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Salvation is Bigger Than You and Me

Nathan Aaberg —  May 3, 2021 — Leave a comment

There was much that surprised me in N.T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope.

In the book, the New Testament Scholar and Anglican bishop explains what, in his view, the ultimate future of life will be from a Christian understanding. This includes what our futures will be after we each die. It also includes what God’s ultimate intentions are for this world. And, counterintuitively, he details what response that understanding should prompt in us in our daily lives and in our churches.

I was surprised by, among other things, how strong of a case Wright made for a literal bodily resurrection as our future destiny. This comes from Wright close reading of the Bible. Here, as in other cases, he finds threads that are both conservative and radical at the same time.

But nothing surprised me more than several paragraphs at the end of the chapter that concludes Part II (“Future Plan”). In these paragraphs, Wright forcefully questions our traditional understanding of what salvation is all about.

These paragraphs are so significant that I have shared them below and urge you to read them.

But the most important thing to say at the end of this discussion, and of this section of the book, is that heaven and hell are not, so to speak, what the whole game is about. This is one of the central surprises in the Christian hope. The whole point of my argument so far is that the question of what happens to me after death is not the major, central, framing questions that centuries of theological traditions have supposed. The New Testament, true to its Old Testament roots, regularly insists that the major, central, framing question is that of God’s purpose of rescue and recreation for the whole world, the entire cosmos. The destiny of individual human beings must be understood within that context – not simply in the sense that we are only part of a much larger picture but also in the sense that part of the whole point of being saved in the present is so that we can play a vital role (Paul speaks of this role in the shocking terms of being “fellow workers with God”) within that larger picture and purpose.

The paragraph does not actually end here but, in my humble opinion, it should have. So I encourage you to read that first section again before going on to the second half of the paragraph below.

And that in turn makes us realize that the question of our own destiny, in terms of the alterantives of joy or woe, is probably the wrong way of looking at the whole question. The question ought to be, How will God’s new creation come? and then, How will we humans contribute to that renewal of creation and to the fresh projects that the creator God will launch in his new world? The choice before humans would then be framed differently: are you going to worship the creator God and discover whereby what it means to become fully and gloriously human, reflecting his powerful, healing, transformative love into the world? Or are you going to worship the world as it is, boosting your corruptible humanness by gaining power or pleasure from forces within the world but merely contributing thereby to your own dehumanization and the further corruption of the world?

Below you will find most of the next paragraph. I end my quoting of the paragraph at a natural stopping point.

This reflection leads to a further, and sobering, thought. If what I have suggested is anywhere near the mark, then to insist on heaven and hell as the ultimate question – to insist, in other words, that what happens eventually to individual humans is the most important thing in the world – may be to make a mistake similar to the one made by Jewish people in the first century, the mistake that both Jesus and Paul addressed. Israel believed (so Paul tells us, and he should know) that the purposes of the creator God all came down to this question: how is God going to rescure Israel? What the gospel of Jesus revealed, however, was that the purposes of God were reaching out to a different question: how is God going to rescue the world through Israel and thereby rescue Israel itself as part of the process but not as the point of it all? Maybe what we are faced with in our own day is a similar challenge: to focus not on the question of which human beings God is going to take to heaven and how he is going to do it but on the question of how God is going to redeem and renew his creation through human beings and how he is going to rescue those humans themselves as part of the process but not as the point of it all. 

There is so much power in how we frame things.

If the point of Christianity is understood to be the preservation of our individual souls in a heaven that is beyond a earth that is just a temporary place that does not matter to God, then it’s not surprising that Christians ignore or even willingly deplete God’s earth.

But what if the point is, as Wright expressed it above, to be part of God’s desire and purpose to bring everythig God made into peace and harmony?

How different our treatment of God’s earth would be. How different our evangelism would be.

This also puts human exceptionalism into its proper perspective. As I wrote here, “The point of the God-given exceptional role (of humans) is serving God’s purposes.”

We are uniquely gifted in order to uniquely serve.

I find Wright’s framing to ring true in a compelling way.

How about you?

 

I consistently find N.T. Wright’s insights to be both affirming of the coherence of the Bible itself in ways that inspire me and challenging to the ways so many Christians have come to understand God and Jesus. I highly recommend that you read his books and listen to lectures by him. 

 

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Before You Hit Play: Tips for Hosting a Climate Change Documentary Screening for Your Faith Community (Guest Post)

Nathan Aaberg —  April 25, 2021 — Leave a comment

In February I shared a blog post by my friend Ryan O’Connor that reviewed several climate change documentaries for sharing with your church or other faith community. When Ryan was first working on the post, I asked him to also share insights he’s gained by organizing documentary showings himself. You can find those wise insights below.

I highly recommend that you take to heart the wisdom he offers. Group dynamics, especially around topics that have become politically polarized, can be hard to handle. Combining your good intentions with thoughtful preparation gives you a much better chance of having a successful event. Thanks again, Ryan, for sharing your insights.

 

On a dark evening in November, I briefly addressed a small crowd gathered in our church’s auditorium. I nervously smiled, realizing I didn’t recognize many of the faces in the crowd. I thanked them for coming.  Then I dimmed the lights.

As the documentary began, I futilely tried to scan my speaking notes in the dark. Had I mentioned my purpose and goals as intended? Was I ready for tough questions? And most importantly, was our planning sufficient, or were there things I glossed over in my eagerness to gather people and hit “play”?

Hosting a movie screening can be an effective, low-barrier way to attract a crowd. It will only be effective, however, to the extent you plan from the big picture to the little details. So, using a Q & A format, I will share what I’ve learned about good planning for these kinds of events.

What are your goals?

If you are planning on screening a movie, or hosting any type of event, I strongly encourage you to work through the following questions oriented around the goals for your event. Be as specific as you can and write you answers down on paper so you can refer back them throughout your planning. Let your goals inform your selection of a film, and be sure to watch the movie yourself prior to settling on it.

What outcome are you trying to achieve in hosting a movie screening?

While a desire to educate others may be the initial goal, the desired outcome is usually something more than deeper knowledge. Be transparent with attendees and state your hopes at the start of your meeting. In addition, recognize that your desired outcome may require more than just a one-time event, and think about how you will follow up.

What actions do you want attendees to take afterwards?

Again, knowledge itself is usually not the goal. In addition, merely giving people knowledge doesn’t necessarily lead to action. What would you like people to do, either corporately or privately, during or after attending your event?

What are barriers to action?

Try to think like a participant, perhaps discouraged by the enormity of the problem and unsure what actions to take, wondering if their actions matter, confused by climate science misinformation, or just busy with life and other important issues. Think through who you’re most trying to reach and how you can reduce barriers for them. Be prepared to address feelings of discouragement or skepticism about pie-in-the-sky solutions.

How can you set up the meeting timing, duration, and physical space to achieve your outcome, desired actions, and reduce barriers?

Think about the things like what day of the week and time of day to host your event, as well as whether you want to provide childcare or perhaps a virtual option so parents of young children can attend. Little things like snacks and room set-up matter too. Rows of long tables are great if you want people to take lots of notes, but if you want to include a small group discussion, round tables or no tables at all might be a better choice.

Who is your intended audience, and how will you advertise your event?

If you want more than your usual attendees to come, you’ll probably have to do more than just put it in the church bulletin. Would the pastor be willing to make an announcement from the pulpit an encourage people to come? Maybe even preach a sermon on the topic? Personal invitations are the best way to get people to come. For my event, my preschool-aged daughter and I handed out small flyers at a different church social event a few weeks prior, and several people came solely from the personal invitation.

How will you respond if there are tough questions?

You don’t have to be a climate expert to start a conversation. In large part, that’s why you’re screening the movie rather than speaking yourself. As a facilitator, it’s not your job convince skeptics in the moment. Resist the temptation to get into debates with people. It is okay if not everyone agrees.

While it is important to refute obvious falsehoods, it is equally or more important to treat others with respect and charity. However, it will give you more confidence if you have a plan for how you will respond to difficult questions. Often, the best answer is to state that you’re not a climate scientist, reiterate that we’re united around common goals like caring for God’s earth and all people, and that you’d be happy to follow up afterwards.

That being said, if you’re looking to moderate a session and want to brush up on climate science, excellent resources are the state-level climate summaries from NOAA, which cover both changes observed to date as well as major impacts expected by mid to end of century, tailored to each state in the U.S.

If you’re concerned about how to respond to specific questions, like the reliability of climate models or “Hasn’t the climate always changed?”, the website SkepticalScience.com, has numerous rebuttal articles that correct misinformation. While an excellent resource, the sheer volume of articles and technical details can be a rabbit hole. I keep it bookmarked to respond to follow-up questions, if needed, rather than to prep myself for hypothetical boogeymen.

If you’re looking a good hard copy resource, a book on climate science specifically written for people of faith is A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions by renowned climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe and her husband and evangelical pastor Andrew Farley. Published in 2009, the book provides an excellent summary of climate science along with discussion of how Christians should respond. The book and its faith-based commentary makes it an excellent companion to the websites above, which are regularly updated with climate impacts observed to date and the latest future projections.

Another good resource is A Catholic Response to Global Warming, by Steven Coleman. While written for a Catholic audience, it contains an excellent summary of both the moral and scientific urgency for people of all faiths and is very accessible at only 24 pages.

A practical example: my story of screening The Human Element

Back to my screening of The Human Element. As the stories on the screen unfolded in the darkened room, my nerves settled down. I went through the mental checklist of my goals, the schedule for the evening, and the big-picture outcomes and actions around which I had planned the event.

My primary goal was to educate others and spur a conversation with church members about observed climate impacts and personal concerns about future changes. Secondary goals included recruiting new members to our care of creation team and getting feedback on other topics attendees would like to learn about in the future.

With those goals in mind, I made sure to have each person sign in as they arrived and included a check box for them to indicate if they were interested in joining the team.  I also provided a handout for each person that included the discussion questions and a list of potential future topics, along with instructions for them to check off their top three.

Because part of my goal was in part to foster discussion and sharing, I had set the room up without tables, and following the movie I had people circle their chairs into small groups of 4-5 and discuss the following questions:

Which stories in the film resonated with you most?

How has climate change impacted you and your community, or those close to you?

What are common values you share with those suffering the impacts of climate change, either in the film or in our local community?

What is the role of us as individuals and collectively as a church in helping to address climate change?

Following the small group discussion, we reconvened for a short large group report-out so that everyone, including myself, could hear a summary of the discussion.

There was a challenging reaction immediately after the film. Before we broke up into small groups, I asked the group for one or two people to share their immediate reactions.

An older gentleman from the back of the room blurted out gruffly, “Depressing!”

As the movie had ended on a positive note, it wasn’t what I was expecting. I didn’t try to argue with him. I just acknowledged that yes, climate change can be a depressing topic, but that there are also reasons to have hope, both from common ground solutions and from our faith.

And then I simply introduced the small group discussion and moved on to the next thing as planned.

I also wanted peopled to commit to an action–one new thing they could do in their personal lives to care for the Earth and for the poor suffering from environmental degradation. Recognizing that one barrier is not knowing what to do, I provided a handout of potential, high impact actions for consideration, such as signing up for a green power program through their utility, eating less meat, buying locally grown food, and changing commuting and driving habits.

At the end of the meeting, I asked everyone to take five minutes to write down their personal action commitment. I suspected that for some people, a secondary barrier might be a feeling that the issue was so big their actions wouldn’t matter and that they might be in the minority in trying to change their habitats. With this in mind, I ended on a hopeful and encouraging note. Quoting St. Paul, I noted that we are mutually encouraged by each other’s faith (Romans 1:12). By sharing our intentions, we can support each other in what we plan to do and be inspired and encouraged at the same time.

In the end our team felt the event was a success.

We had a good turnout, including many people who responded to personal invitations—we weren’t just preaching to the choir. We doubled the membership of our creation care team. We got several ideas for future topics.

But most importantly, we brought members of our community together for a conversation, started breaking down barriers to action, and planted the seeds for bigger personal and collective steps down the road.

 

Have you hosted an event for your church or other community of faith about climate change? How did it go? What did you learn? Have you found other resources that are especially effective? Feel free to email me at wholefaithlivingearth@gmail.com.

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Reviews of 3 Climate Change Documentaries for Sharing in Your Church (Guest Post by Ryan O’Connor)

Nathan Aaberg —  February 28, 2021 — Leave a comment

I am happy to share another guest post by Ryan O’Connor. Ryan and his wife, Kara, live out Christian lives of love and compassion towards their neighbors and Creation in Wisconsin. It’s a blessing to know them. Ryan clearly has a calling for working within his church (and perhaps someday within other churches as well) to encourage believers to work together to cherish God’s earth. I’m grateful to him for this article and the one that will follow with tips on facilitating events in your church.

Several months ago, Nathan invited me to write a guest post for his blog about what I’ve learned about promoting creation care. One item that piqued the interest of readers was the idea of hosting a movie or documentary about specific issues. A movie or video showing is an easy, low-barrier event to host. They can also be great conversation starters, spark renewed interest in an adult education group, and educate others about your topic of choice. With this post, we begin an occasional series of reviews of videos and documentaries on specific topics.

Let’s start with documentaries on climate change: As the defining moral environmental issue of our time, there is no shortage of climate change documentaries to choose from. I have seen each of the three that I describe in this post used in public settings, including in churches. One (The Human Element) I used at my own church, and I attended a screening and discussion of another (Paris to Pittsburgh) at another church.

Below I provide a short review of their major themes. I also attempt to highlight their strengths, weaknesses, and ideas for best potential uses as a creation care teaching tool.

As with any event, set specific goals for what you want to accomplish through your film screening. Plan for a discussion immediately afterwards using questions carefully tailored to your goals.

A word of caution and of hope: Climate change has unfortunately been highly politized, sometimes with rhetoric echoing the increasing divisiveness of our country. It doesn’t have to be that way. It shouldn’t be that way, particularly among people of faith who believe in a good creator who made the world and put it under our care. As Pope Francis stated, being “protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” (Laudato Si, paragraph 216).

Anyone planning to host an event should first watch or listen to Katharine Hayhoe’s excellent TED talk, “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it” (17 minutes), in which she emphasizes the idea of connecting over shared values: children or grandchildren, caring for the poor in developing countries, fishing, or even snow sports like ice fishing, downhill skiing, or sledding.

If we start with common values, we’ll set the stage for common ground solutions: Don’t skip this step of preparation. It’s the most important thing you can do. If you’re thinking about hosting a movie screening, be sure to start first by thinking about your goals within the context of the common values you and your fellow believers share.

As you read through the following summaries, keep those goals in mind as you work to select a film that right for your audience and objectives.

 

From Paris to Pittsburgh 

Summary: This documentary celebrates how Americans are demanding and developing real solutions in the face of climate change (released in 2018, 1 hour 17 minutes).

Strengths: The documentary provides a brief background of impacts, blending science with personal stories and compelling visualizations. It conveys the urgency of taking action now while also featuring a hopeful tone spotlighting local examples of energy efficiency and renewable energy from a rage of locales. In addition to highlighting Pittsburgh, the film takes viewers to America’s heartland, Puerto Rico, California, Florida, and New Jersey, spotlighting the cities, states, businesses and citizens taking action. The film conveys a sense of urgency without being alarmist and features both pragmatic action and common ground policy solutions.

Weaknesses: The film is highly critical of former President Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement and may not be well-received by people whose political leanings are right of center. The film takes its name from Trump’s statement in 2017 “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris”. As the film shows, however, many Americans are supportive of efforts to address climate change.

Best use: A church with a progressive-leaning membership could use the film as a springboard to think about their own ways to reduce their carbon footprint. This is especially important given the need to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030 in order to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees C.

 

The Human Element

Summary: This documentary showcases the lives of everyday Americans on the front lines of climate change impacts. With rare compassion and heart, the film inspires us to reevaluate our relationship with the natural world (released in 2018, 1 hour 16 minutes).

Strengths: The film highlights the struggles of ordinary people in the U.S. struggling with current impacts of climate change, through the lens of the four traditional elements of nature. This includes fishermen on an island in Chesapeake Bay being lost to sea level rise (water), kids struggling with asthma due to pollution (air), communities in California dealing with wildfires (fire), and coal mining communities in Appalachia facing the collapse of their livelihood (earth). The film concludes with an inspiring message that we, as a new element of nature, have the power to create change. The filmmaker also has made available a discussion guide for use, and strongly encourages hosts to tailor questions towards your own goals.

Weaknesses: The film is strong on impacts but stops short regarding solutions. This enables the film to be used in for variety of purposes, including examining impacts in your own community. However, with all the focus on negative impacts, the tone can be a bit depressing at times. If you’re looking for examples of what you can do to help solve the problem, you’ll need to pair this film with other resources.

Best use: Communities of all stripes will find it a perfect introduction to climate impacts already being experienced right here in the U.S. The movie could also be used for initiating a discussion on how climate is impacting people in your own community. I like the fact that it is accessible to a broad background of regions, cultural backgrounds, and political stripes. It could also be used as a springboard for reinvigorating a creation care team and inspire your group to think about its next steps.

 

2040

Summary: The documentary 2040 envisions what life could be like 20 years in the future if we embraced creative solutions to environmental problems. Inspired by imagining the future for the filmmaker’s 4-year old daughter as well as her peers around the world, the film takes viewers on a global journey to examine the possibilities in energy, food, agriculture, aquaculture and education. Special effects are used to envision the transformation to a more just, environmentally thriving future (released in 2020, 1 hour 32 minutes).

Strengths: The film features a very hopeful tone and focuses on creative solutions, emphasizing we already have all of the technology and tools we need to solve ecological problems. The filmmaker also deftly weaves together interconnected problems like poverty and environmental degradation. According to social science research, people are more likely to take action when inspired by a positive message, rather than cajoled with a negative one. The film is built solidly on this premise, a rarity for climate change documentaries. The film has also received a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes as well as an endorsement by the popular parental movie guide Common Sense Media.

Weaknesses: The film’s optimistic views can sometimes feel futuristic and pie-in-the-sky, lacking a dose of reality. While some impacts and root causes of climate change are discussed, the film lacks the sense of urgency of other documentaries, in part because special effects make the impacts seem far-off and hypothetical. In addition, many of the solutions don’t feel like they are very actionable at a personal level, at least in 2021. However, that shouldn’t stop viewers from imagining how life could be different if we all made deliberate choices.

Best use: Congregations and community groups of any political persuasion will find 2040 refreshing for imaging a better future. The film could be used to jump start a discussion on shared values and a shared vision, as well as action steps for how to get there together. The broad age ranges of interviewees—including numerous children—as well as those from various cultural backgrounds and ethnicities make it very well-suited to younger generations, groups with a diverse audience, or those motivated by a concern for others around the world. There are also numerous resources available on the film’s website for follow-up education and action.

 

Interested in additional options? Check out short reviews of some of best documentaries featured in recent film festivals in this post by Yale Climate Connections. A nice summary of additional traditional documentaries has also been compiled by the sustainability-focused site YouMatter.

Does this post pique your curiosity or get your wheels turning about hosting an event for your group–virtual or otherwise? Stay tuned for an upcoming post on tips for hosting an event, including my own story of screening one of the films at my church.

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Creation Care in Churches: What I’ve Learned (Guest Post by Ryan O’Connor)

Nathan Aaberg —  July 26, 2020 — 4 Comments

I first connected with Ryan O’Connor through farmers Jen and Bryce Riemer. They are friends of both Ryan and I, and they introduced Ryan to this blog. When I read a sample of his writing and talked with him by phone, I quickly realized I had found a kindred spirit. What struck me most was how filled with a whole, Spirit-led faith he and his family were. The way they live, think, and orient themselves towards God in all they do is beautiful.

Ryan has put down deep roots in his church and has worked to help his fellow believers to integrate their common life with the commons of God’s Creation. I’m very grateful that Ryan has taken the time to share lessons and insights he has gained from this experience. I know you’ll be inspired.

Ryan O'Connor in the outdoors

Ryan O’Connor

I often get asked “How can I start a Creation care group at my church?” or “What can I do to expand our small team into something larger and more vibrant?”

Each situation is unique, but the following are a few lessons I’ve picked up along the way. I have led and participated in faith-based Creation care activities for 20 years, combining my professional training as an ecologist with my personal passion for others to see God in His Creation and care for what He has made.

I’ve also learned many lessons from other people. Others I’ve learned by accident. But wherever you are in your efforts, I hope they will encourage and perhaps inspire you to try something new.

1. Don’t be afraid to approach your pastor.

When I wanted to start the Creation care team at my church, I wasn’t sure what my pastor would think. I’d never heard him talk about Creation care, and it was hard to imagine him seeing it as a priority. However, I arranged for a meeting and pitched the idea of forming a team. I was surprised to hear how enthusiastic he was. He shared how he had experienced first-hand the environmental degradation and water pollution in coastal cities around the world during his time with the Navy.

Never assume your pastor is a barrier. He or she might be your strongest advocate.

2. Find common ground

Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, Christian and one of Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential “people of the year” (2014), points out that every human person—and certainly every Christian—already has the values they need to care for the earth. We just need to connect through shared values – whether those are saving money through increased energy efficiency or rooftop solar; beautifying our homes, towns, and churchscapes with native plants or community gardens; or reducing the effect of pollution on the unborn and most vulnerable in our society.

This principle applies to your congregation as a whole and to your conversations with your pastor and elders. They might take some convincing, but if you can highlight the common ground of your shared values, you’ll likely have success.

3. Involve and empower others

Our goal should be to strengthen relationships with people in addition to our relationship with Creation. That means being a facilitator rather than a dictator. Find out what excites other people and help them do it.

In my church, I recently tried two approaches to forming a team, almost by accident. The first was oriented around a specific goal of exploring the possibility of installing solar panels on the church grounds. With the support of the pastor we recruited team members and got a dream team including several experts in renewable energy. After several months of progress, we ran into a snag: the roof was aging and was scheduled for replacement in a few years. It made no sense to put panels with a 30-year lifespan on a roof that would be torn off in three. Our team needed to pivot to other projects, but it was full of solar enthusiasts. Participation fizzled.

Later that year, with a skeleton crew, we managed to host a movie and discussion and used it in part as a recruiting tool. Several new people joined the group. When we met again as a reinvigorated team, I presented a range of options for our next projects. I then asked people what they were interested in. I followed that up by asking what they would be willing to lead.

The response was tremendous. We went from planning one initiative per year to five. More importantly, people felt empowered and recognized the critical role they could play.

4. Start with an event

Plan a one-time event that is educational and fun and use it to launch your group and recruit new members, as described above. Hosting a screening of a documentary and discussion is a low-barrier option that you can pull off with just a couple of people. Numerous popular titles are available. Some are even free from the producers.

Another option is hosting a presentation given by a local expert on your topic of choice from the church, community, or local university. You might even consider a screening of a TED Talk available on the Internet.

Remember that your choice of topic will influence who attends, so orient your event around a subject you want your group to tackle. Be sure to screen your movie, TED Talk or presentation slides beforehand and plan thoughtful discussion questions.

Finally, keep in mind your own objectives for the event. Since a key objective is to attract ongoing engagement, pass around a sign-up sheet with a checkbox for participants to indicate if they are interested in joining your team. Orient your discussion questions around your objectives, too. If you want to know what issues members of your church are concerned about, make that a question during the discussion and find someone to take notes on their responses.

Gallery View of Zoom Meeting Organized by Ryan O'Connor for his church

Gallery view of a study event Ryan recently organized via Zoom for his church.

5. Approach others from a place of great enthusiasm and great need

Nothing is more attractive than hopeful, passionate enthusiasm. But people sometimes can feel that help isn’t wanted or needed if someone looks like they already have all the answers or there isn’t room for their ideas. A pitch that’s grounded in both your passion as well as why others have a critical role to play creates a more inviting space for others. Articulating why “now” is an important moment of opportunity also creates a positive energy that draws people in to your cause.

Remember to pitch a positive, hopeful message. Fear, anger, and frustration don’t motivate. They usually drive people away.

6. Inspire and encourage personal action

During the COVID-19 pandemic, my team needed to quickly change gears from an in-person study we had planned. Instead we went virtual, and the response was overwhelming. We had more people from outside the church than current members. These new participants included eight enthusiastic women from a rural parish an hour away, a leader from Texas, and a woman in Canada.

At the end of the four-week study, we asked people to make a commitment on at least one thing they would change about their habits, or take a step toward something they had been putting off. The response from participants was incredible. Commitments included looking into electric vehicles, calling contractors about roof-top solar, eating more vegetarian meals, buying only sustainably-raised meat, and engaging friends and family in conversations about Creation care.

Gently asking people to make a verbal or written commitment is a simple but powerful way of encouraging action. When done in the presence of others in a supportive community, such as at the end of a group study, you leverage social norms (i.e., everyone else is doing it too). There is also an implied sense of accountability. When I was first asked do to this in a study, I felt deep inside that I needed to follow through, because I made a commitment to others.

7. Educate, serve, AND advocate

Most church groups focus either on either educational or service events, but mature, effective groups also advocate for systemic change as a component of their mission. We are called to be salt and light to the world, not just to our church. We are to go into all the world and proclaim the Good News. This could be either working within your faith denomination or working with local, state, and national leaders to promote policies that are more just for vulnerable people and better for creation.

Bob Lindmeier, longtime meteorologist in the Madison, Wisconsin area, has been an outspoken advocate for common ground action on climate change. He’s also been active in getting not only his Lutheran church to go green by installing solar panels, but was also instrumental in getting the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin to endorse a specific policy to address climate change, something organizers call a “grasstops” effort.

This type of advocacy involves working with church, civic, and business community leaders. While it takes a bit of work, it can lead to bigger and more systemic change. Getting local leaders on board with your cause can also carry more weight with agencies and politicians if laws or policies need to be changed.

Whenever you engage in advocacy, it can be helpful to work with other groups who are already organized, have developed effective messaging, and whose mission and approach aligns with your values. I’ve volunteered for a number of years with Citizens Climate Lobby, a bipartisan grassroots group with hundreds of chapters around the nation and world. I like them because they are highly strategic in both their solution and approaches and are fully committed to respectful dialog. Their main objective is to solve the climate crisis. But their secondary objective, and one of their main strategies, is to build positive long-term relationships with everyone they talk to, whether a prospective member or a skeptical member of Congress.

8. Include Food

Never underestimate the power of the plate in bringing people together! Incorporating a meal or snacks into your group gathering builds a sense of community among your creation care team and participants at an event.

Making different food choices is also one of the most tangible and accessible steps most people can take to reduce their environmental footprint. Your group can model putting faith into action by using fair-trade coffee, local produce, grass-fed meat or a vegetarian entrée, for example.

Whether you’re in the early stages of starting a Creation care group or part of a well-oiled team looking for fresh ideas, we all have room to grow. While these are a few things I’ve learned, your wisdom is welcome, too. Feel free to share your own tips and lessons learned in the comments below. Finally, all of us would do well to continually ask for a fresh outpouring from the Holy Spirit of the knowledge and wisdom of what we’re being called to next and for the courage to take the first steps.

 

Ryan O’Connor works as an ecologist in the Great Lakes region, combining faith and science to help serve, protect, and restore God’s earth. He has been involved in Creation care in churches for over 20 years. He currently leads the Creation care team at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Madison, Wisconsin, where he attends with his wife and daughter. His written work has appeared in the online and print journal, EcoTheoReview, including a reflection on The Beautiful, the Good, and the True: Through the Eyes of Lapland Azalea, about climate change, the fate of a rare cliff-dwelling plant, and the theological virtues of sharing a small closet.

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A Calling to Honey Creek – Part 3

Nathan Aaberg —  May 27, 2019 — Leave a comment
People using shovels to fill in grave in the woods

Familiy and friends pitch in during a burial (photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands).

In two previous posts (here and here), we have been sharing the story of Joe Whittaker. He played a pivotal role in the founding of the Honey Creek Woodlands green cemetery on the grounds of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. It was, I’m convinced, his life calling.

As I wrote earlier, two elements of Joe’s story compel me to share it. First, for Creation to be healed and renewed in any significant way, we need to integrate a commitment to God’s earth into our culture. The burial of our loved ones offers a great opportunity to do just that. Burial intimately connects us with Creation. It also brings us back to the humility and radical Creation kinship of dust to dust. 

Second, when God calls you to make a difference for the future of God’s earth, you will need to step outside of your comfort zone. You and I can learn about the challenges and rewards of answering that calling from Joe.

In this last segement, you’ll learn more about the burial services at Honey Creek Woodlands, what Joe will remember from his time there, the wildlife this green cemetery supports, and what Joe is doing now.

Burials at Honey Creek

“We pride ourselves on the fact that every service is a little different,” says Joe. “The modern American funeral can start to have a little bit of a cookie cutter kind of a feel to it.”

“The pine box burial is probably the most common in terms of what people are going to be buried in,” says Joe. “Those are a nice canvas for people to express their feelings and their loss and their love. We see a lot of painting on caskets and writing and decorating of caskets. That’s something that you wouldn’t see at most modern cemeteries.”

“The family is usually heavily involved. We’ve had families help dig the grave. We’ve had families help fill in the graves. I’d say the vast majority of the time it’s actually the family that is lowering the body.”

Group of people fill grave of friend

Community burial at Honey Creek Woodlands (photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands).

“I told my clients, “You can sit there and watch us do everything just like any other funeral. But we just want you to know that you are welcome to do as much as you’d like.””

“Often it’s basically a family burial. They take care of everything themselves, which in a bygone era used to be the norm. It can be a little dicey sometimes, because they don’t have a whole lot of experience doing this. But typically it’s very moving, very touching.”

Meaning and Stories

When I asked Joe, what he has going to hold onto from his time at Honey Creek Woodlands, he said it would it would be the people he’s met and the strength he’s seen in them.

“I wish every person I’ve buried would have lived a nice long life and just kind of faded out at the age of 95 or something, but that’s not the case,” says Joe. “You bury men who die at 40 and leave behind children. You bury children. You bury teenagers from car accidents. You bury suicides. You bury drug overdoses. You’re dealing with moms and dads.

“It’s hard to watch what they go through, but it’s just awesome to see the strength that people have.”

“I remember early on there was a very young man that came to see me in June of 2008, the first year we were open. He was a musician in Atlanta, and he had lung cancer. His friends brought him. They were all in their twenties, and one of the friends pulled me aside pretty early on. She said, “Look, he doesn’t have any family and doesn’t have any life insurance or any money, but don’t worry – we’re well connected with the musicians in the Atlanta area. We’re going to have a fundraising concert, and we’re going to get the money.””

“So I met with the young man. He was in pretty rough shape as he was in hospice at the time. We put him in a golf cart to take him out there. We picked him a spot. I don’t think a week went by before I got a phone call that he had passed. The person who called me was the same person who had assured me about the money. She said, “Well, we haven’t done our benefit concert yet. We thought he had more time.””

She promised, however, that even if it took until after the burial to do the benefit that they would get Honey Creek Woodlands the money. Joe trusted her. The burial went ahead.

“So they put the word out on social media that this guy had died. Money poured in from musicians from all across the country. A lot of money came out of Chicago, all the big cities. And this wasn’t like a well-known musician. He was just with a garage band.”

“By the time we buried the guy, his friends didn’t just have the money to bury him, they also made a very substantial donation to the monastery and to the hospice where he had been. And this was all pulled off by twenty-somethings.”

A Cemetery with (Wild) Life

Thanks to being managed for natural habitat, Honey Creek Woodlands is full of life.

“We see an awful lot of wildlife,” says Joe. “I’ve probably taken it for granted the amount of wildlife I’ve seen.”

Honey Creek Woodlands has owl, hawks, and all varieties of other birds. It also is a home for turtles, lizards, snakes, and amphibians.

Tiger swallowtail butterfly on flower of shrub

A tiger swallowtail butterfly at Honey Creek Woodlands. I would hope to be buried in a place like this that is full of wildlife. (Photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands)

“We also have an unbelievable number of butterflies,” says Joe, “which is such a great thing for us because it’s symbolic of the resurrection.”

“I love the analogy that the caterpillar has no idea that it’s going to be a butterfly. It’s just going along being a caterpillar. And then all of a sudden, it’s a butterfly. I think that kind of has a parallel with us just living our lives the way we do not even knowing that when we’re done being this person that there’s something even more amazing yet to do.”

In fact, Honey Creek Woodlands holds the Georgia record for the number of butterflies found on a single day at one site. It helps that they have some of the best-trained butterfly counters in the Southeast.

“When we do the counts twice a year,” says Joe,  “we routinely either set a new record for ourselves or try to break the record for the state of Georgia for the number of butterflies found.”

In the chapter in Sacred Acts about Honey Creek Woodlands, the reader learns, too, that Father Francis Michael, a leader in the monastery’s decision to proceed with Honey Creek Woodlands, has identified 52 species of dragonflies on the monastery’s grounds.

The staff at Honey Creek Woodlands and visitors see a lot of deer, turkey, squirrels and chipmunks. Signs of coyotes are also about.

“We know we even have bobcats, but I’ve yet to see one,” says Joe. “People really love that wildlife is here,”

Stepping Back

While the work for Honey Creek Woodland has been a satisfying and deeply rewarding experience for Joe, it’s also been a challenge.

“It’s been very challenging for me being that I don’t live in Georgia. I’ve been going back and forth for years, and I didn’t start this project thinking it was going to be a ten year project for me.”

When he first started, his wife needed to give ever more care for her aging mother, so Joe and his wife agreed that he should work for Honey Creek Woodland despite the separations it would require for them. She would be able to focus on her mother without feeling neglectful of Joe. Joe could pursue his life mission.

But then when his wife’s mother did pass away about four years ago, they had to make a big decision about what to do. They ultimately decided that Joe should continue at Honey Creek Woodlands. since she had four more years of teaching before she retired. Still, Joe makes clear these last four years have been the hardest on them.

His wife retired on June 6, 2018. Joe officially ended his time at Honey Creek Woodlands the day before on June 5. They are enjoying their next season of life together.

I’m happy to report that Joe continues to serve Honey Creek Woodlands as an advisor and consultant. But even after his consulting work ends with Honey Creek Woodlands, his life will eventually reconnect with the place in which he invested so much of his life. Joe has recently made the decision to be buried in Honey Creek Woodlands.

“I’ll be the first member of my family not buried in South Carolina,” says Joe, “so it was a big decision. My family’s kind of scattered in a bunch of different cemeteries, so there wasn’t one that was a family cemetery. I no longer live in Charleston, which is my hometown.”

“It just seemed like more people would know me, and I would be surrounded by more friends at Honey Creek Woodlands in Georgia.”

Covered burial site in a light-filled woods

(Photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands)

One last note. The numbers of green cemeteries are growing, and there is likely to be one or more in your state. I would encourage you to be discerning in choosing a green cemetery for yourself or a loved one. I totally believe in the green burial ideal, but I have seen green burial offered in woods that are clearly not being managed well for conservation. This is far better for Creation than the conventional burial, but it is not ideal.

The ideal situation is a cemetery that offers green burial as the burial method AND is managing the land of the cemetery and around it for conservation with long-term commitment and capabilities. It’s even more ideal if the land has some sort of permanent legal protection. Here’s a short piece that explains the distinctions between generic green burial and conservation burial. If you’re looking at a green burial option and have questions, I’d be happy to try to help you decipher whether it’s a good option. 

Last thought – it’s been such a delight to talk with Joe. I’d ask that you ask God to bless Joe and his wife. He answered a call and moved a better culture of living with God’s earth forward.

 

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