The Heroic Dr. Matthew Sleeth

Back to the Blog... it's been too long!

Several weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to spend several hours with Dr. Sleeth.

I attended his presentation at the Church Solutions Conference in Phoenix, AZ. He is disarmingly childlike (not childish) in his presentation style and demeanor, which is very engaging and story-driven. This humility and very charming presentation style is almost apologetic, until you realize he is hitting you right between the eyes, heart and soul. His self-described title of "Ecovangelist" is right on. He has extensive Bible knowledge, especially as it pertains to justice and ecological issues - despite discovering the Bible relatively recently as an adult. Actually, I have seen that before with passionate leaders who meet Jesus as adults - they get "sold out" in a different way and powerfully understand the patterns of truth in the Bible. He's also hilariously funny and comes off as if he doesn't realize why everyone is laughing.

The best part of his presentation is that it was very spiritual and very motivating without resorting to guilt. In a nutshell his premise was: as Children of God we are connected viscerally to God's creation - and environmental issues are spiritual issues that begin with each of us - and it is important to continue to examine our lives in this light. Example: he was asked, "Where is a great, easy place to start this type of lifestyle reflection and improve our impact on Creation?" He explained that until recently he would have said, "Switch out all of your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs - you'll make the investment back in less than a year, and if everyone did so we could close 22 coal-burning electricity plants..." but he has a new, more holistic answer after a lot of spiritual reflection. Now, his advice is: "Keep the Sabbath." God's plan for our lives has been to give ourselves, our man and maid servants (who are they in today's world? The short-order cook, the waitress at Denny's? hmm...) and the earth a break once a week. And to get out in it - reveling in the presence of God. We were created in a garden, the Bible begins and ends with trees, and Christ died on a tree. We are "without excuse" in recognizing God in his Creation. He told many stories and gave many examples from his own life about choices and sacrificing for the good of others. It was profoundly true, profoundly spiritual, and profoundly motivating. I'm not sure why it should be so difficult, but I would be happy if I can implement just 1/4 of what he discussed in that presentation. That is something to keep wrestling with.

As my friends and I chatted excitedly with him after his talk, he suggested we have dinner together. There, he revealed that his self-imposed rule is that he orders the same meal as the person who sits across from him, which was funny, becaus it made my buddy Jim squirm about his order for the two of them. Almost 3 hours later, we all had a profound respect for the awesome tasks God had laid before us - he as a proponent for environmental awareness as it relates to faith, and we as architects and designers of church buildings that will ultimately require huge amounts of raw materials, resources, embedded energy, and utilities over their useful lives. It was one of the more spirited conversations I've had in a very long time, and it is still resonating. How can we help the church be leaders in this movement?

A very cool aspect of his work is that people are coming to faith at secular institutions because of his presentations. People who had never seen Christianity as a lifestyle of humility and responsibility and servanthood (only fear and judgement) are responding to this "new" depiction of the gospel of Jesus. Also interestingly, Matthew felt he got a better ovation at GreenBuild (a secular eco-conference) than he does at most church-based conferences. When are we as the church going to get over ourselves? If we don't praise God, the "rocks" cry out.

Every now and then, I've encountered someone and realize, "I want to be more like them - because as a result I know I'll be more like myself - what God created me to be and to do." It's that resonance that responds to inward yearnings that just need mentoring or a case study or a catalyst of insight. Matthew - thanks for being one of those people, and I pray that I can be a small blessing to you as well!

A few weeks ago, I recommended Dr. Sleeth to Calvin College as a speaker and he is coming! He'll be there on May 1 and 2, lecturing as part of a day of presentations on environmental student projects, and Progressive AE will introduce him as part of sponsoring his visit. I think he'll be leading a chapel service as well.

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.

Environmental Police? No thanks...

Sunday, I stopped a guy about to toss a stack of worship orders and lyric sheets in the trash and directed him to the recycling bin at church. He politely obliged, even thanked me, and expressed that he didn't know it was there. Good, another person aware. And he's a good-hearted soul, I really like this guy.

But why did I still feel like an environmental turd? It was important for me to raise awareness, and I was gracious, and he was cool with it. But I still groaned inwardly. Why?

Because I am aware of the "plank" in my own eye. (See Matthew 7:3)

I am fully aware that there is so much more that I can do to lessen my impact on the environment. Once you are aware of it, your responsibility grows. Am I willing to give up disposable diapers for my 1 year old? Probably not. I should be. Am I willing to let more of my yard go natural and mow less? Yes. Will I do away with my clothes dryer? Not with a 1 and 3 year old at home. Will I pay more for green electricity? Yes - we've enrolled in Consumers Energy's Green Generation program. And each decision gets weighed as you go on - the important part is that Creation Care should be part of each decision.

The important point I am learning is to advocate for Creation Care without getting preachy. If you ever get known as the "Green Guy" you're treading into dangerous ground - and modeling environmentalism for others. Sell your Hummer, fast, if you expect to have any credibility and integrity.

BTW - I'm currently sitting in an exciting presentation of a new concrete block company: EPI - that uses fly ash and crushed post-consumer glass. They are able to take glass with caps and labels - so the recycling is easy. They've taken 20 tons of glass from Kent County Recycling and made it into building products. Very cool... click the title of this post to check it out.

Freecycle

I've been able to keep old things out of landfills by posting to the Grand Rapids chapter of Freecycle.org. This service is based on the old adage, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." You post an item that you no longer want but that somebody may want for whatever reason. People post back that they want the item and when they can come get it. You pick who you want to give the old desk, shelves, torn card table, costume, or books to. There's an honor system that you will not re-sell the items you pick up - which is a principle you must agree to to sign up. All you need is a yahoo account.

One Saturday this summer, I had 9 items get picked up from my garage! Plus I got to know a whole bunch of people, including a woman who needed old card tables to have a rummage sale to raise money for a local stray animal shelter. My card table would have otherwise gone in the dumpster. You get the idea.

Like craigslist, there's probably a chapter in your neck of the woods.

How Walkable is your House?

Here's a little google map add-on that measures how walkable your home and neighborhood is. This is not only valuable for real-estate and community but can help measure holistic greenness of your location. Do you need to drive everywhere you go? Or can you walk to restaurants, the drugstore, hardware stores, bus stops, etc.? My house scored a 43; however they somehow missed the main public bus stop on the corner. On the other hand, they counted an adult video store as a nearby movie theatre - not sure I want those walkability points, thank you very much.

BTW - I am really proud of Susie's Cafe just down the street, represented by the coffee cup near the center of my walkability map. It's become a great little neighborhood Third Place.

(For "Third Place" go to http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/roldenburg)

I'm proud to have them in the neighborhood, and want to see them thrive. One Saturday night after midnight I needed to finish up worship graphics and send them in to church, and our home wireless was down. I went over and sat outside the closed Susie's with my laptop and sent the graphics in to church. They've got a great breakfast, too. Go, Susie!

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.

Environment and Hypocrisy

Last week I presented on sustainability and church buildings at the Worship Facilities Conference and Expo in Atlanta, GA. It was a lot of fun; our talk got applause, and we were congratulated by the US EPA's director of EnergyStar for Small Businesses and Congregations. I'm glad it has become part of the dialogue regarding church buildings, excess, and utilization. There are over 10,000 buildings currently certified or registered with the US Green Building Council as LEED certified, and only 13 are church buildings.


Even so, as I learn more and more about sustainability, I recognize that there are an infinite number of ways to be more environmental at home, personally, and holistically.


I've been teased for being an "extremist" for tearing the plastic windows out of my junk mail so I can recycle the paper envelopes. And yes I've tried to get off every junk mail list I can.


We built a home in 2002 with as many environmental features as we could afford, and it does work almost as well as we had hoped - so there's an element of putting our money where our mouth is.


But then I meet someone who hasn't owned a car for five years, or who only uses a push-mower, or who commutes to work on a bicycle daily (rain or shine), or who doesn't own a clothes dryer. There's a guy in New York City who is doing a year-long experiment on whether or not he can be completely carbon-neutral for a year. And he lives on the 11th floor. And he and his wife have a pre-school child. Another great example is Matthew Sleeth who writes brilliantly on Christian spirituality and the environment in "Serve God, Save the Planet" which is in my favorite links on the right. But he doesn't just talk about it, he lives it.


There's always more that can be done to leave a smaller footprint on the earth. And as you learn more about the possibilities, you realize how far there is to go. It's funny how much trying to be more environmental is like trying to hate sin and honor God. (Maybe because that's precisely what it is? Whoa. Think about that.)


People treat me like some sort of "expert" in the area of sustainability and, folks, I have a long, long way to go. If you think there's hypocrisy in the church, try an environmental group meeting. What strikes me the most is that we're all at different places in living our lives in a way that is kinder to Creation - and that we have to have grace in teaching eachother and humility in learning from one another. Again - this sounds like a faith journey - and just maybe that's because it is.


I recently heard a statistic from the book "Unchristian" by Davin Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons that surveyed the attitudes of unchurched youth ages 16-29 and 87% believe the church of Jesus is hypocritical. I think that is low. I know, because I've been a church insider all of my life, and we are 100% hypocritical. I am a hypocrite. In fact, I've never met anyone who is not in some way a hypocrite, churched or unchurched. If we could live, work, and communicate with grace and love, and not judgement, there would be far fewer claims of hypocrisy because we would not be setting ourselves up to fall down. We're all "in process".


Cool how all of this dawned on me in a new way because of recently re-examining my life and how to live it - from an environmental perspective.