Finding Faith in a Fallow Season

For most churches, 'faith in action' often means busy-ness: food drives, mission trips, and community programs. But what is 'faith in action' for a small parish in a season of profound rebuilding? 

Like many, All Saints Sharon Chapel has spent the last few years navigating a perfect storm. The pandemic, the foundational decision to remain an independent parish and a leadership change, all forced us to pause. 

On top of this, our beloved church home itself required our urgent attention: our buttresses were rotting and needed immediate, essential repair.

This convergence of events forced our focus inward, shifting our attention from external production to internal restoration. 

This has not been a time of absent faith. It has been a time of deep listening, of discerning who we are, and of reckoning with our past to prepare for our future. It has been a fallow season.

In agriculture, a fallow season is a holy and necessary pause. It's a time when a field is intentionally left unplanted to restore its nutrients, repair its foundations, and prepare for a healthier, more abundant future. 

Perhaps you're in a "fallow season" of your own—a time of burnout, transition, or questioning. If so, we believe our story will resonate. We learned that this process of rebuilding makes us exactly the kind of real community you might be looking for.

1. We Learned That a Church Must Be a Place to Heal

A fallow season can be a time of crisis. When our community faced its own uncertainty, we didn't pretend to have all the answers. Instead, we made the active, spiritual decision to heal—together.

We brought in a spiritual director and held sessions to "wrestle" with hard questions about our past and our future.

What this means for you: All Saints is not a place for perfect people. It is a safe place to be vulnerable, to ask hard questions, and to bring your own doubts. We are a community that knows how to heal because we’ve had to do it ourselves.

2. We Learned That Faith Must Be Committed to Justice

Before we could figure out our future, we had to confront our past. Our "moral compass" through this entire season has been the foundational work of our Reparations Team—the hard, honest truth-telling about the enslaved persons who lived and worked on the land our chapel now stands on.

This work taught us why we needed to rebuild: not just to exist, but to be a community dedicated to justice, truth, and repair.

What this means for you: We are a community that believes faith is not a passive activity. It is the active, essential pursuit of racial reconciliation and social justice. If you are looking for a faith that engages the real world, you will find it here.

3. We Learned That a Community Must Be Resilient

When our building itself was in crisis, our "faith in action" became visible in scaffolding and construction crews. Our community rallied with dedication and generosity, running a massive campaign to repair our walls, replace our roof, and restore our sanctuary.

We celebrated our return in August 2024, and have spent the last year settling back into our beautiful, restored home.

What this means for you: We are not a community that runs from a challenge. We are resilient, grateful, and we invest—literally—in our future. This is a home built to last.

4. We Learned That Our Calling Is to Nurture a Space for Children to Encounter God

A core reason we chose to remain an independent parish was our deep, long-standing commitment to Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS).

This is what makes it different from regular faith formation: Most Sunday Schools are about adults teaching children about God. CGS is built on the belief that children already have a relationship with God, and our job is to create a space for them to explore it.

It's a hands-on, Montessori-based approach where children work with beautiful, sensory materials in a quiet, sacred space called an "Atrium"— not a classroom. Here, they aren't instructed by a teacher; they are guided to personally encounter and fall in love with the Good Shepherd.

This commitment to nurturing a child's direct, personal sense of wonder and relationship with God is as central to our identity as our work in social justice.

What this means for you: We are a church that deeply honors the spiritual lives of children. If you are looking for a community that will not just "teach" your child but will provide a beautiful, reverent space for them to develop their own deep, lasting faith, you will find it here.

The Field Is Ready. Come and See.

We are emerging from an intense, fallow season. We can feel our soil is richer, and our foundations are stronger.  As a small but faithful community, we have a safe, beautiful, and restored home—a feat of extraordinary commitment for a congregation our size. And we have a new, deeper understanding of our history and our responsibility to it.

If you are looking for a perfect church, we aren't it.

But if you are looking for a real one—a community that has been through the fire and knows how to heal, how to rebuild, how to fight for justice, and how to nurture faith—then this might be the home for you.

Our fallow season is drawing to a close, and the field is ready for what's next. We invite you to come and see what we can grow here, together.