It seems to me that the church (yes, I admit I am a Christian and a physics geek simultaneously) is in the business of bringing life to the places which are dead and need healing. That's the essence of the Resurrection, no? Taking things which are broken, and mending them. Healing wounded things. Reconciling broken relationships. Healing is divine. All healing. "Self-healing" is a property of living things, and so I think that's one regard in which God is in us.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because church usually addresses certain kinds of broken relationships: God-humanity, human-human, human-his/her body. This is evident in the types of prayer requests that come up during a prayer meeting. "Pray for Billy Wood's surgery" (human-his body). "Pray for Susie's salvation" (God-humanity). "Pray for Judy's relationship with her boss" (human-human).
But you never hear prayers like "Pray for the reduction of invasive species in our area". Or "Pray for global climate change". At least in the churches I've been to, you just don't hear that. It's not normal. But what better to pray about? Somethings which we pray about it's easy to picture the solution, but global climate change seems inevitable and huge - something that only God could control, so it would be a perfect thing to take to God. He specializes in the impossible! :)
Just now... something has occurred to me. I was going to list here the ministries that churches normally support, which address different kinds of brokenness, but I'm realizing that there really aren't that many. I've heard of some churches doing racial reconciliation, and churches supporting homeless shelters, or crisis pregnancy centers, or doing jail ministries, collecting money for needy families, or even "deliverance ministries". But when I list ministries of the church, I think of "youth ministry" or "new moms". These are not so much ministries as they are clubs. Curious.
In any case, it seems to me that there's space to have some kind of an environmental reconciliation ministry through the church.
I'm not sure what that looks like, but I think it should happen. Suggestions welcome.
(Also, I have to blame Hal Colston of the Good News Garage for this idea).
Here are the things which St. Andrew's (my church) has either done or is planning right now.
1. Give away sample sizes of eco-friendly laundry detergent to college students to advertise our church, and hopefully start them on good soap-buying habits.
2. We're going to have a church service series on environmental stewardship where we invite Seventh Generation to come talk about their products and how we can be kinder to the earth. yay!
3. We don't print bulletins, so we can save paper. Nor do we have our own building so we save on the consumption that comes along with a new building.
4. We serve organic fair trade coffee as refreshments.
5. mmmm... we don't have a 5, but I feel like this stuff isn't enough. These are little things - "lead by example" type things, but we definitely need to be doing more. We've just got to invent it. (oh the future is exciting!)
8 comments:
Great word. I typed in "church sustainability" into Google and this was one of the first things to come up. I am a pastor in Berkeley that has been thinking and working along similar lines, recently thinking theoretically on how the church and other non-profits can expand sustainability to encompass a "triple bottom line." This taken from a recent pastoral letter that I wrote: We are currently exploring new models for being a "Sustainable Church Movement", asking the question, "What would it be like for the church in increasingly post-Christian and secular contexts (as well as impoverished and under-served areas) to pursue 'The Triple Bottom Line' and achieve long-term, high-impact transformation along social, environmental, and financial lines?” Anyway, practically, we are working to do this as a church (www.christchurchberkeley.org) and as a 501c3 called Project Peace (www.projectpeaceeastbay.org). Glad to see someone else thinking and acting along these lines. warmly, Bart
Bart,
That's really exciting! I just visited your church's website, and it looks really yummy, and I'll certainly be spending more time there. I'd love to hear about what you guys are doing.
I also enjoy the idea that the "bottom line" isn't just financial. Things cost more than just money. Have you read Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell? I think you'd enjoy it :)
Peace ~
Yes, great read. The rule of 150 was one of the motivating factors that led to our multi-siting as a church rather than multi-servicing. Great book!
I'm making a link to this post from my blog, as our church considers making changes in this manner. Nice post!
I found you via Melinda Groth. I'm helping set up our church, Sunset Presbyterian to be more sustainable. Any insight would be great! Thanks again! My company does work with Seventh Generation (side comment) they do great work!
Hi I got here via google. I'm a farmer first, and now a pastor. I like to use the lense of permaculture to view my community. Less about offering fair trade coffee, more about the balances of outreach, mission, worship, education. What are the inputs? Assets, environment, location, culture? Are they forced, expensive and unnatural? Or native to our context? What about our relationships, boundaries, strengths and weaknesses? Are we organized so as to mutually benefit each other?
What about our fruit? Is it diverse, organic, healthy?
I'm with you all the way. I am a college student majoring in Zoology, and also a christian. Sometimes it is tough for me to see how these two things can work together. Recently, I have begun to realize that caring for the earth we were given is one of the great commissions that God gave us. It seems however, that normally the church pushes those works off to the liberals to take care of. What I have come to realize recently, is that ending poverty, and sustainability go hand in hand. It would be great to start a christian organization that can help people and the environment. At the moment, I am just trying to look for churches that are driving toward sustainability. It doesn't seem very common, but hopefully in the future sustainable churches will be more common. I feel closest to God when I am out in nature, it would be a shame to have that taken away. Thanks for writing.
Anne, I like this idea on eco-stuardship teaching in church.
I know views on global warming are all over the place, but weather you agree or not it doesn't matter. God built us this planet and asked us to be stuards of it. Time that we start.
Also would be handy to have some reinforcemnt out there for those like me that support being eco-freindly, but find it hard to find time or space for it (I know, mostly just exuses).
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