32 — Winter Garden, Compost and Resurrection

 A weekly blog of Creative Ideas for Leading Worship

Winter Garden, Compost and Resurrection

Gardening metaphors to deepen our understanding of spiritual growth, decay and new life

 

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This post offers worship leaders a grounded, seasonal metaphor for spiritual transformation, with practical ideas for winter-themed services.

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Right now, as we settle into winter, my garden looks dead. The soil is cold. The plants have either been pruned back, pulled out, or have withered to brittle stalks. The compost heap steams quietly in the corner – not pretty, but alive with invisible transformation. And that, I believe, is the gospel in winter.

This season of hibernation and decay is not the opposite of resurrection. It is part of it. As we wait through winter and look ahead to spring’s arrival in three months’ time, we are offered a gift – the chance to reimagine resurrection not as a dazzling moment, but as a deep, earthy process.

Think of compost. It begins with leftovers, scraps, dead things – banana peels, weeds, tea bags, grass clippings, leaves. All useless on their own. But given time, moisture, and warmth, they break down and become rich, fertile soil. Compost is slow resurrection. The old is transformed, not discarded. The dead feeds the living.

Worship in this winter season can embrace that earthy metaphor.

What are the things in our spiritual lives that need to break down before new life can emerge?

What failed plans, worn-out rituals, or tired theologies need to be surrendered to the soil?

Here are a couple of ideas to try in a service:

• Invite people to write down, on small sheets of paper, a phrase or idea that represents something they are ready to let go of. Place these on top of a bucket of compost you’ve brought from your garden. The paper will decompose and become part of the mix that supports new growth in spring.
  
  
• Try creating a “winter altar” in your sanctuary – sparse, earthy, and real. Place a bowl of compost at its centre. Add bare branches, rough cloth, and dirty garden gloves. Invite people to come forward and touch these objects. Let them reflect on what’s hidden in their lives that is quietly changing.
  
  
• In your sermon, draw on biblical gardening metaphors that reflect this slow rhythm: seeds falling into the earth, vines being pruned, fig trees left barren for a season. Pair them with silence, tactile prayer, and reflective music.

The point is not to rush to spring. Let winter be winter. Honour the rest. Honour the rot and die-back. Remind your community that this too is resurrection. The steaming compost pile is already preparing the garden for new life. Resurrection doesn’t begin only on Easter Sunday – it begins now, in the cold, dark ground.

Let the soil and the Spirit do their slow, sacred work.

Summary

Even in winter’s stillness, God’s transforming power is quietly at work – composting the old, nourishing the roots, and preparing the ground for resurrection.

Ngā mihi
Philip