Dear friends in Christ,
Last Friday was Earth Day. An annual reminder of the need to protect this beautiful world in which we live is a good thing. We do even better to keep a constant focus on our environment and our attitudes toward God’s creation.
Surely there can be little debate that human activity has sometimes harmed our world. Forests are shrinking. Pollution increases. Garbage litters our oceans. The climate is changing.
What are we to do?
- We can always begin and end in prayer. Prayer helps our relationship with God, and that may in turn teach us to be more grateful for all the gifts God has given, including our amazing planet.
- Advocate for public policies that protect the environment and discourage polluters.
- Support businesses and organizations that are friendly to the environment.
- Reduce our own consumption of goods and energy.
As a church, there are several steps we can take:
- Choose green energy providers and reduce energy consumption in our churches.
- Build carbon offsets into budgets.
- Provide electric vehicle chargers and bike racks.
- Pray for and teach about our relationship with creation regularly.
- Study the scriptures. Forward Movement has just published the Creation Care Bible Challenge, which is ideal for individual devotion or group study.
At Forward Movement, we have switched to recycled paper where possible. We are looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint. My personal hope is that we can become carbon neutral in a short time.
Let us give thanks for this amazing world and for all the plants and creatures who live with us. And let us seek to leave the world in better shape than when we inherited it.
What can you do to protect God’s creation? What is your church doing?
Yours faithfully,
Scott Gunn
Executive Director
More from our ministry:
From Grow Christians: The Challenge of Earth Day
From the archives: Easter in the Compost Bin
Pray with the Earth for “daily bread” in Bold to Say