We had a great meeting on Sunday 29th April at the church centre as follow up to the series on the environment/social justice/consumerism that we have been through over 5 Sundays at VCS.
At the meeting we focused on identifying the key areas for us to engage in as a church ministry for environmental issues that were broadly as follows:
1. Footprint: CO2 reduction, of the church and individuals
2. Education: Aspects of training, education, discussion, learning, web resources, and counsel for church members and our community to learn about and make changes.
3. Products: Research and advice to church family and wider church on ways to use consumption (i.e. beneficial products), and reduce consumption of products
4. Lobbying/Politics: A role for transformation of our local community, engagement in local politics, and awareness of politics of environmental issues.
5. Whole Life Discipleship: The ongoing process of integrating all of these areas as part of our discipleship, and church discipleship
6. Community Projects: Opening our church projects and initiatives to the local community, and joining in existing local initiatives.
7. Accountability: Having staff and trustees of church produce policies and procedures that keep the church accountable and support these values and practices.
Our next meeting to progress this is Sunday 17th June, 6pm until 7:30 p.m at the church centre. In advance of that meeting please email all your ideas of things to do within these areas (as I mentioned at the meeting).
At the end of the meeting, we will set some goals, choose the first lots of activities we are going to pursue, and see who will volunteer to take forward these ideas and form our environment ministry team. Any questions please email me.
As ever, Jason