God created an amazing world for us to live in and He gave humanity responsibility to tend and care for it well; we are all called to be faithful stewards of creation. Although the beauty of creation can sometimes take our breath away, we only have to look at the news to see that sadly we don’t always care for our world well. Challenging and complex environmental issues often dominate both the headlines and the hearts of an emerging generation, and it can be hard to know how best to respond as a church.

For some time now, Helen, one of our office team volunteers, has been looking at what steps we could take to do better at this, and this week I want to update you on some exciting news: we have been formally recognised as an Eco Church!

The Eco Church scheme is run by A Rocha and supported by Tearfund and other well-known Christian agencies. You can read more about it by clicking on the link above or on the image below. The scheme is robust, Christian-faith based, and the ‘go-to’ scheme for churches in the UK.

We are pleased to have received the Bronze Award

This is a great first step for us, and we’re making plans to go further, recognising the Biblical mandate that God has given us to care for our world.

Why should we care about this as Christians?

As a church we are committed to being Biblical, rather than simply responding to the latest trends in our culture. With this in mind, on Sunday, Christopher will continue our ‘FAITHFUL’ preaching series, a series that’s all about stewardship. He will be looking at what it means to be Faithful With The Planet. Make sure you’re there to hear what the Bible has to say on this hot topic issue.

What does it mean to be an Eco Church?

The Eco Church Bronze award recognises five areas of church life that we’ve been working on in different ways over a long period of time:

1. Buildings: our buildings are built to high environmental specifications, including such things as insulation, heating, toilets, hand dryers, the building materials themselves and more. When the houses that used to be on the land where the chapel now stands were demolished, much of the material was recycled – especially the bricks. We are also hoping soon to secure a grant for solar panels to be fitted to the roof of the chapel – watch this space
2. Land: we’ve been caring for the land around our church building well, including planting flowers that attract wildlife and providing cycle racks. Did you know that we even have two electric car charging points?
3. Worship + Teaching: We will continue to teach into this topic as it arises from Scripture, especially this coming Sunday
4. Lifestyle: this includes how the church invests its money (over 50% ethically), and some other actions taken by individuals in the church
5. Community and Global Engagement: this covers lots of things from food usage to the ‘Toilet Twinning’ scheme, to engagement with the Local Council. On the ‘food’ issue, we serve a lot of coffee as a church. When we chose our coffee supplier, a couple of years ago, we chose very carefully. Indigo Valley coffee is fair trade, ethically sourced and carbon neutrally roasted. They also help to support ‘Hope for Justice’, who are working to end modern day slavery

Our Ultimate Goal

Whilst we’re excited to have this award, we know it isn’t our ultimate goal. Our goal is to see life transformed through Jesus; both our own life, and the lives of those around us. I believe that God will work through us as we act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him, showing ourselves to be faithful stewards in every area of our lives including this one.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus will renew this world when he returns. All creation is waiting for the day when He’s revealed. In the meantime let’s remember that Jesus told us if we are faithful with little, He will trust us with much.

Over the next year we hope to apply for the Silver Award, so watch this space – and please get in touch with Helen in the office if you have skills and expertise in this area and would like to get involved!

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