From the Home Place

December 27, 2025

Over the last few days, Miss Deb and I have found ourselves on the road. As we traveled across Wyoming and South Dakota I noticed one consistent element of the landscape that concerns me, overgrazing. I know, with the drought conditions of the Midwest, it is difficult to not attempt to get every blade of grass for your livestock. Yet, I do not blame the drought conditions as being the cause of overgrazing, I blame greed.

With sky-high cattle prices, many producers are keeping every female they can get their hands on to raise more calves. However, the math is quite simple: constant land available + increased cattle numbers = overgrazed pastures.

Many of the pastures we drove past in the last few days are severely overgrazed, right down to the rocks in the pasture. As I looked out across vast acres of grassland, it was often difficult to see a single tuft of grass waving in the wind. In several locations, there wasn’t even much for sagebrush, for they too had been consumed by hungry ruminants. Experience has taught me this about overgrazing, the producer always ends up paying for it in the end.

As pastures are overgrazed year after year, cactus soon begin to dominate the landscape. With nothing to hold the topsoil, the ground begins blowing – especially with windy winters like this one! When the ground blows, it sheers off what baby grass that might be attempting to surface. Loss of ground cover, blowing topsoil and more hooves walking to and frow looking for a blade of grass to fill their grumbling rumen adds up to overgrazed pastures. Overgrazing leads to infestations of weeds and cactus, removing more usable acres of quality grasslands.

As I look at the situation, I see only two possible solutions: 1) more moisture 2) fewer cattle per acre on most pastures. Many years ago, Fram ran a commercial about the quality of their oil filters being worth the higher price of said filters. The closing comment of each commercial was made by a mechanic holding one of their oil filters as he stated, “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.” I fear that too many of our producers are making lots of money now but will end up paying for it later as more and more acres of grassland suffer from being overgrazed.

So, what is the correlation to this blog? There are more and more “bigger” churches appearing on the landscape, while the spiritual pasture appears to be overgrazed. This is what I mean, as more and more people gather in fewer places for worship and fellowship, the pressure increases upon the pastor (or pastors), of said fellowships is increased to the point that pretty soon that pastor often becomes more of a manager than a minister.

Once again, the math is quite simple: more people + more demands upon the ministry = less time for the pastor to invest into the lives of those same people. The days of “pastoral visitation” are rapidly vanishing because many churches just can’t afford enough staff to minister to their increased number of parishioners, resulting in overgrazed pastorates.

Whether it’s cattle or people, the end result is often the same, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Yesterday, we drove past a little pasture that had at least twice as many cattle on it than it could support. One cow was on her knees, with her head under the bottom wire of the fence, eating grass from the road rite-of-way.

How does that apply to churches? Perhaps like this: as more and more people attend the same understaffed church, the really hungry ones tend to go looking for other pasture. Oh for sure, there will be a gaggle of people who attend a popular church because they love the music, or the fellowship or even the preaching, but are they really growing in their faith? Are their lives being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ?

The simple answer is, “We do not know if they are becoming transformed or are they just entertained?” The reason we don’t know the spiritual condition of church attendees is because we do not have an accurate method to measure maturity nor do we have the time, finances and personnel to administer such a survey even if it existed.

Just like with cattle on short grass, entertained people constantly consume but tend to produce very little. Let’s face it, we live in a consumer culture. I served at a large church in the 1990’s. As such I was often told by visitors, “We are shopping for a new church for our family.” Yep, we shop for a church that makes us happy much in the same way we go shopping for new clothing to hopefully achieve the same result, to make “me happy.”

Solomon has revealed to us, the hole inside of each of us cannot be filled by anything or anyone except Jesus. God has created each of us with a hollow feeling that only a real relationship with Jesus can fill. Yet, we humans tend to try to fill that “hunger” with things, instead of searching for a life-changing experience with Jesus Christ.

For years I have been told that “Healthy things grow and reproduce.” A statement I agree with, yet in today’s culture we are experiencing fewer and fewer true disciples of Jesus Christ. Barna Research recently stated that “From astrology apps to tarot readings, or on TikTok, many Americans are seeking meaning through spiritual experiences that exist outside traditional religion.” There are more people in the pasture, but could it be, we have not produced enough mature disciples to help these hungry ones find the one blade of grass that will fill the hollowness of their life: Jesus Christ!

Summation, if your church has a pastor who is preaching biblical truth in ways that people can apply said truth to their lives, praise God! If your church offers a music ministry that enhances worship rather than just entertains, praise God! If your church is growing numerically because people are growing in their relationship with Jesus, then praise God! Miss Deb and I are blessed to attend such a church and hopefully so are you.

Yet I caution, keep an eye on the grass, it can only support a certain number of grazing units. My suggestion is this: The remedy could be: To prevent Christ-centered churches from being overgrazed we must pray for spiritual rain from above; and all mature Christians are responsible to help someone else find spiritual food within the pages of their Bible. After all, hungry cattle and hungry people are always looking for a good meal.

Helping others learn to feed themselves with you, Neal