West Michigan author and preacher Jeff Chu took the long way to the seminary.
As a journalist, formerly based in New York City, he wrote for travel magazines, The New York Times, Wired, and others before pivoting to studying at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Working on a campus at the seminary farm kick-started his journey into community, stewardship and love of the land. And those are the touchstones of Chu’s new memoir Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand.
But Chu’s connection to agriculture started long before Princeton, at his childhood dinner table.
“Chinese culture isn't a very demonstrative culture verbally,” Chu said. “We don't say, ‘I love you’ a lot in language, but we say it through food, and that was always the place where my grandmother created belonging.”
Chu’s household has always been a mixing bowl of sorts. The family embraced Baptism when missionaries came to Hong Kong. But they had to figure out which parts of their culture to keep and which to relinquish. Even as a child, Chu found himself struggling to square his family’s expectations and their love for him.
“Growing up gay in that environment was a real challenge, both to the Chinese side of my family, as well as to the Christian,” Chu said. “And a lot of kids who grow up in between cultures have to swim against some really hard cross currents that are difficult to navigate.”
A lot of Chu’s family’s faith involved praying for other people. It took him a long time to get to the point where he was able to accept their prayers from their perspective.
“It wasn't until I made my peace, until I became happily married, until I reshaped my own view of God, that I was able to recognize they were doing the best with what they had,” Chu said. “They were doing best in the framework through which they saw the world.”
Chu made the switch from journalism to seminary school when he realized he wanted to write something other than what his editors wanted. He didn’t initially think he’d be switching careers. He just wanted to write better stories about religion and values.
“I want to understand, through my secular journalism, what it is that makes people and places tick,” Chu said. “What it is that inspires people to create good in the world. And, I think, that thread of hope is what is still in my work.”
When Chu first arrived at the seminary farm, he was taught that the main thing they were cultivating was the soil, which had been depleted for generations. Dressed in khakis, a button-down shirt and pristine boots, his first task was to dig through the compost and look for signs of life, death, and resurrection.
“We did start digging,” Chu said. “And a couple feet down, you start to see worms and grubs, and things that are working to transform the rot. And then, even deeper down, we started to see the beginnings of good soil. And that was just a magical revelation, that something rotten actually became something that can foster a new life.”
Jeff Chu will be preaching April 27 at First United Methodist in Grand Rapids during the Sunday sermon.
Hear the full conversation with Jeff Chu on the Stateside podcast.
