The Bahai Grass Ministry
On the Nature of the Sonlight Ministry

 “Depends on how much time ‘ya want to spend on your lawn,” said Mr. Sheffield, at the hardware store.
 “Depends on how much money y’ wanna spend,” said the other man from behind the rack of nails.
 Mr. Sheffield shook his head in confirmation. “Look, Bahai’s what wants to grow here. It’s what’s gonna grow out of this soil, even if ‘ya do nothin’ to it.”
 “That’s true,” I thought, remembering the grass growing now in the turned-up soil over my septic tank, “I didn’t plant that.”
 Mr. Sheffield continued, “Get ‘ya some Argentine Bahai, throw it out on that sandy soil, and it’ll grow.  Now ‘ya get some of that ‘designer’ grass and you’re fightin’ moles and bugs and fungus, spending all kinds of money doctorin’ it up just so your soil ‘ll take it.  Meanwhile, the Bahai’s growing wild and crazy over there where ‘ya haven’t been tendin’ to... I learned that lesson the hard way.”
 “And it don’t cost as much, either,” said the other man, handing Mr. Sheffield a dollar for a bag of nails.
 

Three weeks later, I’m sitting on my porch looking at the bright green grass pushing through my thin sandy soil, thinking... Bahai grass is like the ministry of Sonlight.

These are soil-poor times.  Teenagers don’t go to church with mom and dad (if mom and dad are even going).  Church attendance is not seeded into the life of the modern-day adolescent.  They aren’t familiar with the Bible or what it says.  David and Goliath are the names of professional wrestlers, aren’t they?  And their exposure to religion can range from a cult massacre to the random televangelist.  In protecting the rights of Americans not to believe, we have drained the fertilizer from our soil... arguably a fairer setting for all?  And the post “God is Dead” generation says “who?”  Still the Bahai grass grows... coarse music rising from this sandy soil, reaching in its desperate way for Heaven, somehow sensing the way to grow....

“Tell me all your thoughts on God, ‘cuz I’d really like to meet her,” says one pop song.

“We sit outside and argue all night long, about a God we’ve never seen...” wonders another songwriter.

“I believe in the Kingdom come when all the colors will bleed into one, but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for...”  Bahai grass looking for sunlight...?

Jesus used scripture when talking to the enlightened and religious, but to the average “Joe” he used concepts from farming, fishing, parenting, wage-earning, house cleaning, wine-making, wildflowers, foot washing, school, dog food, bread making, sheepherding, camels and horses, employer-employee relations, hoodlums and muggers, fine dining, class struggle, marriage, fashion shows, tombstones and funerals, sewing and fabric analogies, trees, vines, shrubs, plants, weeds, oil lamps, vacation stories, business partnerships, money, drama and stage terminology, animals, building construction and carpentry, banking and investment, creditors and debtors, neighborliness, guards and property protection, renters, masks, canaries, embezzlers, fertilizer, bird nests, dinner reservations, auditors and accountants, pigpens, dancing and parties, gambling... sound like Bahai?

Well, this is the stuff of rock ‘n roll.  Some of it’s crude and unrefined, but may be the only common soil to all young people.   Family stories, or school experiences are as varied as they are many.  Sunday School is not a cultural “given” and the Family Bible is unworn.  But all kids have a radio.  Music may be the only thing growing well in today’s soil.  “It’s what wants to grow.”

And in this ministry, we use the “Son” light reflected in the Bahai of their music in the same way that Jesus used fishing and farming stories.  Only part of rehearsal time is given to music.  Through “focus times” faith is explored and explained.  Jesus’ words are layered onto a song and lyrics are seen in the light of God’s Truth.

That Truth is there because God has sewn Divine threads into everything.  Today’s musicians cannot help but catch on these threads as they speak to life.  We do not borrow from the secular.  The secular consistently reiterates the divine.

Sonlight is missions work in our poorest of American soil - our young people.