If Plant With Purpose works at the intersection of rural poverty and environmental restoration, why do we partner with churches?
It's a fair question.
Today, Plant With Purpose has forged more than 1,578 church partnerships across nine countries. These partnerships are not an addition to our work, they are one of the reasons the work succeeds and endures long term.
Local churches are uniquely positioned to inspire hope, strengthen communities, and nurture the values that make lasting transformation possible. Long after a program watershed graduates, churches remain, continuing to serve, disciple, and lead.
Spiritual Renewal is the Foundation of Lasting Change
At Plant With Purpose, we often talk about restoring lives and land. But lasting restoration begins with something deeper: spiritual renewal.
Spiritual renewal is the glue that holds our entire model together. It helps people rediscover their God-given dignity, purpose, and responsibility toward one another and creation.
We believe the local church is God's primary instrument for reaching communities. That's why our teams work alongside churches to encourage reconciliation and strengthen leadership, to equip them to serve their congregations and communities more effectively.
When attitudes and values change, families make different decisions. Communities begin working together. Environmental stewardship becomes a shared responsibility.
What Does a Church Partnership Look Like?
A spiritual renewal study at a church in Haiti
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this, as it is also based on the desires of those individual churches. Our local teams forge these relationships. However, each partnership is designed for the mutual benefit of both our partner farmers, the church, and the community. Here are some examples of these partnership activities:
1) Hosting and promoting Purpose Groups - Some Purpose Groups are started by local churches. Pastors and church members often participate alongside neighbors from the broader community. These groups remain open to everyone, regardless of faith.
2) Community Gardens - Many partner churches have a sustainable garden, often tended on a volunteer basis by church members. These gardens provide food for families in need and can also provide revenue for the church. Very often, these are also demonstration gardens where regenerative farming techniques are practiced, taught, and shared.
3) Community Action - Many partner churches serve as a hub for addressing community issues, especially those related to environmental stewardship and creation care. In this capacity, churches will champion community reforestation efforts and other environmental activities.
4) Training Hub – Leadership from local churches often receives training from Plant With Purpose staff and, in turn, teaches our environmental stewardship curriculum to community members.
5) Forest Conservation - Churches are often catalysts for expansion and protection of community forests and regularly organize planting events to support reforestation efforts. A great example of this is the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which, for centuries, has been the guardian of the native forests surrounding their churches, known as the Ethiopian Church Forests.
6) Teaching and Discipleship - Plant With Purpose offers workshops using our Restoration of Relationships, Theology of Work, and Redemptive Agriculture curricula. These are taught in partnership with local church leadership. Leadership training is a core activity of our church partnerships.
We know that when people reconnect with their identity as part of God’s creation, it brings value, meaning, and purpose. When we live into that role, humans thrive, and so do their churches. After Plant With Purpose has been working in a community, we hear story after story of people finding hope, returning to church, and discovering that their faith is not just for Sunday but something that needs to permeate every facet of life.
Leswika is facilitating a peace-building workshop in the Lwafa watershed in Malawi
One participant in these trainings through her local church is Leswika from Malawi. “The training sessions I have attended with Plant With Purpose have been transformative. They have taught me to be a better steward of God’s creation and to serve as an ambassador. I can help educate the community about the importance of creation care and sustainable farming.”
Leswika has benefited personally and now, as a church representative, she promotes spiritual renewal in the community. “I am committed to facilitating a mindset shift in the community through farming,” she shares.
Flourishing Lives = Flourishing Churches
Pastor Calo from the Nam Kohk watershed in Thailand
We consistently hear from pastors about how Plant With Purpose has positively impacted their churches. This change is evident in increasing attendance, giving, and the overall spiritual vitality of their churches as they become hubs for the growth and health of their communities. “As a pastor, I am excited about how this [Plant With Purpose Program] brings people together,” said Pastor Calo, a church leader in Thailand. “Even non-believers can see how we are changing things in the community for the better. We have relationships and unity with each other.”
Serving People Regardless of Religious Affiliation
Plant With Purpose works in global communities where Islam, Buddhism, and other faiths are common. We do not discriminate or withhold program participation from anyone based on their faith. We support local churches as they serve their communities. And while we would never expect a mosque or Buddhist temple to teach Christian theology, we do partner with some mosques and temples around hosting Purpose Groups and environmental training. What better witness for a Christian organization to promote the thriving of people and a community, regardless of the stated faith of those participants? In many countries where we work, peace-building and reconciliation are critical, helping to bring unity where there has traditionally been conflict.
Shamsa, a Muslim Purpose Group member from Tanzania
Shamsa, a Muslim woman from our program in Tanzania, had this to say about her experiences with Plant With Purpose: “Being part of the group taught me to value and love others, regardless of our differences in religion or background," she shares. "I’ve learned that community is about support, understanding, and collective growth.”
Here is Shamsa’s message to you, our Plant With Purpose supporter, “Everything I’ve been able to achieve—my house, my farm, my growing sense of peace and purpose—has been possible because of what I’ve learned and experienced through Plant With Purpose. I am so grateful for the people who support this work. They may not know me, but they have changed my life.”
How Does Plant With Purpose Partner with U.S. Churches?
Churches have been part of the Plant With Purpose story since the very beginning. Their support has made this work possible. Our goal is for churches here to experience the same renewed vitality as our global partner churches. Of course, our supporting church partners often send leaders and congregants on Vision Trips to see their impact firsthand. We also offer a virtual Vision Trip experience called “The Purpose Journey: Oaxaca” that any supporting church can host. However, beyond just learning about the work of Plant With Purpose, we didn’t have a way to bring that spiritual transformation to a local U.S. church until recently.
Plant With Purpose’s Tend curriculum is bringing discipleship and outreach, rooted in creation care, to churches across the U.S.
In 2024, Plant With Purpose had a vision to help churches thrive by reconnecting Christians to their role as stewards of creation. We shared this vision with the Lilly Endowment and received a large grant that we’ve used to create and launch an outreach and discipleship small group experience called Tend, rooted in creation care. The program launched in January 2026, and in only four months, more than a thousand people and churches registered with the intention of starting Tend groups in their communities. It is our hope that the growth, learning, and flourishing experienced by our global church partners will soon be shared by churches across the United States too.
At Plant With Purpose, we are honored to support and celebrate God's work through the Church, in all its local expressions, both here at home and around the world.
