Helping Churches Care for Creation

A growing number of churches are seeking the services of the Climate Witness Project (CWP), a joint ministry of the Office of Social Justice and World Renew that has been doing this work since its inception in 2015.

Increasingly, Christian Reformed churches are recognizing the importance of not only saving money and being good stewards, but also of recognizing the passion of young people for caring for creation. This movement is growing beyond the CRC to include other denominations as well.

“When I was growing up, I remember learning in catechism the importance of the four Ts of stewardship—time, talent, treasure, and trees,” said Wendy Hammond, director of church and community engagement for World Renew-U.S.

“Today’s young people sense the urgency, and as I visit countries in which World Renew works that are affected by climate change, I’m glad that the Climate Witness Project provides a way for churches to raise awareness and do something to help.”

The Climate Witness Project provides a network and resources around education, worship, energy stewardship, and advocacy,, said Steve Mulder, coordinator of the project.

“More churches are approaching us and asking for resources to help them address climate change,” said Mulder. “We can equip them with knowledge and resources they can use to make a real difference. With over 1,200 partners from hundreds of congregations, we are facilitating congregations sharing and learning from each other.”

Andrew Oppong, a member of the CWP leadership team, added that more churches are seeing the value and necessity of becoming stewards of creation.

“[We have seen] grassroots leaders in churches change the culture of their church,” said Oppong. “For instance, we've seen churches change in terms of how their communion is served — from using single-use plastic to glass. We've seen churches create creation care teams.”

At the core of this issue, said Mulder, is the call to take better care of God’s creation. Synod 2012 addressed this topic when it gathered a Creation Stewardship Task Force and approved their report, stating that “human-induced climate change is a moral, ethical, and religious issue” and asking denominational bodies, individual members, and congregations to take “public and private” action in addressing it.

 “Clearly there is a crisis in the world,” said Mulder. “Many experts say we have 10 years to make a huge difference in the amount of the carbon we are producing [which comes from burning fossil fuels].” Carbon compounds in the atmosphere create  greenhouse gases that play a big role in climate change.

In the past several years since Synod 2012 released the report, the CWP has gotten busy compiling resource materials, joined with Worship Ministries to release creation care worship services and prayers for churches to use, and trained regional organizers to connect with churches to help them develop and implement their own climate care action plan.

Currently, CWP is sponsoring a Lenten series project, asking those who participate to consider the amount of plastic they use and to think about ways to reduce use of this material. It has also sponsored various workshops and conferences in the CRC to present and discuss ways congregations can make changes that save energy.

So far, more than 150 churches, most of them CRC, participate in the CWP. At the same time, though, there remain many churches that have shown little interest in joining with the work of the CWP.

“This is still somewhat of a controversial issue in the churches, although it is becoming less so, ” said Henry Brouwer, a member of Meadowlands CRC in Ancaster, Ont., and a CWP regional organizer for churches in the Hamilton, Ont., area.

Last Sunday, for instance, he was invited to speak about creation care at New Life CRC in Guelph, Ont.

Currently, New Life has launched a discipleship series in which it asks people to come in once a month to address a topic. As someone speaks about the topic in the sanctuary, Ed Jager, New Life’s pastor, holds a session downstairs to talk about biblical discipleship.

In his presentation, Brouwer was asked to describe “how God's majesty, power, and providence are revealed through his creation and discuss how our excessive use of fossil fuels and other actions have led to serious changes in the earth's energy balance.”

Brouwer said he followed this script. As a retired chemistry professor at Redeemer University, he believes he is qualified to talk about the science of climate change, and as a Christian he can reflect on God’s world.

As a CWP advocate, Brouwer has spoken to many churches about creation care. As he does, he tries to help people see that caring for creation is one of the tasks of the church.

“I try to help people see the real problem and to provide awareness on creation care,” said Brouwer. “I also look at ways we can be environmentally friendly.”

At his own church, Meadowlands, Brouwer helped spearhead a project to transform energy use. They now use geo-thermal — energy that is stored under the parking lot of their church, to heat and cool the facility.

Ed Jager, pastor at New Life, said his church is looking to the future to see how it might be able to speak to issues such as climate change.

So far, they have set aside a Sunday a month for three months to have a 30-minute worship service and then break into groups for discussion. Last month, the topic was on getting to know your Muslim neighbors.

Last Sunday, the topic was creation care, and next month, when the experiment ends, the issue will be homelessness in the Guelph area. On each of the Sundays Jager meets with people in the church’s gymnasium and digs into Scripture to see how it speaks to people becoming disciples of Christ.

“We’re opening up the conversation” on these issues, he said. One of the goals is that topics such as creation care will be of interest to young adults who attend the church.

If young adults don’t see the church addressing important issues of the day, said Jager, chances are they won’t stay. “We want to make room for them so that they can be part of the discussion.”

While New Life CRC is starting to learn more about creation care and things the church and its members can do to address the topic, several other churches have gotten involved.

With the help of funding from the Christian Reformed Church’s Ignite program and CWP, several churches in Classis Red Mesa have been able to install energy-efficient lighting and take other steps to save money and protect the environment.

Hope Christian Reformed Church in Oak Forest, Ill., joined the Energy Stewardship pilot project in 2014. Over the course of several months Hope and a cohort of nine churches participated in conference calls with Climate Witness Project representatives and Energy Star contractors.

“They helped guide us through the process of performing an energy audit, taking low-cost steps to increase our energy efficiency, and applying for Energy Star certification,” said Corenna Rozeboom, a member of the church.

In 2016, Hope Church successfully earned certification, and “we couldn’t have done it without the guidance and support of the Climate Witness Project,” she said.

Church of the Servant in Grand Rapids, Mich., has a long history of being involved in creation care. They have installed solar panels to provide energy, and last year, with the help of the CWP, they created a bioswale on their church property.

“We worked to turn a low-lying area into a rain garden,” said David Koetje, a church member and strong supporter of CWP. “It also, because of the flowers we planted, will double as a pollinating garden.”

Bioswales are fed by rainwater runoff and help to filter out pollutants. They also help with drainage. In the case of COS, the bioswale will contain plants and flowers that attract bees looking for pollen.

Koetje said the CWP has become a means by which the CRC “helps collect people interested in creation care into a broad network through which they can share ideas and concerns.”

Meanwhile, the CWP is encouraging congregations to turn paper, cardboard, meat scraps, soiled pizza boxes, “compostable” cutlery, etc., into soil. Over 20 CWP congregations in West Michigan are currently contracted with the area’s leading industrial composter at a discounted price.

The Climate Witness Project is also partnering with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Green Buildings Council to secure detailed energy audits for church buildings and to help churches get started in tracking energy savings.

There are currently several CWP congregations that have installed solar arrays. Through this effort, said Mulder, congregations will learn from their experience and explore a financing option that can reduce the cost of an installation by over 25 percent.

Spreading the word about creation care has sometimes been a tough and uphill battle, but they are seeing results for positive change, said Andrew Oppong.

“We've seen churches take the lead on local initiatives in their communities — not with direct leadership from CWP but by using the resources CWP provides," said Oppong.

The CWP is especially grateful that its materials are being shared with other congregations, said Oppong.

“We have seen churches look to the CWP for resources, and the CWP has been able to connect those churches to ecumenical creation care opportunities across the U.S. and Canada.”