It has been fascinating to me as I've grown up to see how God has challenged me to grow my conception of this value of stewardship. I learned about being a fiscal steward through my stint in the fundraising realm, which I learned is most meaningful and effective when you consider it an operation of stewarding others' gifts vs. manipulating people to get as much money out of them as possible. This experience also challenged me to think critically about how to best steward my own financial resources, both spending wisely and as one board member I worked with used to say, "giving until it feels good." When I studied abroad in Sri Lanka, an impoverished but lush third world country, I learned how disregarding environmental responsibility was a luxury of our wealth and privilege in America. And after spending 5 years living in the Bay Area, I was increasingly convicted of a biblical call upon us all to consider our expenditures according to a triple bottom line - are we "in the red" financially, socially, or environmentally? How are we stewarding people, profit, and planet?
But just because I've been convicted about all of these things, doesn't mean I'm quite living an exemplary life in any one of these areas. I would like to make efforts in these directions though. Our pastor, Stephen Phelan, recently preached an entire sermon on one verse in Nehemiah (chapter 10, verse 31) and God spoke to me in several ways that morning. [check the sermon out for yourself: click here] Here's the verse: "and if the peoples of the land bring in merchandise or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy it from them on the sabbath or on a holy day; and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt."
He spoke on Sabbath, an ever mysterious concept to me, and how the year of Jubilee that was supposed to be spent resting in the Lord and focusing on stewarding all He's given you. By the by, I counted it out, and it turns out I've been working for 6 years since college, so this, being year seven, is my year of Jubilee - which I'm (accidentally) taking off, to rest. Even if I shouldn't deserve any credit for being intentional about this choice, I am trying to now treat it with an attitude of Sabbath (how restful do you think my first 6 months with a newborn will be?) and stewardship. He also spoke about how in the seventh year, the land would take a sabbath rest - which served both the purpose of taking care of the land [ancient environmentalism] as well as forcing the people to put faith in God to provide for them. Preaching on the passage moved Stephen to push his whole congregation to think about how to be better stewards of the environment, as a church body.
Knowing I'd been part of Christ Church of the East Bay, which has put considerable energies into considering how to be good stewards of the environment as a church body, Stephen asked if I could help the church think about how to go about this. I am NO expert on these things what-so-ever, I can't emphasize this enough - but I appreciated the challenge. After turning to my more knowledgeable and experienced friends (thank you Jerry, Bryan, and Thera!), I was able to gather some great resources and ideas around this area to present to the Harbor Mid-City staff, I thought it could be worth sharing here in case others might be similarly interested or convicted.
Helpful Websites:
· Resources for becoming a Green Church:
· Tips for incorporating Eco-Justice into Church ministries:
· National Council of Churches (Church of Christ) Greening Churches Programs:
· First Pres. Berkeley’s Sustainability Initiatives/Resources:
Books:
· Our Father’s World, By Edward R. Brown
· EarthWise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues, by Cal De Witt, published by Faith Alive, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1994, 2007)
Possible Opportunities for Eco-Stewardship Practices:
Bulletin:
· Switch to more power point slides, less pages in the bulletin [outer, weekly, re-usable folder with basic constant info and connection card tear off, reduce to 1-2 pages for scripture notes and announcements?]
· Print on recycled/recyclable paper
· Have recycling bins available outside service
Hospitality:
· Switch to recycled/compostable cups
· Offer coffee mugs for sale to benefit a chosen nonprofit – encourage people to bring their own cups/mugs for coffee so they don’t have to use cups at all (people could also donate or bring extra coffee cups/mugs for use on Sundays, volunteers could wash weekly and bring back)
· Is coffee fair trade?
· Are grounds used for composting?
· Are food scraps composted?
· Are snacks local baked goods?
Service:
· Reduce energy expenditures (maybe get a cut on rental costs?)
· Have an “unplugged Sunday” once/month
Administrative:
· Make Trash/recycling/compost bins available around church premises
· Switch to as many online/email/projected distributions as possible from mailed/printed materials [such as newsletters?]
· Cancel junk mail that gets sent to church staff
· youth/other t-shirts made sweatshop free, organic (by local small biz. If possible, like Homies in San Francisco)
· Have all printing done on recycled paper/stock
Outside Church Service:
· Provide ideas/resources for families to increase eco-stewardship at home, in their communities, work places, etc.
· Children’s church lessons re: creation/stewardship
· IOB church lessons re: creation/stewardship
· Adult ed. church lessons re: creation/stewardship
The staff was really great and receptive to what I had to present. They even made some decisions to make some immediate changes, like no longer using styrofoam cups to serve coffee. It was pretty exciting to see change so swiftly happening before my very eyes!
But at the same time, the discussion raised some challenging questions that I think are fairly representative of the issue of environmentalism when considered at a more national level. One of the unique things about this church is that it is a bi-lingual congregation. English and Spanish speakers worship together and hear separate sermons in their respective languages. It is a beautiful model of community in many ways, and a great opportunity for me to learn a little bit of Spanish (a very little bit, I'm pretty slow at language acquisition!). At the same time, doing community together with language and cultural barriers presents loads of challenges, no wonder not everyone does it. The congregations are in different places socio-economically as well as in terms of spiritual maturity, which has significant implications for trying to initiate efforts that are meant to be biblically grounded, but also have substantial of current socio-political ties. As much as environmental waste is a luxury of "Western privilege," so too is being morally upstanding and "green" too often a privilege of the wealthy in America. Its such a weird paradox when you think about it. And as much as I feel confident that we can make a case from the Bible that God has entrusted mankind with caring for the planet and that this is gospel, kingdom building work, this may or may not be a lesson for Christianity-101, I honestly can't say where I stand on this issue. People first coming to know Christ as their personal savior may have bit off enough to chew on in terms of understanding sin, grace, and redemption - but I wonder if a call to care for people and planet should be part of the fabric of faith from day one? The point is, committing ourselves to Ecu-Eco-Stewardship as a diverse church body presents even greater challenges than the already difficult work of having the self (and group)-discipline to change our ways with regards to consumption. But I am excited to consider and face these challenges with my community and see what fruit can be born of the effort.
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