The Church In Action

How Do Congregations Affect the Environment?

Part of how a congregation affects the environment is how that congregation utilizes its physical resources. A congregation consumes resources and generates waste just like small businesses and households do. We can have an impact on the environment by modifying our consumption and disposal habits to reflect a more loving relationship with God’s creation. This includes attending to matters such as our energy, water, and land use, as well as our consumption of paper, chemical products, foods, and manufactured goods.

Advocacy, community involvement, and personal and congregational action are public activities through which we witness to our call to care for the earth as God cares for us. When we refuse to learn about environmental problems, deny that they exist, or claim that the church should not participate in politics, we allow our neighbors and God’s creation to suffer through our inaction. Political action is a public witness to our faith and our commitment to living according to God’s will.

Finally, congregations can also affect the environment through prayer, worship, praise, and demonstrating love. Doing these things reminds us of why we engage in earthkeeping, are acts of praise and thanksgiving to God who created us and the world around us, and are ways in which we live out our call to love God and neighbor.

Because of our Christian commitments and our role as earthkeepers, we have a vision for the way we should live in relationship to the natural world. Because of God’s gift of free will, we have choices to make about how we will live out that vision. Engaging in earthkeeping means making concrete, practical choices that reflect that vision of life lived in love for God, neighbor, and God’s creation. Following God’s call, we have the courage and commitment to make these choices and change our harmful habits. Recognizing God’s grace at work in our lives, we are not discouraged or paralyzed by guilt, but constantly renewed in our work.

The choices of an individual church can affect the national and international environmental situation. The chart, "Environmental Impact of Printing Bulletins," illustrates how the common action of printing bulletins has complex environmental implications.

The actions of a single congregation will neither destroy nor save the environment. However, individual congregations can have a considerable impact. For instance, Augustana Lutheran Church in Chicago, IL saved $1,200 per year and annually prevents 25,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere after installing energy-efficient lighting in their church. In addition, the combined actions of the more than 10,000 congregations of the ELCA, not to mention those of the worldwide church, have enormous potential to promote or inhibit earthkeeping on a grand scale.

The illustration, "The Earthkeeping Vision," provides examples of earthkeeping choices. The illustration, "Limited Vision," shows what may happen in a congregation that cannot or chooses not see how it affects others and the creation. We can choose those options that represent better earthkeeping.

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