One of The Master’s University’s newest clubs is providing invaluable hands-on experience in a strategic industry for advancing the gospel.
In just a few years, the Ag Club at The Master’s University has grown to more than 100 members.
On a 2-acre property tucked into a quiet corner of Placerita Canyon, the neighborhood surrounding The Master’s University, you’ll find some of the hardest working students on campus. At nearly all hours of the day, students are clearing brush, fixing fences, cleaning stalls, or feeding animals. They aren’t paid by the University. This work isn’t for a class. It’s not an intern program with another organization. Instead, it’s the Agriculture Club, one of the newest and fastest growing clubs at The Master’s University.
Currently, over 100 students are part of the Ag Club, as it’s referred to around campus. When the club was founded three years ago, there were only five students. One of those original members was Blake Spomer, who grew up in an agricultural family in Kingsburg, California, and worshiped at Grace Church of the Valley, where TMU and TMS alumnus Scott Ardavanis is the pastor.
Blake’s parents owned fruit orchards throughout the Central Valley. Initially, Blake didn’t know if he was going to study at TMU because it didn’t have an agricultural program. Most of his friends and others who wanted to go into the industry ended up at schools like Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Davis, or Fresno State, all of which are home to some of the largest and best-funded agricultural programs in the world.
But those schools lacked something invaluable that is available at The Master’s University: a biblical foundation for all of life. Blake knew he wanted that most of all. So, he came to TMU to grow spiritually and earn a business degree. He figured he’d just have to wait until after college to receive the practical experience.
In addition to having chickens, goats, sheep, and pigs, TMU’s Ag Club also grows blueberries.
But almost at the same time he arrived on campus, a group of donors to the University, and Christian families working in agriculture, committed to starting something at TMU for students interested in a career in agriculture and farming. They didn’t want to see kids raised in Christian homes end up at secular universities that are hostile to Christianity simply because those places offer practical experience in the world of agriculture. So, they provided the resources to purchase the 2-acre property, and the University committed to using it as a space where students interested in agriculture could gain invaluable hands-on experience.
The interest was immediate and strong. And in the fall of 2023, the hard work began in earnest.
“The main focus of the club is a series of hands-on agricultural projects we run from this property,” Blake said. After graduating from TMU, Blake has stayed on to work full-time at the University overseeing the Ag Club and working with donors and faculty to not only support the club, but also to build agriculture into the curriculum within the business department. The goal is to offer an agricultural business degree by fall 2027. Currently, agricultural business is offered as a minor to students from across campus, or as an emphasis to business majors.
Blake Spomer says he came to TMU instead of schools with larger Ag programs because of the biblical foundation provided at TMU.
Meanwhile, the Ag Club provides ample opportunities to engage with the industry up close.
“The main operation, run by our club, is our egg laying,” Blake said. “On a normal day, you’ll find around 100 chicks on this property, all laying eggs. We take care of the entire process. We get the egg, incubate the chick, raise it, keep it alive, feed it, and then start to gather eggs when it begins producing them.”
In total, the chicks at the Ag property lay on average 50 eggs a day. That’s more than 1,000 every week. The Ag Club then packages those eggs in cartons and shares them by the half-dozen or dozen with families across the Santa Clarita Valley.
“While eggs are the most established and successful operation on the property, it’s not the club’s only endeavor. They have goats, sheep, and pigs and are growing blueberries, as well as several citrus fruits. Each endeavor presents particular problems to solve, especially the blueberries, a favorite snack of birds. On another property, the Ag Club is taking care of a stable of horses, with the goal of eventually offering horseback riding lessons, and cows are also part of the Ag Club’s portfolio.
“Other schools, like Cal Poly, say ‘learn by doing,’ which certainly is valuable,” Blake said. “But here at the TMU Ag Club we like to say ‘learn by building.’ Out here we have to actually build it ourselves. This is not a well-oiled machine or business. If it’s going to succeed, it’s up to us. Having that challenge and responsibility is incredibly valuable.”
Along with all these operations to run, the Ag Club has also had an incredible opportunity to connect with some of the most successful and well-established businesses in the industry.
“Even though we’re a young program, we have one of the strongest networks in the industry,” Blake said. “That’s allowed us to visit dairies, tomato plant operations that end up in Heinz ketchup, fruit orchards, and other field trips. It’s truly invaluable experience for our students.”
Donors helped TMU secure a 2-acre property in Placerita Canyon where students receive invaluable hands-on experience.
In 2026, more opportunities to expand the program and give students invaluable experience have come along. The University has partnered with Grimmius Cattle Company, one of the largest livestock enterprises in the western United States, to breed cattle at a property a couple hours north of TMU. Donors and friends of the school have made this possible and it’s likely to expand the school’s agricultural footprint in the coming years.
Blake isn’t surprised at the passion for the program demonstrated by students, faculty, staff, and friends of the University. Working the land is presented by Scripture as one of humanity's fundamental roles.
“In Genesis, God commands them to subdue the Earth, and later to work the ground in the garden,” Blake said. “God tells us to care for the world, and the Ag Club is a practical way to do that. Yes, it’s labor. We sweat a lot. But we also get to see wonderful fruit that comes from our labors.”
Blake also loves that wherever you go, agriculture is essential to life. So, for Christians, being in the business places them at the center of serving communities.
“Here in California, particularly in the Central Valley, is one of the most dense and wealthy agricultural areas in the world,” Blake said. “And you can go to poor countries and they are doing the exact same thing. Tilling the ground. Caring for animals. Working to produce food for their communities. We want our students to have a missional mindset. Knowing they can take the experience they enjoy here at the Ag Club and apply it wherever God calls them after graduation, it’s a wonderful gift.”
The Agriculture program at TMU is supported by the MacArthur Trust, which seeks to fund strategic opportunities for gospel impact across a family of ministries that share the biblical convictions of John MacArthur. You can learn more about the ministries supported by the Trust, here.
