The newly formed ‘Green
Team’
at Redeemer Lutheran in Indianola is really fantastic. Jo Richey, Ray
Heinicke, Clint Richey, and Paula Schultz have only been together for a
year and a half and they already have a long list of accomplishments
and plans for much more. The secret they say is collaboration: between
church and home, and between the ‘Green Team’ and
all of
the church committees.Redeemer’s Green Team is taking a two-pronged collaborative approach; they are encouraging changes in their members’ households and in church operations. They find that both efforts work together to strengthen each other; householders see the changes at church, and are inspired to try them at home, and householders who try them at home are supportive of efforts at church.
“While all of us care for creation, it has become evident in the past few years that we need to care more,” Ray says. “Science has convinced us that climate change is upon us and if we don’t change the way we live, we will suffer. Scientific evidence is like the Law of the old Testament, this is what will happen if we do not change; death, destruction, suffering. But our response, our willingness to change is like the Gospel in that it gives life, it gives purpose to life, and justice for the poor.”
The people at Redeemer were convinced they needed to change by two things. One was the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and the other was the Cool Congregations workshop. The movie showed them what was happening globally; the workshop taught them their families’ contribution to the problem. They were able to participate in the workshop thanks to the SE Iowa Synod partnership agreement with Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, whereby all Synod congregations are members.
“At the Cool Congregationsworkshop we learned that our major contributions to climate change pollution were electricity use in our homes, home heating, our transportation, and our waste. We collected our data for the past year, plugged our numbers into a computer program, and could see how we compared with the rest of the world. Everyone who did the calculation was shocked with their results!”says, Jo, “The workshop then guided us into making a pledge to reduce our carbon footprint. We were on our way to becoming more ‘green’ in our lifestyle.”
Those who attended the workshop decided that this message could also be carried into the church. With their council’s approval, they became the “Green Team”. They decided that the church could be a model for congregants, and thereby inspire them to live a greener life style in their homes, schools and communities. The Green Team brainstormed ideas, implemented some of them, and published what they were doing in their monthly newsletter or weekly bulletin.
“We intuitively felt that our work would impact many areas in the life of the church. By collaborating with the committees governing property and maintenance, worship, education, social concerns, stewardship and evangelism ministries of our church, we were able to accomplish far more than we would have working alone,” said Jo.
Over the past two years these are some of the changes they have initiated for their congregational facilities:
• Changed the lighting in our sanctuary and narthex to CFLs, reducing costs by 70%
• Changed Exit signs over to L.E.D., estimated savings $28/fixture
• Replaced refrigerator in the church kitchen
• Installed insulation and a new boiler in the parsonage, reducing heating costs by 25%
• Placedrecycle bins throughout the church
They asked for and received funding from the church budget to help with some of these activities that have already returned the investment. They are now recognized as a viable committee on Redeemer’s governing board. They’ve added the option of joining the Green Team to the congregation’s annual Time and Talent survey that asks congregants to sign up to volunteer for various activities.
They also educated their congregants and encouraged them to take action in their homes:
• Started their “Cool Congregations” program over three Sunday mornings measuring the footprints of 7 families
• Promoted carpooling to church with the help of a congregational map
• Celebrated Earth Day with a children’s sermon, a movie, ‘Fighting Goliath’, followed by a discussion about dirty coal power plants, games, including ‘The Quilt Game’*, a potluck and the planting of a bush
• Sold reusable grocery bags made by their Partners in Tanzania
They are currently working on assessing the recommendations from the free energy audit MidAmerican did of the congregational facilities and choosing priorities. A few of the recommendations include:
• Insulating basement walls that presently have an R value of 3, worse than window!
• Install programmable thermostats
• Control heating and cooling systems by zone
• Replace two old inefficient boilers with perhaps natural gas forced air heating?
• Upgrade fluorescent tube lighting from T12 to T8
The utility estimates these changes could save Redeemer 15-20% on heating costs.
They are also looking at:
• Appointing an Energy Steward for the church
• Teaching a class on Climate Justice
• Co-hosting a ‘Cool Congregations’ workshop with and for other Indianola congregations
• Weatherizing homes for the needy
An ‘Energy Steward’ would be formally appointed, as for instance a volunteer treasurer is appointed. This person would oversee the operation of all the energy systems within the church building in order to reduce energy consumption used in the operation of the church building(s):
• Serve as a liaison among the various property, education, worship and budget committees as an advocate of energy conservation.
• Keep a record of utility bills and usage.
• Monitor and set programmable thermostats where applicable.
• Make sure lights and appliances are turned off when not needed.
• Keep up-to-date on new energy conservation ideas and techniques.
• Make specific recommendations including capital expenditures for implementing energy conservation ideas when appropriate.
The advantage of one person doing these things, with the support of the Green Team and the whole congregation, is that the records would all be in one place, and not get lost as sometimes happens when informal committees change members.
Ray and Jo acknowledge that spreading the gospel is still the main focus of the church, and they see their work as living the gospel as it pertains to God’s creation. It has become a tangible way to share God’s love with one another.
They realize that what they are doing at Redeemer is only a small part of the solution, but have confidence that the church at large can be a powerful force in the care of creation. So how does a church become ‘green’? It starts with a few folks who care about creation who are willing to work together with others to make things happen.
For more information contact Jo Richey, chair of Redeemer’s Green Team at jorichey@iowatelecom.net.
*The Quilt Game
Created by Green Team Leader and quilter Jo Richey, the Quilt Game teaches how climate change happens and what we can do about it.
Three willing players volunteer from the audience to sit in front of the others and be the earth. Jo drapes quilts over them (Redeemer has an active quilter guild) that represent carbon emissions saying, “This is what you airline flight emissions do to you,” “This is what your car emissions do to you,” “This is what your air conditioner emissions do to you.”
Then she asks, “How do you feel?” The inevitable answer is…. Hot!
Then as she removes the quilts she says, “This is what your recycling efforts do to you, This is what your changeover to CFLs does to you, This is what your efforts to reduce your miles driven does to you, etc…”
Then she asks, “How do you feel?” And the inevitable answer is…. Better!