Environmentalist and Christian

As a budding environmentalist and a follower of Jesus, I am asked every now and then what links might exist between spirituality and the environment. This doesn't happen very often close to where I live, since I am surrounded by many people with a Reformed (Calvinist) worldview, who even have a modern creed entitled, "Our World Belongs to God".

Other times, I'll read something written by a Christian that sees no connection between Environmentalism and Faith. Or, I read about Christian leaders trying to fire Richard Cizek, leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, because of his views on the environment. This is incomprehensible to me - he's one of the best things we have going. Thankfully, some of those critics have been shouted down by some of the more mainstream Christian leaders.

Upon encountering this mindset, I usually think and feel, "I am an environmentalist, not in spite of, but precisely because I am a follower of Jesus." It is clear to me from scripture that the world belongs to God. The apostle Paul tells us that creation points us to God and reveals his character - in fact, so much so that we are "without excuse" in recognizing God in nature. And you tell me we don't need to take care of this creation that reveals the nature of God to people who are far from him? We can trash it? We can wipe out species every day that point to and reveal the miraculous creativity of the Creator? Discipleship is not just about piety, worship is not just what we do on Sunday, and in a similar way, stewardship is not only about our wallets. We follow and worship and testify to God with our attitudes, our actions, our wallets, the way we drive, the way we compete, the way we do business, the way we pray, the way we play, and the way we consume (or not consume) resources.

Recenly, I read a challenge from a pastor that "there is no theology of ecology" and that the church ought to be primarily about the job of saving souls. If that is true and the Christian life is that easy, should the church of Jesus also not take stances on the use of money, ending poverty, abortion, immigration, AIDS, slavery, or war? Clearly Jesus was not merely about "saving souls" - he talked far more about how we use money that salvation itself. We have a skeptical mission field - we earn the right to talk about salvation with people when we live caring, responsible lives of integrity in community - which is a feature of the early Christian Church that "added to their number daily" (Acts 2).

My simplest argument is that Jesus' purest summary of the law, "Love God, Love your Neighbor" is in itself a succinct theology of ecology. If we love God we should love what He loves, and it's clear He thinks His creation is very good. Our North American consumption and disregard/ignorance for the way our habits affect the "least of these" is extremely sad. In 5 southeastern states, the majority of hazardous waste sites are in African-american communities, even though these communities only represent 22% of the population. 3rd world countries suffer even more. Who is my neighbor? Jesus made it clear that everyone is my neighbor.

I was thrilled when I read, "Serve God, Save the Planet" by J. Matthew Sleeth MD who sums up his approach to environmentalism in much the same way. (Link on right)

Incidentally, I'll be presenting on "Adaptive Reuse for Churches" at the Church Solutions Conference and Expo in Phoenix, AZ in February where I'll advocate that churches consider buying empty buildings and renovating them for use as ministry centers, rather than building new from scratch. In a future post, I will list the benefits of doing so - not the least of which is environmental. What is the most environmental building product out there? Bamboo? Cork? Wheat Board? Solar Panels? Photovoltaics? Wind Turbines? Actually, the most environmental product is the one you never use.

Green Art

Here's the clandestine work of a group of environmental artists in the UK. I especially like "Moss Graffitti" and "Secret Worlds". Create a "moss paste" and paint a message or artwork onto a wall or a building - eventually your message will appear and last until the moss colony expands and/or takes over.

OR - Create delicate little interventions in public places for others to discover. Here's a little farm crafted into the side of an old brick wall along a public sidewalk. Imagine being the first to discover such a little landscape in a forgotten crack of a building? If I had created it, it would be hard not to stand watch seeing the reactions of people who discover it. Thanks to Megan for this site! This work reminds me of an urban (albeit more kitschy) version of Andy Goldsworthy - who must endure that most of his natural sculpture of twigs and leaves and rocks and water disappears into the wilds of nature once photographed.

Or: Check these folks out -

This club goes around and fixes up forgotten landscape areas - with or without permission - in order to beautify a neglected planting bed, discourage littering, and encourage care and community ownership. There are cases of some of their "secret" interventions being noticed by local residents who take over the care and maintenence of the tulips or sunflowers they start, including these kids who caught the guerilla gardeners planting sunflowers, but then decided to get in on the act right alongside. Cool!

mindshift innovation: "Little Green Lies" - Green Romance and Reality#links

mindshift innovation: "Little Green Lies" - Green Romance and Reality#links

Rex is right on with this. Who is going to take the risks involved to climb the learning curve and pull this off?

The focus of a client's decision to do or not do a LEED certified buildings, let alone a Platinum one, would no longer be on up front cost if as an industry we could solve and reduce the incredible amount of wasted effort and non-value-added work that seems to be part and parcel of the status quo that architects, engineers, and contractors labor within. Just look at how slowly the industry is adapting to the new CSI specification format. It's been in place for 4 years now and we still have contractors who do not want us to use the new specification format. We still design and construct buildings under a century-old model.

CentrePointe Lives On...

In January of 2007, I was part of a decision to close a church plant, CentrePointe, in Kentwood, MI. This "coffeehouse in a warehouse" church was the best faith community I have ever been a part of. It was creative, experimental, talented, had a heart for lost and unusual and "discarded" people, and was a safe place for smart people to explore spirituality on their own terms at their own pace. We would call off worship quarterly just to serve in the community on Sunday mornings. The worship was often gripping, and we did not shy away from difficult topics. For 5 years, I led the worship design team, a team of teams which brainstormed the worship service every week from Tuesday to Sunday - and along the way we designed some very unusual, compelling worship experiences. Many church planters got their feet wet at CentrePointe, and we can point to 17 families that are now on staff at churches or church plants who spent time in ministry at CentrePointe.

For many reasons, not the least of which was financial, we felt called to close our doors. We were without a pastor for the third time in our 11-year history, some key leaders and givers had moved away, our strip mall lease had escalated beyond our shrinking means, there was a tragic divorce between two key leaders, and a number of other leaders were on the verge of resigning because they were plain tuckered out. Some onlookers in our denomination felt it was about time the "black sheep" church wrap up its crazy experiment, yet others felt we were the best thing going and were more apt to say, "How dare you shut it down!" We prayerfully decided to give all of our stuff and people to another denominational church plant that appeared to have similar values to our own. This was hardest on people who had come to faith at CentrePointe, and who couldn't fathom being part of another faith community. Not everyone has stuck it out at the new place, but many have.

Last week I received a request from Eileen Crowley, editor of Liturgy Magazine, to use an image from a CentrePointe worship service in her publication. This was a service we designed around the song "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence. The text we used was the story of the 4 guys who brought their paralyzed friend to life by busting through a roof and lowering him into the presence of Jesus. We suspended a mat in the space and had modern-day construction debris strewn about and as centerpieces on the cafe tables. The band rocked the song to within inches of the radio version. We were challenged to go out and that week thank the people in our lives who "brought us to life" by modeling Jesus or introducing us to Jesus. Then we were challenged to think of whose mat are we currently carrying. Who has God placed in our lives, that like the 4 friends, we had to do whatever it took to bring into the presence of Jesus? We each got a small length of rope to remind us to pray for this person and be with this person. I had mine on my dashboard for over a year.

So, thanks, Eileen! We're glad CentrePointe can live on through your magazine. It was cathartic for me to see something we did 5 years ago live on in this small way.

Blogging - And so it begins

It's about time I've done this - with so many thoughts about culture, technology, the church, design, environmentalism, and change.

Here's a start: an apparent paradox.

In discussions or presentations about the emerging church, I've experienced some leaders speak of buildings as though they are a dirty word. And many should be. There are some monstrosities out there that get used for 90 minutes a week, tops. During the latter part of the 20th Century, the mainstream church seemed to have a scorecard of "Butts", "Buildings", and "Budgets". Bigger in each category must equate to success. Very little mention was made of transformation, of servanthood, of environmental record, of influence, of social programs, or of even area crime rates or truancy stats. (Interesting metrics to track for a church!) Does God only bless through numerical growth? So it is no wonder that the building got thrown out with the bathwater when discussing the excesses that some claim the North American mega-church was and is capable of. And it is easy to accept: Yes, the church is not a building, the church is people! I buy that 100%.

Contrast this with the mass customization and designer-awareness of the experience economy we live in. Go to Target - you can buy dozens of types of toilet brushes. (Does there need to be more than 3 types of toilet brushes?) In this design-aware culture, clearly design matters, and environment matters. Sustainability matters. Sustainable environments matter. For churches, environments that foster communication and relationships matter. Worship spaces that aid the spoken word, for music, places that allow people to concentrate, learn, pray, and in the words of Fay Jones, "think their highest thoughts" matter. People can want to build relationships in one, and want to be left alone in another. People can want to linger in one, and want to leave another.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it, which is more on target:

More than ever, the missional church must view itself as a force, not a fortress, and the building they are in is somewhat incidental to their mission, if they have a building at all.

With today's design-savvy culture and knowledge of what makes for a good environment, worship and gathering space matters more than ever; it cannot be neutral.

... probably one of those both/and postmodern things...