical steps include contemplative prayer and guarding attention. They explore how churches face seasons, including “winter” in North American decline, and why resurrection-shaped hope sustains faithful cultivation. Bio Matt Erickson is a pastor, writer, speaker, and disciple of Jesus. Since 2010, Matt has served as the Senior Pastor at Eastbrook Church , an urban, multiracial church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Matt received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Christian Education from Wheaton College…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Camp

Guest: Matt Erickson

Topics covered

• gardening as metaphor
• pastoral ministry
• discipleship
• crises and faith
• community and place
• spiritual formation
• resurrection-shaped hope

Keywords

• gardening
• pastoral ministry
• discipleship
• spirituality
• community
• faith
• crises
• resurrection

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Eastbrook Church, Wheaton College, Northern Theological Seminary, Western Theological Seminary

Books & works: The Pastor as Gardener

Places: Milwaukee, North America

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