It's Easy Being Green

As Methodists we are called to be caretakers of God's creation. All of creation is the Lord's and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, soil, air, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God's creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. 

About a year ago, we started a new Creation Care Ministry at St. Andrew's because God has granted us stewardship of creation and we need to meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect.  Twenty-three members signed up to be a part of the “Green Team”.

The initial focus for the team was to look at how we might take better care of God’s church and campus grounds.  We saw that a lot of trash and debris was present around the church grounds which were not being cleaned up.  Green Team members volunteered to walk the campus periodically to pick up trash and debris.

The team noticed that paper and other recyclable materials were ending up in the church’s waste bin to be thrown away.  The church has no recycling service to collect and recycle paper and other items in the church office, kitchen or St. Andrew's Academy. Blue bins were placed in each of these areas to collect recyclables. Volunteers from the team signed up to periodically empty the bins and take the contents home for recycling.  

Another focus for the team is to eliminate the use of plastic and Styrofoam containers. We worked with the kitchen crew to use compostable bowls in place of foam dishes and with the Meals on Wheels ministry to replace foam with paper-based take-out containers. United Women in Faith went further and hosted a meal with bamboo flatware and compostable disposable plates.  We will continue to encourage all our ministries to eliminate the use of plastic and Styrofoam wherever possible.

One of the fun things we did this year was to build a children’s garden (pictured below). The Green Team and St. Andrew's Academy staff wanted to give the children an opportunity to see the miracle of planting a tiny seed and watching it grow into a beautiful plant.  In March, the team constructed a raised bed garden in the playground area.

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Beginning this Sunday, the Green Team is excited to announce a new effort: collect and recycle plastic bags and wrap we commonly have in our household.  Each Sunday, we will collect the bags and send them to NexTrex, a manufacturer that produces an earth-friendly composite decking and railing from the plastic. White bins for collecting plastic bags are located in the breezeway area on Sunday mornings. Signage on the side of the white bins will show you what type of items we can collect. We are asking everyone to collect and bring their household bags to church on Sundays!  

The Creation Care Team encourages you to help us to be good stewards of God’s creation by reusing, replacing, and recycling plastics and paper at home, at church and at work. If you are interested in joining our team, please contact George Miller at georgefmiller@gmail.com.

George Miller, Creation Care Team Leader

St. Andrew's United Methodist Church

Brandon, Florida

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