Leadership Meeting Guide- Protecting Your Nest

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This meeting guide from Evangelical Environmental Network MOMS offers ways to live in a simple, toxic free home. It focuses on ways to protect children from fossil fuels and consumption of chemicals that are known to cause diseases. This includes reading labels, dumping processed foods, and more. To read more, click here.

To download the meeting guide, click here.

To download the handcard that corresponds with this guide, click here.

Divest and Reinvest Central

Divest and Reinvest Now logo

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GreenFaith has created a list of known religious efforts to divest from fossil fuels. The list includes religious groups that have: divested their own funds, committed to never investing in fossil fuels, passed or considered national or local resolutions, focused on reinvestment, or taken divestment or reinvestment on pension funds. There is a key that provides further detail on the action of each religious group. To read more, click here.

Leadership Meeting Guide – Breathe Free and Easy

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Evangelical Environmental Network MOMS believe that everyone has a right to pollution free air. They believe it is a fundamental gift from God (Genesis 1), but in the United States, there are still people fighting for clean air. This resource provides a video and discussion questions how Moms can make a difference and advocate for healthy, clean air. The guide can be downloaded for easier use at meetings as well. To read more, click here.

To download the meeting guide, click here.

To download the handcard that corresponds to this meeting guide, click here.

10 Eco-Mission Projects

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Evangelical Environmental Network MOMS has created a list of family oriented service projects focused on the environment. These ideas not only offer ways to serve the community, but also take care of God’s earth in simple but effective ways. To read more, click here.

A Prayer for Labor Day

A Prayer for Labour Day

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As Labor Day approaches, it is important to remember to take the day to relax and enjoy a day free of work. Godspace has offered a prayer to give thanks for the hard work of laborers and communities, and to reflect on gratitude, mercy, service, justice, and the beauty of creation through God’s work. To read the prayer, click here.

For Love of Lavender

For the Lavender - Wikipedia CC

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For Love of Lavender is an account of how Christine Sine, creator of Godspace and writer for Evangelical Environmental Network MOMS, encountered God through the beauty, fragrance, and abundance of the lavender in her garden.  She discusses how reflecting on her garden teaches her about God and reminds her of many Bible verses such as Proverbs 27:9 The heart is delighted by the fragrance of oil and sweet perfumes, and in just the same way, the soul is sweetened by the wise counsel of a friend. She also discusses how to use these lessons to teach children. To read more, click here.

Creation Care Hack: Energy Efficiency at Home and Energy Efficient Kits

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Evangelical Environmental Network has created a resource to give tips and hacks on using less energy. It also includes ways to make energy efficient kits that can be distributed at churches or used as a mission project. To read more click here.

Evangelical Environmental Network: The Last Straw

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Up to 12 billion tons of plastic trash end up in God’s oceans, and Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) believes that trash is an affront to the glory of God. Trash always ends up somewhere, and that somewhere belongs to God. They believe that throwing trash away is equivalent to sneaking into God’s backyard and piling trash there and then pretending that it never happened. In order to put a stop to the 12 billion tons of plastic trash, EEN has created The Last Straw Campaign Pledge. It is a pledge to decline straws at restaurants and other food/beverage establishments, phase out using them at home, and consider going deeper, such as: asking local restaurants to only provide straws when customers request them and asking elected officials at the local and state levels to phase out the use of plastic straws, and single-use plastic. To read more or take the pledge, click here.

“Will We Recover Our Responsibility for God’s Creation?” by Ben Lowe and Ronald J Sider

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“Will We Recover Our Responsibility for God’s Creation?” is the final essay in a larger intergenerational conversation on a twenty-first century faith. The Future of Our Faith: An Intergenerational Conversation on Critical Issues Facing the Church is a work by Ben Lowe and Ronald J. Sider working to bridge the divide between generations. They recognize the “inter-generational tension” present within the church, and in this work, they welcome each other into conversation. They each present four essays on major issues facing the church with responses from the other.

The final issue addressed in the book is our care for creation. Both from evangelical backgrounds both Lowe and Sider are advocates for creation care. Lowe raises the issue and first acknowledges the indifference, dismissal, and occasionally aggression he has received in congregations when he has breeched the call of care for creation. They reclaim an evangelical theology which calls believers to be stewards of a creation divinely gifted to a broken humanity.

For many Christian congregations and communities, especially ones who identify as evangelical, this book provides a platform on which to have one’s own intergenerational conversation. In a time when generations are so polarized, this book does the hard work of being in Christian community and love with those generations which precede and follow us.

This book can be found on Amazon, major book retailers, and your favorite independent bookstore. More information on Ben Lowe can be found at his website here. To learn more about Ronald J. Sider click here to be taken to the Evangelicals for Social Action website.

Care for Creation by Pope Francis

Book cover courtesy of Amazon.com

Care for Creation: A Call for Ecological Conversation is a collection of Pope Francis’s writings and words which give background to the direction of Laudato Si’. Grouped into ten chapters, this book offers a very accessible introduction to the Pope’s understanding of the call of the church to creation care.

He frames the current struggle as one guided by a lust for money’s idol and the globalization of indifference. He calls each reader to action, not blaming them for the global issues of poverty and climate change, but implicating them as necessary actors in the solutions. He recognizes the ecological crisis as related to the inner crisis of belief and identity experienced globally. Pope Francis argues that we all must become part of the solution, taking faith-inspired action to care for our world and those in it. Far from arguing that only the church or individuals can create lasting change, he believes that there must also be systematic change in the government and economic structures which govern our world.

For those who are intimidated by Laudato Si’ or are looking for more of Pope Francis’ reflections on creation care and ecology, this book in short sections frames the call to care for the world and those who live in it.

This book can be found on Amazon, major book retailers, and your favorite independent bookstore.