Comments on: Is your church green? http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/ A forum for discussion of news that arises at the intersection of Christianity and culture. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:41:45 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Kevin N http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268672 Kevin N Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:53:00 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268672 I agree with Steveg (#16) that conservative Christians often have a mocking attitude towards the environment, but I'm not sure that comment #7 was an example of that. Jayfromcleveland gave a possible environmentally-friendly alternative to having a church building, and pointed out that his alternative might be better for the environment than those of the liberal church where the Boy Scouts meet. I'm glad to see churches, and Christians in general, who do more than give lip service to the idea of stewardship of the creation. I agree with Steveg (#16) that conservative Christians often have a mocking attitude towards the environment, but I’m not sure that comment #7 was an example of that. Jayfromcleveland gave a possible environmentally-friendly alternative to having a church building, and pointed out that his alternative might be better for the environment than those of the liberal church where the Boy Scouts meet.

I’m glad to see churches, and Christians in general, who do more than give lip service to the idea of stewardship of the creation.

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]]> By: SteveG http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268510 SteveG Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:09:14 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268510 #11: <i>Don’t Christians think that this is an important issue? We are stewards of this earth that God gave us to take care of.</i> You'd think so, but every time an environmental issue comes up here, at least half of the Christians respond with mocking scorn at the idea of even caring about it. Or as #7 does, they take a question intended to ask them to examine themselves and turn it outward into an unnecessary, irrelevant political attack. #11: Don’t Christians think that this is an important issue? We are stewards of this earth that God gave us to take care of.

You’d think so, but every time an environmental issue comes up here, at least half of the Christians respond with mocking scorn at the idea of even caring about it.

Or as #7 does, they take a question intended to ask them to examine themselves and turn it outward into an unnecessary, irrelevant political attack.

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]]> By: Kevin N http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268503 Kevin N Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:59:53 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268503 I would add a sixth area of environmental concern in the development of church facilities: aesthetics. Are the building and grounds beautiful? Francis Schaeffer said, "One of the first fruits of that healing [as an application of Christ's redemption] is a new sense of beauty." Aesthetics doesn't have to be expensive. <a href="http://geochristian.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/i-looked-at-the-christian-community-and-saw-ugliness/" rel="nofollow">"I looked at the Christian community and saw ugliness."</a> -- Francis Schaeffer, <i>Pollution and the Death of Man</i> Grace and Peace I would add a sixth area of environmental concern in the development of church facilities: aesthetics. Are the building and grounds beautiful? Francis Schaeffer said, “One of the first fruits of that healing [as an application of Christ's redemption] is a new sense of beauty.”

Aesthetics doesn’t have to be expensive.

“I looked at the Christian community and saw ugliness.” — Francis Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man

Grace and Peace

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]]> By: Night Train http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268424 Night Train Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:47:19 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268424 Here's the link if you want to check it out. http://snipurl.com/1ymxf Here’s the link if you want to check it out.

http://snipurl.com/1ymxf

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]]> By: Night Train http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268423 Night Train Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:45:51 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268423 Has anyone seen that famous online quiz about environmentalism? They show you a bunch of different passages, and you have to guess if each one came from Al Gore's <i>Earth In The Balance</i>, or the Unabomber Manifesto. I took it, and only got about half right. Has anyone seen that famous online quiz about environmentalism? They show you a bunch of different passages, and you have to guess if each one came from Al Gore’s Earth In The Balance, or the Unabomber Manifesto. I took it, and only got about half right.

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]]> By: Bianca http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268379 Bianca Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:00:04 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268379 My church is white too. Should we form a committee to make it more green? My church is white too.

Should we form a committee to make it more green?

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]]> By: gluckfs http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268370 gluckfs Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:46:16 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268370 Don't Christians think that this is an important issue? We are stewards of this earth that God gave us to take care of. What kind of witness is it to our unsaved neighbors when we put up big buildings that use a lot of energy, pave acres with parking lots that cause runoff and don't even think of using the land to help the community. (How many community gardens used to help feed the poor have you seen on church property?) There is a lot more to caring for God's earth than just green buildings. What about caring for creation by not using plastic or paper plates and plastic silverware at church functions? What about not using plastic bags to collect trash? How many families take more than one car to church functions (or even walk or bicycle when they can? There is lots to be done here! Check out www.careofcreation.org Don’t Christians think that this is an important issue? We are stewards of this earth that God gave us to take care of.

What kind of witness is it to our unsaved neighbors when we put up big buildings that use a lot of energy, pave acres with parking lots that cause runoff and don’t even think of using the land to help the community. (How many community gardens used to help feed the poor have you seen on church property?)

There is a lot more to caring for God’s earth than just green buildings. What about caring for creation by not using plastic or paper plates and plastic silverware at church functions? What about not using plastic bags to collect trash? How many families take more than one car to church functions (or even walk or bicycle when they can?

There is lots to be done here!

Check out http://www.careofcreation.org

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]]> By: RRBar http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268324 RRBar Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:00:40 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268324 This "green" stuff is mostly hogwash and should be ignored. However, the church should be concerned about being energy efficient for multiple reasons. Ours isn't, and the utility bills prove it. A lot of church buildings are old, built before high utility prices and need to be updated. It was interesting to see that buildings of all types consume over 40% of the energy in this country. Why isn't someone putting serious effort into reducing this number instead of trying to shoehorn large people into pipsqueak cars - since cars use less energy than buildings anyway?? This “green” stuff is mostly hogwash and should be ignored.

However, the church should be concerned about being energy efficient for multiple reasons. Ours isn’t, and the utility bills prove it. A lot of church buildings are old, built before high utility prices and need to be updated.

It was interesting to see that buildings of all types consume over 40% of the energy in this country. Why isn’t someone putting serious effort into reducing this number instead of trying to shoehorn large people into pipsqueak cars – since cars use less energy than buildings anyway??

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]]> By: adios http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268322 adios Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:52:57 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268322 Our church is building a new building after 30 years of moving from one place to another as we have grown; this is the first time we have built a building. We are as green as we can be. Building completely green can be cost prohibative. So we had to weigh good-earth stewardship against financial stewardship (we are only building what we can already afford). The city in which we are building, however, gives incentives to building green and assists with the most current research and lending green-educated engineers. Once the building is finished it will conserve much more than the old building by way of water, cooling, heating, etc. The landscape will be CA, drought resistent natives. And the church was situated in such a way as to not disturb California gnatcatcher habitat (gnatchachers do not adapt to new habitat well, if at all). Our church is building a new building after 30 years of moving from one place to another as we have grown; this is the first time we have built a building.

We are as green as we can be. Building completely green can be cost prohibative. So we had to weigh good-earth stewardship against financial stewardship (we are only building what we can already afford).

The city in which we are building, however, gives incentives to building green and assists with the most current research and lending green-educated engineers. Once the building is finished it will conserve much more than the old building by way of water, cooling, heating, etc. The landscape will be CA, drought resistent natives. And the church was situated in such a way as to not disturb California gnatcatcher habitat (gnatchachers do not adapt to new habitat well, if at all).

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]]> By: krm http://online.worldmag.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/comment-page-1/#comment-268288 krm Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:10:00 +0000 http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/01/30/is-your-church-green/#comment-268288 The picture looks uncannily like the church that I attend. The picture looks uncannily like the church that I attend.

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