Living in Idaho, there are many people within our church who are involved in environmental conservation efforts, some through government agencies and others through non-profit organizations. So, I devised a think-tank of sorts, gathering people together and asking them how we could raise this value in our church and give practical ways for the people to get involved. In a matter of weeks, I think I uncovered all our closet environmentalists and asked them to get involved with this planning and strategy. There are people who are consummate lovers of creation in every church. Getting these people on the ground floor of developing an environmental ministry in your community is vital to your success. If you’re one of these people, begin looking for like-minded leaders who desire to see this value elevated and begin planning.

Start Somewhere

Culture does not change overnight. By gradually introducing ways to care for the environment your church and community will begin to understand and adopt the value of environmental stewardship.

As our church staff began to talk about this issue, we realized that we had a vast number of opportunities to make small changes. One of the first things we did was simple enough—we added recycling bins for aluminum cans in our building. Then we added recycling bins for other products such as plastic bottles. From our office standpoint, we realized a simple way to make a statement about our shifting values was to print our bulletin on post-consumer recycled paper. It was something small that we could do that spoke volumes about our values and the direction we were heading as a church.

Build Momentum

At first, there may be some push back by people who don’t understand the value or why a church would be involved with something so seemingly out of character with its “traditional” values. However, as people begin to warm to the idea that caring for the earth is a basic biblical value, the environmental ministry in your church will grow. As this value became more and more vivid, we shifted gears, adding more layers of depth to environmental stewardship. Instead of simply recycling aluminum cans, we began to implement other practical applications of conservation and stewardship. Through ideas our think tank developed, we rolled out opportunities to hit the backwoods trails and pull noxious weeds in the wilderness areas. People could also participate by hiking trails with a GPS navigational device to help the U.S. Forest Service check the accuracy of their topographical maps.

Educate People

As in any cultural shift of this magnitude, education plays a vital role. We’re talking about undoing misconceptions some people have held about the environment for their entire lives. If stewardship is a value that is upheld from the pulpit in your church, encourage those teaching on the subject to share the importance of environmental stewardship just like they would stewardship of our finances. It is also important to provide people with a deeper understanding of not only why they should care for the earth but how.

Our church’s leadership team developed a four-week course that outlines why Christians should care for the earth as well as how they can do it. Many people do not know that there are different types of recyclable plastics, categorized through a numeric system. People need to know what to recycle and the impact recycling can have on reducing waste. There are practical things people should know about recycling that will help them be well-informed as well as be knowledgeable when passing this information along to others.

Share this Value

Once you begin to see what type of impact caring for creation will have not only in your own life but also on the life of your church, don’t shy away from sharing this with other communities of faith around your area. Just like when you partner together with others in any Spirit-led venture, God seems to multiply your efforts in exponential ways.

We reach more people and accomplish more work when we partner with other people instead of trying to blaze our own trail. Invite friends and families as well as other churches to participate in environmental clean-ups or other activities that call people to take individual action with a corporate body. For example, you may choose to join others in your community on Earth Day, caring for the environment side by side with those who think that Christians don’t care about the earth. Look for opportunities in your community to reach out through means of environmental stewardship.

Our church found initiatives taking place in the community and joined in. We realized that we didn’t need to make this value “Christian” by developing it ourselves—environmental stewardship is already a Christian value. So, why not join what is already happening in our community? When we did this, we became the leading supplier of volunteers to a number of different initiatives. Suddenly, we developed a reputation for being a church that cared about its community and were asked to participate in other projects as well, some of which weren’t directly related to the environment.

Continue the Vision

After a full year of teaching on this value, promoting this value, and giving people in our church the opportunity to participate on many different levels in raising this value in their own lives and in their community, we recast the vision. Through a documentary our staff developed, we were able to tell the story all over again about what it means to care for creation, what it looks like, and how people can help. For people who were new to our church, they were able to see with greater detail how important this value was for us and see new opportunities for them to implement it in their own lives.

Celebrate

God loves to celebrate. It is part of his DNA that he has written into the heart of every man, woman, and child. People love to celebrate. We should celebrate God’s creation on a regular basis, upholding the beauty that is uniquely marked with his fingerprints. Holding a meeting one Sunday outside in a park or hosting a picnic outdoors for the sheer purpose of getting people outside to enjoy God’s beautiful creation is a great way to do this.

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