A Duke Divinity student from our conference, who is working with RAFI and Resourceful Communities this semester, is creating a map of creation care ministries throughout the North Carolina Annual Conference. RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation, Int.) and Resourceful Communities are two nonprofits in North Carolina who work to assist local farmers, rural communities, and rural United Methodist churches throughout the state.
Imagine someone in your church wants to start a community garden. You think this is a great idea, but you have no clue where to start. But what if another United Methodist church in the next town over has had a community garden for the last five years? Perhaps you could partner with them or have the leader of that ministry help your church get started. All too often, though, we’re unaware of the ministries of our neighboring United Methodist churches.
Can you take this brief, 5-minute survey to have your church included in this mapping project? The goal is to develop a map that will connect churches who are doing similar work, or to provide models for churches who are wanting to begin a creation care ministry. In this way, our connectionalism can be leveraged to better care for God’s creation.
Creation care, also known as conservation or environmentalism, can include many different things. Some common examples are recycling, cleaning up rivers or oceans, or conserving electricity in your church or home.
Food and farming also play a major role in creation care. Things such as having a church garden, serving a community meal with fresh produce, being involved in a CSA or farmer’s market, or any way in which your church works with the land, are all acts of creation care.
If your church has a ministry that is working to care for God’s creation, we would love to know about it! Ultimately, we hope to create a network of churches and ministries that can support one another in this important work.
You can find the survey by following this link: https://forms.gle/rFNZQT8uJNXrQFYt9.
Thank you for your time!