A friend of mine (Andy) asked me to write a post on some practical things we can do to be “more green.” It would probably be best if you all could share some of your tips, experiences, and suggestions on the issue. Here are a few of mine:

1) Get outside!!! Wendell Berry writes, “we seriously underestimate how much the Bible is an outside book.” For me, at the heart of being Green is experiencing the beauty of creation and the One who created beauty. Camping, taking a walk, gardening, etc. are all things I think are tremendously healthy for our souls. Why care about the earth if we spend most of our time sheltered from it, in front of our TV’s and computers? Let’s not kid ourselves- being “green” has become a fad. Fads fade because they have no substance. Unless we realize the “being green” is ultimately rooted in God and His call for us to take care of creation, I have little hope for this current pop-culture fad. I think the ultimate longevity of the “green movement” rests in our ability to get outside and re-connect with nature (and God).

2) Be aware. This is a constant battle for me. Even as someone who cares about this issue, most of the time I am unaware of how my lifestyle effects the planet. Throwing out trash, taking showers, turning on the lights, buying certain light bulbs… it is easy for me to simply be unaware how all these daily things effect then planet.

3) Care. Even when I am aware, sometimes it is hard to care. I like the conveniences of being able to buy bottled water, or shower twice a day, or buy the cheap light bulb. I think being green also comes down to putting the care of our planet above our selfish desires and spoiled lifestyles. Truthfully, this is where the rubber meets the road… and I am still a work in progress here.

4) Produce. By produce, I mean contribute something good to the world. One of the reasons we are in the predictament we are in, is because all we have done with the earth is rape it for our consumption. Even now, we are simply asking questions that basically ask “How can we rape the earth less?” I hope we can begin to ask more questions like, “How can we heal the earth?” Plant a tree. Clean a park. Ask your company to donate to a “green” organization, or switch to soy-based ink (I really don’t know what this is, but I knowShaklee uses to conserve water- It sounds cool, but if anyone knows why it is not cool, let me know). Watch the movie Bio-Dome with Pauly Shore.

Practically:

Use energy efficient products (lights, laundry, microwaves, etc), bike and walk more, recycle (obviously), plant stuff (trees, gardens), grocery shop with cloth bags (they hold more groceries anyways), have my friend Randy convert your car into a hydrogen-gas hybrid using a mason jar (he just told me about this today at church).

Share your concerns and passions with others. Alone, the task seems overwhelming. However, I believe we are beginning to see the power of people working together for the same cause. Ultimately, we will need everyone to make better decisions- this requires people to demand different products (cars, cleaners, factories, etc), business to operate and produce things differently (greener), and everyone to have new priorities (think of the shift from truck toprius ). Share with people the benefits of energy efficient bulbs, or that they do not have to use harmful cleaning products, or how cool cloth shopping bags are (?… Natalie is the grocery shopper).

Just ideas and ramblings…

What do you guys do???

I had to run an errand the other day for church.  Basically it consisted of swinging by a few houses of members of our congregation to pick some things up.  To make it to 5 houses took me well over 3 hours… and I was at each house for less than 2 minutes.

A few years back I was living just outside Chicago.  I re-connected with some old friends and was looking to connect with a church as well.  It turned out that my friends were making a 45 minute- 1 hour commute to attend Willow Creek’s mid-week service.

These are more dramatic examples of things I do every day/week.  In an age of transportation (and consummerism), I pass at least 5 local congregations in my neighborhood to attend church.   Sure, maybe it is what it is.  And maybe I ask annoying questions.  But driving around the other day made me wonder:  How “local” are our churches?

The definition of local:  1.pertaining to or characterized by place or position in space; spatial.

It seems that  our church communities are no longer “characterized by place or position”.  They are characterized by other stuff:  style, theology, likes/dislikes, etc.  But communities of God’s people are hardly characterized by their local.  (If they are, it is in only a very general sense- how much I am willing to spend on gas).  This is important to me because I believe that community (at least the sort of community that God desires for His people) requires proximity.  Community after all, demands time and space.
Against this back drop I remember stories my grandma has told me.  Well, maybe not stories, but parts of stories.  In parts of her stories she can name every family on her block.  And with each family came the names of parents and kids, stories, and shared memories.  Other stories of my grandma included walking two blocks to church every week.  And all church stories included people, stories, and relationships the exuded community.  Not everyone in the neighborhood went to church.  But everyone at church lived in the neighborhood.  Sure, times were very different.  But we still live next door to neighbors and down the street from worshipping congregations.  What I struggle with is the quality of our relationships with both our neighbors and within our churches.
There is no doubt that community is at the heart of God’s intention for His creation- salvation itself is communal.

So I wonder if we can re-imagine a local church.  What would it look like if our church building was in the neighborhood (think of the closes church to your house/apartment)?  What would it loook like if all the members of your congregation lived in the neighborhood?  Would your church community look different?  Would your relationships with your non-Christian neighbors look different?

What do you think… should this imagination inform us?  change us?

This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately:  “Where do we do life?”
1) Solitude/Individually. In many ways, I think many of us have forgotten how to live in solitude. By that I mean we live in a world of noise. We are constantly surrounded by people, entertainment,advertisement , etc. And in the process our identity becomes wrapped up in all of these things, most all of which are superficial. Rare are the people who can go beneath all of these things and become familiar with their soul, the soul of God, and see the souls of others.

At the same time, we live in an individualistic world. Isolation and loneliness are commonplace for most modern Westerners. Though most of us have many relationships, few of us have true community. There seems little doubt in my mind that this is largely due to our selfish and individualistic priorities. So, we have people that rarely are alone, but also rarely in meaningful community.

How do we re-learn how to do life in solitude? Do you do life here? Does this enhance your communal relationships or make them more awkward? Do you find your identity more so here, or in your relationships with others?

2.) Community. As stated above, having relationships is not the same thing as being in community. We live in a world in which relationships are plentiful, but community is rare. Of course, many of us mistake human interaction as community. I do not use this word that way. Updating facebook pages, chatting for a few minutes after church, or making an occasional phone call is not community in my opinion. All of these things probably occur in community, but they are the by product of sharing life together. This by its very nature cannot be superficial. It requires large amounts of time and energy. It certainly is not efficient. And I believe it requires proximity.

To my point: How many of us do life in community? Again, I see tension. For many, sharing life looks like a series of relationships that continually begin, end, and begin again. Even our “closest” friendships are broken by distance, busyness, work, “growing apart”, going our own way, etc. We do life first as an individual, probably bouncing between many “communities”. I think this can also be true of the church. How is this also true of church? Our our church communities marked more by scatteredness, busyness, and going our own ways? Or, are they more readily described as a “sharing life together”?

3.) Mission (communitas). How many of us, as individuals or communities, do our life in missions? By that I mean, how many of us live our life in the context of the brokenness of others. How many of us “do life” with people who are hurting, forgotten, in poverty, etc.? For those of us who have discovered solitude and community, what about mission? Is mission “where we live” or is it more an activity done by an individual or community (at a specific time)?  And can community take us out of mission?

Rarely do I hear people speak of missions as a way of life. Mostly, I hear of it spoken of as a project or activity for an individual or community. As a project, mission becomes “out there”- separate from everyday life.

I believe that we can, and should, be living in solitude, community, and missions. These things, in my opinion, should support each other. Too often times, solitdue is drown by noise, community superficial, and missions a program (or lost to a non-missional community). Then we find ourselves often alone but busy and surrounded by people, unfamiliar with our soul, and though involved in church, too often far from both community and mission (again, community and mission are “out there”).

Just thoughts. Maybe because I am seeking more of all 3 (solitude, community, and mission). Where are you all at?