MFSA Plumbline: Formation of Green Teams

Understanding the Issue

The very first commandment in Scripture is for humans to care for the garden. The Greatest Commandment is to love God. We can express love to our Creator by caring for Creation. The second, “like unto it,” is to love our neighbor. Jesus followed up with the story of the Good Samaritan: We are to care for those who are vulnerable and suffering injustice. Injustice is intertwined with harm to the environment. With a focus on creation justice, working to address harm to the environment also acknowledges and addresses the consequent injustice.

Establishing green teams empowers United Methodists to work together in their local context to address issues that are harming God’s Creation and perpetuating injustice. It  also gives new and existing teams guidelines for effective action in four areas: Worship, Education, Practice, and Advocacy. 

Creating Green Teams

Green teams are groups in local churches, charges, clusters, or districts who provide people of all ages with inspiration, knowledge, encouragement, and practical means for caring for creation and justice. At a time when society and churches have been divided, forming a green team is an opportunity to pull members together to work on a common goal of caring for God’s creation and justice. Taking action to address these fundamental needs is healing for both the Earth and for those who labor side by side out of love for Creator and Creation. 

Analysis

Based on Scripture, it follows that loving God, the Creator, means loving God’s Creation and that loving neighbors in distress requires stopping harm and righting wrongs, in other words, working for justice. Based on United Methodist tradition, it follows that the church provides both a mandate and guidance for doing what is needed. Based on reason, a God-given gift, it follows that globally, humans have the capacity for understanding the damage and danger and for stopping or mitigating the effects. Individuals and congregations have access to trustworthy knowledge and the reasoning ability to discern what is needed and how to carry out plans in their local situations. Based on both human life-experience and our experience of God, it follows that a group of people who care about creation and justice working together can use their wisdom and passion to create faithful and meaningful experiences that help others love God and neighbor.

Resources

• United Methodist Creation Justice Movement (umcreationjustice.org) 

• Examples of the effectiveness of green teams umcreationjustice.org/tag/green-teams

Recommended Action

Vote FOR Petition 20781-CA page 1199 ADCA “Green Team Formation”

This document was prepared in collaboration with the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement (UMCJM). MFSA and UMCJM are members of the Love Your Neighbor Coalition. Learn more www.lyncoaltion.org.

MFSA Plumblines: Formation of Green Teams www.mfsaweb.org  
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