The Tree Outside is a Direct Link to Genesis
Teaching creation care to your congregation can start to feel cumbersome, at times. You've done the leg work, uncovered scriptural teachings that command our stewardship of His creation, but what now?
The Field Guide To Faith & Nature, has produced, How to Use Your Church Facilities to Teach Creation Care; a how-to-guide for integrating your worship facilities into stewardship campaigns.
Your church is an endless realm of possibility for your congregation to connect with nature. For example: does your facility have a large outside area; perhaps a grassy partition for people to sit on? What better way to speak about climate awareness than by standing under god's magnificent creation — a tree.
Turn God's creation from an abstract into a reality!
Jacque Derrida claimed that language is limited and the true meaning of something is never fully realized until we physically connect with it. In the Lacanian sense, nature remains nothing more than an abstraction, a series of indicating symbols that only become something real and more meaningful when we see, touch and feel.
Think of the outdoors as direct link to Genesis — all you have to do is go outside and touch it!
Doing so will shift discussions about creation away from the abstract, in favor of a more relatable and tangible discourse about what it means to care for God's creation.
So get out there and reconnect with nature!
Using Your Facilities to Teach Creation Care
By Cindy Coe for +EarthEd
As you introduce environmentalism to young people, the physical site of your camp, school, or other teaching facility will serve as an important part of your teaching team. The land itself can provide young people with a learning environment to explore nature, practice spiritual disciplines, and explore important issues of creation care – all while having fun and staying safe.
Environmental education is best taught by allowing young people to immerse themselves in nature and experience the wonders of God’s creation first hand. These experiences may take place in a forest, alongside a lake, in a garden, in an urban park, or even in an indoor garden or greenhouse.