How we got here...
in 2019, after 25 years of full-time vocational ministry with the wonderful mission of Young Life, Bart and Victoria Scarborough decided to follow the Lord's call to start Ancient Way Farm. After a quarter of a century in youth ministry, they had seen a lot. The beautiful and the dreadful. Countless lives changed forever as kids come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. And, unfortunately, many Christian leaders fall away because of the stress of ministry and the pressures to succeed. It was time to turn the table.
Bart and Victoria decided it was time to shift their focus from introducing the lost to Jesus Christ, to helping Christian leaders go deeper with Him to stay healthier for the long haul. This would enable leaders to be stronger for the countless others that they would influence for the Kingdom.
Bart and Victoria decided it was time to shift their focus from introducing the lost to Jesus Christ, to helping Christian leaders go deeper with Him to stay healthier for the long haul. This would enable leaders to be stronger for the countless others that they would influence for the Kingdom.
The harvest is plentiful.
A recent study showed that burnout is rampant and that personal and family health of ministry leaders is in dire straits. Listen to these numbers:
- 90% of people in ministry feel inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands;
- over half feel like they are unable to meet the demands of the job;
- 70% fight depression;
- 50% would leave their jobs if they could, but have no other way to support their families.
Where we're headed...
Bart and Victoria both feel, not only excited, but qualified to answer this call. Twenty-five years of pastoral/ministerial work and 25 years of participating in solitude retreats (led by Brennan Manning and Fil Anderson), have left Bart and Victoria in a place of understanding of what is missing…What Scazzero calls the “who we are on the inside” and how to nurture that inner life.
The last 15 years on Young Life staff and since 2019, Bart’s main focus has been the developing of the “inner life” with those he has lead. He has lead Solitude retreats himself for others. His reading has been a steady diet of Henri Nouwen, Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Wendell Berry, Dallas Willard, A.W. Tozer, John Mark Comer, and others who have been encouraging him to seek "the way of downward mobility” and the spiritual disciplines of solitude and stillness and slowing. The Ancients knew that the Spiritual life never happens quickly. It’s a slow growth. Bart is also a graduate of the Soul Care Institute where he received his certificate in Spiritual Formation.
Godspeed,
Bart & Victoria Scarborough
The last 15 years on Young Life staff and since 2019, Bart’s main focus has been the developing of the “inner life” with those he has lead. He has lead Solitude retreats himself for others. His reading has been a steady diet of Henri Nouwen, Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Wendell Berry, Dallas Willard, A.W. Tozer, John Mark Comer, and others who have been encouraging him to seek "the way of downward mobility” and the spiritual disciplines of solitude and stillness and slowing. The Ancients knew that the Spiritual life never happens quickly. It’s a slow growth. Bart is also a graduate of the Soul Care Institute where he received his certificate in Spiritual Formation.
Godspeed,
Bart & Victoria Scarborough
