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Educate Your Congregation
Education is a first step as we attempt to be faithful stewards of creation. Ask the appropriate committees of your congregation to arrange for occasions to learn about environmental stewardship, global warming and appropriate use of energy – and how to apply your faith to those issues.
Why is this important?
Our faiths often have a great deal to say about the important issues before our nation, especially those affecting future generations.
Care of creation is important to virtually all faith groups, as reflected in scriptural and later traditions.
Most congregations understand that one of their most important tasks is to educate their members about the tenets of their faith, including enabling them to apply that faith to today's real-world issues.
What are the settings in your congregation’s life where education can take place?
- Adult education programs or study groups
- Youth study groups
- Children’s study groups or religious school
- Women’s and Men’s groups
- Worship
What might such study look like?
One-session or multi-session studies. Although most study courses are multi-session, they can easily be adapted to a single-session context. A good way to begin is to show a video (see Use These Materials above), along with explanatory materials, followed by a brief discussion of study questions.
A study of environmental stewardship with global warming as one of the issues or case studies.
A study focusing specifically on global warming and what can be done about it, including the purchase of renewable energy and taking steps to make your buildings more energy efficient.
Suggestions for leading this study
Encourage discussion, questions, and concerns to increase involvement and congregational "buy-in."
Emphasize that this study is an effort to learn how your faith tradition applies to this modern issue. The discussion is not primarily about science or policy, though these are of course relevant.
Highlight what your scriptures and tenets say about these concerns. Most of the major religions of the world include a deep reverence for creation, an understanding that people of faith are called to be stewards of the earth, a contemporary assessment that human beings have not done that task well, a belief that God redeems and heals the creation which human beings have hurt, and a call to believers to participate in God’s healing of creation.
Don’t get bogged down in details. Though there are many complexities, try to simplify the issue while maintaining accuracy. At the same time, include a description of the facts of global warming and the real threats to God’s creation. These are not meant to frighten people, but to remind them of the urgent need for environmental stewardship. Vagueness neither inspires nor enables people of faith to apply our traditions to today’s urgent issues.
Don’t leave people helpless and hopeless. Suggest concrete things that they can do:
- purchasing renewable energy
- making their homes more energy efficient
- talking with their neighbors
- taking these concerns to their workplaces
- and sharing these concerns with local, state, and national policymakers.
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