Article contribution by Rev. Jacob Dye
Many of the people in the two churches I serve (Gray Rock UMC and Bethel UMC) have a deep love for the hymn, “In the Garden.” One of my favorite questions to ask them is, “where is your garden?” In other words, where do you go to experience that personal, intimate connection with God? While for many of them this place isn’t an actual garden, I have been delighted to hear many of them speak of a certain place in creation where they like to go to spend time basking in the presence of God. In our rural area, this may be a pond, lake, or stream, it may be a farm or a grassy field by their house, it may be a beach they’ve gone to year after year, or it may be a tree stand tucked in the woods. Wherever it is, many people find a special connection with God in the natural world.
So I wonder, do you have a “garden” somewhere in creation that helps you experience the presence of God? In our state, we’re blessed with so many options. The mountains to our west, the coast to the east, and countless trails, parks, farms, and other beautiful places in between. And while God certainly wants us to enjoy these places, God also calls us to care for them. To treat them as the works of God that they are.
I am currently serving as the leader of the newly formed Heritage District Creation Care team. For those who might be unfamiliar with the term “creation care,” it is simply a “churchy” and theological way of talking about caring for the earth, the natural world that God has created and made us a part of. Some people might refer to this as conservation, environmentalism, or stewardship, but at its best, “creation care” can make room for people that would use any of those terms.
So practically speaking, creation care includes several different things. Creation care could look like your church volunteering to pick up litter from the side of a road or a local water system. Creation care might involve your church planting pollinator-friendly vegetation on your church property to help support a healthy ecosystem around your church. Maybe your church wants to take the step of recycling bulletins after worship each Sunday. Or, maybe your church can encourage people to spend more time outdoors in God’s creation, developing a deeper love for creation and finding their own ways to care for it.
Wherever you may find yourself in the journey of creation care, your Heritage District creation care team stands ready to help. We’ll be sharing more articles in the newsletter over the coming months with ideas for how you or your church can be caring for creation. And we’ll also be planning events where we as a district can come together to make a difference in our corner of creation.
In the meantime, I invite you to spend a little more time in your “garden,” and perhaps ask yourself what God might be calling you to do, to give back to that special place that has given so much to you.
Peace,
Rev. Jacob Dye
Leader, Heritage District Creation Care Team