Servant Heart Farm
Servant Heart Farm
9533 Harrodsburg Road
Wilmore, KY 40390
United States
Vision & Plans
Background
In 2013, the Lord blessed us with the ownership and stewardship of what was formerly known as “the Ichthus Festival grounds”. In 2012, at the last Ichthus Festival, we were privileged to participate in a worship on the grounds following the last festival. As we had seen the decline of the festival over the last four years we had been present, we were praying for the continuance of God’s purposes and mandates for what the use of the grounds were intended. My wife felt the Lord impress upon her, “the grounds must be secured”.
Hearing the Lord in this we made an offer to purchase the property and thus pay off the “Ichthus Ministry” mortgage to secure the grounds and alleviate that burden financially, hoping the failing ministry could survive. On July 20, 2012 we sent Ichthus Ministries a Purchase Option and they weren’t interested. For whatever reasons the ministry collapsed, the mortgage was sold and foreclosed upon and the name was sold to another festival organization. What was once the Ichthus Ministry impacted our lives and gave birth to our outreach efforts. Many believers came together to serve on the Ichthus grounds at festival time. These volunteers are "the salt of the earth" and God honored and blessed those efforts. We invite any of the former volunteers to work with us as we enter into a new season on the grounds to diligently bring worship events, training events, and hands-on mission projects on a year round basis.
What the Lord had done on those grounds was the legacy of the Lyon Family and especially the vision of Bob Lyon in conjunction with Asbury Seminary. In 1970, Bob Lyon, a seminary professor, wanted to create a Christian alternative to “Woodstock”. The Lord breathed on the efforts and in combination with Asbury Seminary the festival was the longest running Christian festival for 43 years. Many souls were saved and renewed by the ministry. These grounds still hold memories of spiritual awakenings and the presence of God for thousands of people over the years. Now the Lord is renewing His mandate for the grounds
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Our Model for Ministry |
As a professional geologist I’ve seen the wonders of God’s creation and how pure science only confirms and confirms the story of creation. How many folks stop and realize how God’s original creations are the pattern for many of our everyday household items? For instance, the coral Archimedes leaves behind the silicone spiral screw shaped remains from which woodscrews were designed. Or, who understands that “Velcro” the hoop and loop fastener was designed from the plant “Blessed Thistle”?
As a geologist observing various crystals God designed, I noticed the tetrahedron being the strongest of all. A tetrahedron has four equilateral triangles as its facets and is the strongest form of all crystals God designed. No matter the angles crushing force is applied, there are always three corners that withstand negative forces. Each side has three corners of unified strength. Think about it: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Hmm ......
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Music: Jehosaphat proved that when the worshippers were sent in ahead of the armies, the battle outcome was pre-determined. He inhabits or “lives in” the praises of His people. Where the Lord inhabits there is no defeat. Ministry: The preaching and teaching of the spoken Word changes lives eternally to the Glory of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. John 15:7, “If you abide in me and my word abides (or lives in) you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.” Or Isaiah 55:11, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing (us) whereto I sent it.” Mission: Real mission begins where you are. Real mission is done when compassionate children of the Lord give their time and talents to meeting the spiritual and physical needs of people, wherever they are in a lost and hurting world. In a world full of “buzz words” and “clichés”, we often hear people repeating phrases to elevate or manipulate how they are perceived. In the 1970’s, we heard “cutting edge ministry” being so loosely thrown around. Now, we hear “sustainability” so frequently. True sustainability is only accomplished when God’s people combine their efforts to take the Gospel by word and deeds to people. When God’s people unite in a singleness of purpose to preach the Gospel ……., feed the sheep ….. , restore in a spirit of meekness ….. and empower the people to understand seed time and harvest and feed others in spiritual and physical means, true “sustainability” surfaces, blesses and empowers. This may start in simplicity of helping the elderly neighbor across the back fence who doesn’t know this Jesus everybody says they know. Stewardship: Real stewardship is the management and giving of resources and finances for the furtherance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the growth of the awareness of the Kingdom of God. There can be no stewardship without giving of finance and material resources. Our Vision To implement our “tetrahedral” model of ministry we plan to develop the four facets as follows: Music - Cheryl and I are beginning on April 26, 2014 by bringing a worship concert to the stage for the “Redemption” of the grounds to return worship on the grounds. This first event we are funding solely on our own and are believing the Lord to make it successful so that many more frequent music events can take place throughout the year to provide more opportunities to share the Gospel and celebrate Christ as a beacon of guiding light to searching souls. We are working with agencies to find artists that represent Christ and not just the “Christian music industry”. We are believing the Lord to bring others alongside. Mission - Over the past couple years we have met so many folks that have come to Wilmore from foreign countries that have said God wants us here. He’s getting ready to do something. We met a group of young ministers and their families in Wilmore that call themselves the “Foundation Fellowship”. Their ministry prayed for the last seven years that God would bring the “ground into the hands of someone who would utilize the grounds for more than just a three day festival annually. Our plan this summer was influenced by hearing the hearts of the Foundation Fellowship in their desire to give. We will be working with theUKagriculture professor and some of theAsburyUniversityprofessors to implement a garden to teach the ministry members how to raise food and preserve it so that elderly folks and others can be blessed with love and some good old farm food. We believe this will be the start of a team able to reach out globally and nationally on the mission field. Plus, a little sweat and a few hard days work is the key to real ministry. We are planning to work with other organizations and have some ideas ourselves to bring small scale technology “gadgets” to generate electricity and look at meeting energy needs in impoverished areas. As God breathes on our efforts, we believe in a few short years we will have a team of Christian farmer/soldiers that will bring true “sustainability” to the underprivileged folks willing to work regionally, nationally and globally. Ministry – Our hope is for the Lord to provide resources for us to eventually have a conference center that year round teaching and celebration events can take place. We envision this to be a facility large enough to incorporate a concert hall, offices for regional and global ministries and a restaurant utilizing locally, quality grown foods for the purposes of ministering. Currently we are working with Foundation Fellowship to provide a facility to facilitate more of their “solemn assemblies” for prayer that were very successful last year in birthing renewed hope and vision to the region. Also, we are working with the Asbury Theological Seminary and have invited them to be a part of what the Lord is doing with the grounds. Their participation was key to the success of what was once Ichthus Ministries. When the seminary was involved with the festival the ministry flourished. After the acquisition phase of Servant Heart Farm we found a dusty little box of “History of Ichthus from 1970-1997”. All throughout this little book we found names and pictures of seminarians who had helped over the years. So we reached out to the seminary and invited them to join hands with us once again. We are working with students atAsburyUniversityand at the Seminary to start an organization that will minister to students, high school students and youth in the community and region. We are reaching out to other Christian universities and inviting them to not only come to the celebration events to worship together but to come along side and help us minister. Another aspect of ministry we intend to bring to the grounds is “living history”. Cheryl and I have the honor of serving as “Daniel and Rebecca Boone” in an event in Boyd County, Kentucky the week after Labor Day each year called Wolfpen Woods Pioneer Village. This event teaches school kids about their 18th century (1760-1820 period) pioneer history. This annual event has introduced us to so many wonderful re-enactors who love history and teach about this time period. (www.wolfpenwoods.com)
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Since Francis Asbury had the Bethel Academy near Wilmore in 1792 and gave his life to furtherance of the Gospel of Christ and Methodism in the colonies, we began researching Asbury to know more about the Wilmore history and his involvement. In my research on Asbury I found the Bishop Asbury to have been at Boonesborough once looking for a Reverend Poythress and would have met Boone most likely. Hence, the plausible story line for a living history event emerged!
We are working with the historians in Wilmore, the Wilmore Community Development Board and our re-enactor group to bring a living history weekend, hopefully in May. This event will be used for the platform of ministry in dialogue and demonstrations referencing the time period and how the Lord used key people to settle and evangelize the region.
Utilizing the grounds for family friendly, community oriented events that engage the arts, history, culture and mission is our vision to be implemented with God’s help.
Stewardship – Cheryl and I have obeyed the Lord in the acquisition of the ground as a facility dedicated to glorifying God and uplifting the Name of Jesus Christ. We are believing the Lord for others to come alongside.
As God increases our resources, we will “sow to grow” the facility. Once we can attain a conference center on the grounds, we believe many ministries can work hand-in-hand to effect transformation both regionally and globally.
Our Facility
Servant Heart Farm is 109 acres that joins the Wilmore, Kentucky Centennial park and has two entrances on US68 (Harrodsburg Road) approximately 11 miles south-west of Lexington, Kentucky. We have an amphitheater and two permanent stages. Our main stage is a beautiful covered stage 45’ deep x 90’ wide with easy access for load-in and load-out. The natural amphitheater geomorphic lay of the field in front of the stage easily can hold 15,000 people. Our secondary stage is an approximately 36’x40’x5’ concrete stage that simply requires lifts, tops, and PA to entertain about a 5,000-7,000 audience.
We have electrical hookups for food vendors and many power transformers for whatever needs arise. Our grounds have formerly contained 18,000 + campers and we are contemplating extended events as we can build a staff to oversee such magnitude events.
Business Strategy and Proposal
Of course, we are looking for co-laborers and sponsors. As we are believing that the Lord to link our shields with other viable, genuine ministries, we are open to discussion. We are not renting the grounds yet, but will partner with groups wanting to use the facility if we determine the motives to be centered on Christ.
We can only hope other organizations that see the need for worship concerts by national artists and independent artists will want to partner with us for celebration events. We are working with liaisons in Nashville to bring Godly partnerships together for central Kentucky based national and global outreach.
Please contact us at: Joe & Cheryl Lycan, 37 North Sunset Blvd.,Williamson,WV 25661 or jlycan626@frontier.com
A Confirmation
As we were praying about the acquisition of the grounds, the Lord kept impressing on my spirit and another friend of mines spirit “pillars of fire”. At the time I did not fully understand. Two days later at my home in West Virginia watching the sun go down the following picture was captured in the heavenlies. My friend was 200 miles away and captured the image while on the hill by our main stage. Only God can paint such confirmation and our photos do not do justice to the beauty of what we saw.
Also, in September 2013, my wife, Cheryl, was sharing scripture from the English Standard Bible in Isaiah 35 on the “ransomed of the Lord returning”. In the beginning passages it says it will blossom like the crocuses. Crocuses are known to bloom in February – early March not in September. However, the whole back yard of our Wilmore residence in Kentucky was full of blooming crocuses in September. Do you think God was winking giving subtle hints on these occasions?
Praise the Lord and Him only!
Your servant brother in Christ,
Joe Lycan
Servant Heart Farm
9533 Harrodsburg Road
Wilmore, KY 40390
United States