Ministry to farmers: sowing and growing

A Christian association is seeking to fill a reported gospel need in farming communities.

Tony Baskerville, Cheshire-based tenant farmer on the Rode Estate, Scholar Green, and elder at Grace Church, Sandbach, says that farmers are feeling increasingly marginalised. “There is a tremendous opportunity to reach out to them in genuine Christian love,” said Baskerville.

He added: “It’s ironic that we often say, when thinking about evangelism, that ‘the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few’.”

One organisation seeking to fill the need for labourers in the harvest field is Farming Christian Link (FCL); its volunteers aim to bring Christian witness to those in farming and rural areas through gospel-centred communications.

Formerly the Farmers’ Christian Postal Service, the organisation was founded in 1934 by J.C. Williams, a Free Church minister who lived in Tenterden, Kent. While out for a walk, Williams was caught in a thunderstorm and sought shelter in a farmhouse, subsequently entering into conversation with the farmer about what it meant to be a Christian. Back home, Williams followed up with a letter.

The farmer reportedly responded positively, requesting similar letters to be sent to neighbouring farmers. Over time, hand-written letters had to be duplicated as the number of farmers receiving letters increased. Similarly, as technology advanced, online communications were adopted alongside the conventional postal service, and the organisation’s name was changed to what it is today.

Farming Christian Link’s secretary, Bernard Hicks, shared the purpose of the organisation “to reach people in farming and rural communities with the good news of the gospel, pointing them to the only Saviour for sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Hicks went on to explain that the main focus of the witness is at agricultural shows: “Over recent years the Lord has blessed this witness with FCL having stands at 54 shows in 2024 and even more planned for 2025 – from Yorkshire and Cumbria in the north to Devon in the Southwest and into East Anglia and Lincolnshire in the East.”

In line with the organisation’s mission to share the gospel with those in farming and rural communities, 2024 saw Farming Christian Link give out more than 31,000 gospel leaflets and Scripture text cards, 6,000 children’s activity packs and 10,000 “Jesus said ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ ” wristbands. There were many gospel conversations, with literature offered and taken.