Building Your Green Team
The image to the right comes from Moving Forward: A Guide to Climate Action For Your Congregation and Community. Stewardship, Refuge, and Witness can also be viewed as Traditional approaches within the congregation, Experience of missional engage in the community, and Reasonable advocacy when faced with problems of systems and policies. What it does not include is a Scriptural grounding for creation care. The approached advocated here is based on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral which when applied does not focus on programming, climate fear, or radical advocacy but a faith base response to the call of discipleship within the context of caring for God's creation.
"Local churches and their Green Teams can be true powerhouses in this important work."
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Which Approach Is Best For Your Church?
Discipleship Begins in the Heart and Home
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Scripture: Creation in Worship and Spirituality​
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In the world, much of the reaction to climate change is based on fear or anger. Within the church, many are using climate change as a call for social action or a new program to attract younger members. A lasting response, however, is rooted in both a scriptural call and a spiritual call to care for God's creation.
Tradition: Greening the Church through Stewardship
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Before we can proclaim creation care to the world, we first must tend to our own house by being good stewards of God's creation. There are tools available to help Trustees and church committees become better caretakers of God's good gift of creation.
Discipleship becomes Apostleship when it
enters the Community and the World
Experience: Loving Creation and Loving Your Community
Solar panel parking lots, community gardens, recycle centers and kitchen party rentals. 4H, local and state parks, Scouting, and Texas Parks and Wildlife. There are a number of ways the church can partner with their communities to become advocates for God's creation. The church is in a unique role to draw people closer to their Creator by drawing them closer to God's Creation.
Reason: Seeking Better Policies that are Good for People and Creation
The sad truth is that exploitation and waste of natural resources has been used to fuel an unsustainable system. Disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to feel the brunt of environmental disasters and pollution. Regulations and policies need to change in order to create a more sustainable relationship with God's creation and our neighbors.