Beacon Heights Church of the Brethen Goes Green!

In Green Like God, by Jonathan Merritt, he introduces us to his concept by stating, "God is green. The idea seems bizarre, almost trivial. Yet, I'm as sure of that statement as I am that two plus two is four and that mixing red and yellow makes orange."

Creation stewardship is a mission that many churches are taking on, and a church in Fort Wayne had support from the city in their quest to become good stewards of their church community.

The City of Fort Wayne began a Green City Certification Program in 2008 and Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren received a call to participate in the program.

The church community is largely devoted to sustainable issues and the program initiated by the City gave them a mentoring situation that helped them progress in their own green initiative.

As an environmental advocate, and one who is very interested in a variety of ways to educate sustainably, I wanted to find out how Fort Wayne's Green City Program helped this church community along. Here is what I found out from Craig Smith, a member of the Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren.

ABS) How did Beacon Heights become aware of the Green Certification Program in Fort Wayne?

CS) The city of Fort Wayne contacted us sometime in late spring or early summer of 2009. I was not involved at that time, but came on board a few months later. It was called "Green City, Fort Wayne" and was geared towards businesses.

We were the first church to complete the program and it has since been renamed to be more inclusive. The city contacting us was fortuitous because we were already pursuing a course of action to raise community awareness on environmental issues.

When we completed the program, one of the things that we did was bring in an environmental specialist, Tom Benevento of the New Community Project, who did an energy audit of our church, gave awareness raising presentation and even came out to the homes of congregants for energy audits of their homes. It was a really great event that we were able to promote through our relationship with the city.

ABS) What actions did your church community take to earn certification?

CS) We were mentored through the process by Joe Bond, who had done the program before for the company he works for, Water Furnace. He walked us through a checklist that the city had created, covering issues such as "Pollution Prevention", "Solid Waste Reduction" and "Energy Conservation". Under each heading were solutions that we could pursue, or we could come up with our own solutions to address the issue. We worked on these issues with Mr. Bond and then brought them to our Stewards Committee for final approval. The interesting thing for us was that as we went through the checklist we found that there were a great number of things, such as recycling, keeping our thermostat set low for times when the church was empty, using low energy light bulbs, promoting bike riding, etc. that we were already doing.

ABS) How do you think green awareness has impacted your church community?

CS) Beacon Heights is very fortunate to have a majority of people in our congregation who care about being "Stewards of the Earth". Before this program we had created Sunday school classes that covered environmental issues from a Biblical perspective. Also, we are a church that is dedicated to social justice. No one is more affected by pollution and climate change than the poor among us.
I think that the one thing that our involvement with the Green Certification Program has done is given us something tangible to show other churches. We can say, "Here is what we did, this is how we did it, you can do it too. Interested?" To my knowledge we have never approached a church, but because of the city's involvement, other churches have been able to network with us.

ABS) Do you have a Green Team in your church?

CS) Right now Pastor John Long and I are Beacon Heights representatives to the Bright Green Church program through the Northeast Indiana Sustainable Business Council (NISBC). I am casting out feelers to others in the congregation who may be interested in this group. Beyond that, I can't stress enough just how aware our entire congregation is on issues of sustainability, the environment and environmental justice.

It is almost as if the entire church is the Green Team. It is really special being part of this congregation.
ABS) What are the future '˜sustainable action' plans for Beacon Heights?

CS) Through the Bright Green Church organization, we are planning a green churches training event on March 5. Just a short Saturday morning session to bring more churches on board with NISBC. We' re also constantly looking for ways to improve. It is the little things that add up to the biggest changes.

It is wonderful to see churches all over the area stepping forward to find new and innovative ways to care for their resources.

It appears that the church community of Beacon Heights is an entire green team!