My City Needs More Gardens and Fewer Guns: Finding Peace From A Pallet: The Gospel According to a Garden Box. Genesis 2:15 By Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr.

My City Needs More Gardens and Fewer Guns: Finding Peace From A Pallet: The Gospel According to a Garden Box. Genesis 2:15  By Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. | WFAA July 4, 2026 Shooting: https://youtube.com/shorts/60Ih6Aps-NE?is=2pXRcnrPTFu_FT12

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” — Genesis 2:15

Every week, another shooting makes the headlines.

Another family grieves.

Another candlelight vigil gathers.

Another young life is buried long before its time.

For more than three decades, I have stood at too many hospital beds, crime scenes, funerals, prayer vigils, and community meetings. I have marched for justice, advocated for peace, comforted grieving families, and challenged leaders to confront the violence that continues to wound our neighborhoods.

Those experiences have taught me an important lesson.

If we want fewer guns, we must build more gardens.

That may sound overly simple.

It is not.

It is profoundly biblical.

The first assignment God ever gave humanity was not to build a sanctuary.

It was to cultivate a garden.

In Genesis 2:15, God placed humanity in the Garden of Eden “to work it and take care of it.” Before there was a pulpit, there was soil. Before there was a choir, there was cultivation. Before there was a church building, there was stewardship.

God’s first instruction was not destruction.

It was cultivation.

Somewhere along the way, many churches became exceptionally good at preaching about transformation while becoming less engaged in transforming the neighborhoods beyond their doors.

Meanwhile, too many neighborhoods have become places where liquor stores outnumber grocery stores, vacant lots replace vibrant gardens, and children recognize the logo of a fast-food restaurant more quickly than they recognize a tomato plant.

This is more than a food crisis.

It is more than an economic crisis.

It is more than a public health crisis.

It is a spiritual crisis.

I know because I watched it happen.

As a child growing up in Fort Worth’s historic Hillside of Morningside neighborhood, I remember when families could buy fresh vegetables nearby. I remember locally owned businesses, neighborhood pharmacies, doctors’ offices, and streets where people knew one another.

Then I watched opportunity slowly disappear.

Fresh food disappeared.

Businesses disappeared.

Investment disappeared.

Hope disappeared.

When neighborhoods lose healthy places to gather, unhealthy alternatives often take their place.

Violence grows where opportunity withers.

Isolation grows where community disappears.

For more than thirty years, I served in higher education, believing education could change lives.

It can.

But education alone cannot rebuild a neighborhood.

When God called me to pastor New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, He expanded my understanding of ministry.

I realized the Church is not simply called to preach hope.

The Church is called to plant it.

That conviction gave birth to Peace From A Pallet. CBS News: https://youtu.be/1zFbKLdHgkA?is=SPV_RmJaMC3ZzGvq

The concept is beautifully simple.

Take discarded wooden pallets.

Build raised garden boxes.

Fill them with healthy soil.

Plant vegetables.

Invite children to plant seeds.

Ask grandparents to teach.

Harvest together.

Cook together.

Eat together.

Pray together.

What begins as gardening becomes discipleship.

What begins as agriculture becomes community.

What begins as vegetables becomes healing.

The vegetables matter.

But the relationships matter even more.

Every seed teaches faith.

Every garden teaches patience.

Every harvest teaches gratitude.

Every shared meal reminds us that community grows around the table.

That is why I call this ministry The Gospel According to a Garden Box.

The Gospel is not confined to a sanctuary.

The Gospel grows wherever people love God enough to love their neighbors.

Jesus understood this.

He fed hungry people.

He spoke of seeds, vineyards, fig trees, wheat fields, and harvests because His listeners understood that cultivating the land and cultivating the soul require many of the same virtues—patience, perseverance, humility, and hope.

The Church should never separate what Jesus brought together.

The Gospel speaks to the whole person.

Body.

Mind.

Spirit.

Community.

Our ministry calls this vision the Green Pulpit.

A Green Pulpit is a church where proclamation and practice grow side by side.

Where gardens become classrooms.

Where kitchens become ministries.

Where volunteers become mentors.

Where children become gardeners.

Where neighbors become family.

Where the sanctuary extends beyond the walls of the church and into the streets of the community.

This is not nostalgia for a simpler past.

It is a blueprint for a healthier future.

Communities struggling with violence do not simply need more police.

They need more purpose.

Communities struggling with hunger do not simply need emergency food.

They need opportunities to grow their own.

Communities struggling with isolation do not simply need another program.

They need places where relationships can flourish.

Gardens create those places.

They slow us down.

They teach responsibility.

They require cooperation.

They reward patience.

No one plants today expecting to harvest tomorrow.

Every gardener lives by faith.

Perhaps that is why God began His story in a garden.

And perhaps the Church’s next great movement should begin there too.

Imagine thousands of churches transforming vacant land into places of hope.

Imagine children learning Scripture while planting tomatoes.

Imagine seniors teaching gardening alongside biblical wisdom.

Imagine churches becoming known not only for what they preach on Sunday but for what they grow on Monday.

Imagine cities becoming healthier because congregations decided to cultivate both the soil and the soul.

That is the vision of Peace From A Pallet.

Three pallets.

Hand full of nails and screws.

One garden box.

One church.

One neighborhood.

One harvest.

One community at a time.

The Church has always been called to proclaim the Good News.

Perhaps now it is time to grow it.