Demonstration Plot
Today I came across an illustration from Craig Van Gelder’s The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001), pp. 99-100. “Growing up on a farm in rural Iowa provided me with an object lesson for understanding the church’s being mission by nature. Each county in the state employed an extension agent to work with farmers…. As new farming technologies, seeds, and fertilizers became available, the extension agents introduced these to the farmers. My dad, like many farmers, was often hesitant to acce3pt the innovations. One of the methods extension agents used to gain acceptance of these innovations was demonstration plots. A strip of land, usually along a major roadway, was selected as demonstration plot, where a new farming method, seed, or fertilizer was used to raise a crop. It was uncommon for farmers to remain skeptical throughout the summer as the crops grew. But there was always keen interest in the fall when crop was harvested. I...