Sacred Parks - Project Materials and Resources
Wind farm, on drive from San Diego to Joshua Tree NP
"Get out of your car, get onto the trail (or waterway), and into a greener life of faith."
Did you know that less than a third of all visitors to our nation's parks actually get out of their cars? Above is one of the mottos of the project, and a call to truly engage with our parks as some of the last places on earth where God meets us in the wild.
Those of us who resonate with the lessons God teaches us through the outdoors can sympathize with this nudging call to get outside! and let Creation teach us about the environment through the lense of faith.
But, let's face it, the earth and its needs are many - perhaps a bit overwhelming - so here are a few resources put together by faithful scholars and advocates for faithful stewardship of God's earth:
"Greening" Your Community
Here are a few materials Professor David Rhoads (LSTC) has generously opened up to the larger faith community for the sake of this and many other projects like Sacred Parks.
Environmental Guide for Congregations, Their Buildings, and Grounds: A helpful and concise booklet, edited by David Glover and David Rhoads, and compiled also by several students at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, this guide offers a good overview of "Environmental Impacts" of many of the resources and services we often take for granted - energy, water, food, transportation, etc. - as well as ways to use and conserve those resources. This is a good place to start the conversation.
Training Manual for The Green Congregation Program (Revised edition, October 2006): Written by David Rhoads for the Web of Creation at LSTC, this manual puts the concerns of the Environmental Guide in the direct context of a one's faith life in community and the sum of its part, and contains two parts: the "Getting Started and Keeping Going," and the even more specific "Green Congregation Action Plan." This manual is for those serious about getting a hands-on start to a greener life of faith - through worship, education, buildings and grounds, home and work, and the public sphere.
Check out these materials, which can be dowloaded below or found at this Web of Creation link: http://www.webofcreation.org/complete-manuals
Did you know that less than a third of all visitors to our nation's parks actually get out of their cars? Above is one of the mottos of the project, and a call to truly engage with our parks as some of the last places on earth where God meets us in the wild.
Those of us who resonate with the lessons God teaches us through the outdoors can sympathize with this nudging call to get outside! and let Creation teach us about the environment through the lense of faith.
But, let's face it, the earth and its needs are many - perhaps a bit overwhelming - so here are a few resources put together by faithful scholars and advocates for faithful stewardship of God's earth:
"Greening" Your Community
Here are a few materials Professor David Rhoads (LSTC) has generously opened up to the larger faith community for the sake of this and many other projects like Sacred Parks.
Environmental Guide for Congregations, Their Buildings, and Grounds: A helpful and concise booklet, edited by David Glover and David Rhoads, and compiled also by several students at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, this guide offers a good overview of "Environmental Impacts" of many of the resources and services we often take for granted - energy, water, food, transportation, etc. - as well as ways to use and conserve those resources. This is a good place to start the conversation.
Training Manual for The Green Congregation Program (Revised edition, October 2006): Written by David Rhoads for the Web of Creation at LSTC, this manual puts the concerns of the Environmental Guide in the direct context of a one's faith life in community and the sum of its part, and contains two parts: the "Getting Started and Keeping Going," and the even more specific "Green Congregation Action Plan." This manual is for those serious about getting a hands-on start to a greener life of faith - through worship, education, buildings and grounds, home and work, and the public sphere.
Check out these materials, which can be dowloaded below or found at this Web of Creation link: http://www.webofcreation.org/complete-manuals
| environmental20guide.pdf |
| finishedcompletegc.pdf |
More Resources...
DVDs and Companion Resources
Earthbound: Created + Called to Care for Creation (2009): A six-part, 2-DVD adult education series put together by Seraphim Communications (www.seracomm.com) Here is an excerpt from its Facilitator Guide's "Purpose of the Series" section: "Earthbound explores the care of creation as Christian vocation, and uncovers a number of barriers that have kept us from being faithful to that calling...[and] looks at the ways we have misread scripture, misunderstood dominion,...and forgotten our place in the long timeline of God's story...The purpose of Earthbound is to raise problematic issues in the Christian and Western traditions, reorient learners to parts of our tradition that can correct these issues and enrich our understanding, and call learners to embrace their vocation with new understanding and new energy. Earthbound does not provide prescriptive action in living out that vocation, instead leaving that up to the needs, gifts and creativity of each faith community to discern and enact.
Blessed Earth (2010): A 2-part, 2-DVD and accompanying 2-book set by Matthew Sleeth, focusing on "Hope for Creation" (DVD/Book Part 1) and "Hope for Humanity" (DVD/Book Part 2). An guidebook excerpt for Part One states the following: "Blessed Earth is an educational nonprofit that inspires and equips faith communities to become better stewards of the earth. Through outreach to churches, campuses, and media, it builds bridges that promote measurable environmental change and meaningful spiritual growth." The creation care movement can be found at www.blessedearth.org.
Earthbound: Created + Called to Care for Creation (2009): A six-part, 2-DVD adult education series put together by Seraphim Communications (www.seracomm.com) Here is an excerpt from its Facilitator Guide's "Purpose of the Series" section: "Earthbound explores the care of creation as Christian vocation, and uncovers a number of barriers that have kept us from being faithful to that calling...[and] looks at the ways we have misread scripture, misunderstood dominion,...and forgotten our place in the long timeline of God's story...The purpose of Earthbound is to raise problematic issues in the Christian and Western traditions, reorient learners to parts of our tradition that can correct these issues and enrich our understanding, and call learners to embrace their vocation with new understanding and new energy. Earthbound does not provide prescriptive action in living out that vocation, instead leaving that up to the needs, gifts and creativity of each faith community to discern and enact.
Blessed Earth (2010): A 2-part, 2-DVD and accompanying 2-book set by Matthew Sleeth, focusing on "Hope for Creation" (DVD/Book Part 1) and "Hope for Humanity" (DVD/Book Part 2). An guidebook excerpt for Part One states the following: "Blessed Earth is an educational nonprofit that inspires and equips faith communities to become better stewards of the earth. Through outreach to churches, campuses, and media, it builds bridges that promote measurable environmental change and meaningful spiritual growth." The creation care movement can be found at www.blessedearth.org.