Public Witness/Policy Advocacy: “Church exists to serve the world”
Hands-on project. Learn what environmental projects are happening in your area and what organizations are sponsoring them. Recruit members of your congregation to partner with them in the effort. Restore a habitat, clean up trash, plant trees, write letters to local officials, meet with representatives. Consider making a plan to be a resource in your community in case of severe weather events (click for details).
Informational forums. Learn what environmental organizations are in your community and invite a representative of one or more to present a forum on their program. There are many tools to gracefully converse about civic issues without treading on partisan landmines:
> Go to ecoAmerica’s Blessed Tomorrow site for a Moving Forward guide and consider taking their course to train others ineffective climate communication.
> There are over a hundred fellow Lutherans ready to speak/train: check out the Map of Creation Care Ministries and reach out to someone from the Speaker’s Bureau +/or a Creation Care Ambassador. (No need to be geographically close if you are doing a virtual event!)
> Visit our videos page to consider hosting an event for the congregation or broader community to come together in communication after watching something as a shared experience.
Legislative forum. Invite the head of the Lutheran Public Policy office in your area to preach and present a forum at your congregation. Or invite a local official familiar with local state and regional issues around the environment. If there is a critical issue in your area, plan a forum for information and conversation about it.
Action alerts: Invite members to sign up to receive action alerts via e-mail from ELCA e-Advocacy Network: http://www.elca.org/en/Our-Work/Publicly-Engaged-Church/Advocacy/Get-Involved. The process for contacting legislators is made very simple.
Partner with others. Join with other local eco-faith affiliates in your region and make plans to offer your collective support to local organizing efforts. (If no such organization exists, start one!) Offer to mentor another congregation in becoming a creation-care community – become a Green Shepherd for your synod.
These ideas are also shared in our congregational self-organizing kit. For more details, visit this page.