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Eco-Justice Ministries
Eco-Justice: "the well-being of all humankind on a thriving Earth" |
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Eco-Justice Ministries
Eco-Justice: "the well-being of all humankind on a thriving Earth" |
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Greening Your Church:
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| Overall goals and perspectives |
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There is no one curriculum or program that will work in every congregation to deepen environmental commitments and actions. Our goal with this workshop was to help religious educators and church leaders consider many different settings and approaches to education. We tried to help them make informed choices – or ask perceptive questions – about the sorts of educational programming that will work best for their church.
The November, 2008, set of workshops on education were part of our long-term "Greening Your Church" series -- which now is reflected in the structure of the Eco-Justice Ministries website -- and the challenge to deepen environmental programming from "doing the basics" toward "leadership & action" and "transformational ministry". We shared a core assertion of Eco-Justice Ministries, that a green church will bring eco-justice perspectives into all parts of the congregation's life and mission: energy efficiency and building management, certainly, but also worship, education, pastoral care, advocacy and outreach.
The workshops with "a focus on education" explored how teaching and learning can be engaged as part of that broad process of greening the church. We acknowledged that this is "education with an agenda," which moves the congregation toward action and transformation. In this time of environmental crisis, we said, awareness and knowledge are not sufficient. Effective education must lead to some sort of action or transformation.
| Varieties of education |
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We usually think of education as classes which impart knowledge. That's important! But the workshops were intended to stretch the boundaries, and to help participants think very broadly about education.
Different kinds of education and learning.
Then we asked a slightly different question: "When did you learn that you wanted to drive?" Did you ever take a class that taught you to want that knowledge? The discussion lifted up the "hidden curriculum" which built that interest – from advertising and movies, friends who drove, parents who were eager to have their children learn (or not), and the cultural sense that a driver's license is a rite of passage.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." We explored the question: In churches, how do we teach love and longing for environmental living?
In several of the sessions, we raised a parallel thought with the way churches and families do values education, with the question, "When and where did you learn compassion?" We pointed to one book, Parenting for Peace and Justice, which illustrates how deep moral commitments and social values are nurtured in ongoing relationships, as well as in more formal educational settings.
QUESTION: Where in your congregation are these different forms of education taking place: the intellectual and behavioral, the "hidden curriculum" that defines what is important and exciting, the lifelong education of nurturing values?
We invited people to take part in a small group discussion, starting with the question: "When did you learn to drive?" What was involved, how long did it take, etc. Talk about the practical details and the hours of practice, study of laws, etc. Reflect on depth of education for action and behavior. From the small groups, we pulled out some learnings about education: that there is a difference between learning skills and "book learning" of laws; that there is anxiety about learning new behaviors (and about teaching them!), that learning is a life-long process.
The difference between facts & worldviews
1. Education about facts, information and behaviors
Some education is like that -- we can teach about efficient light bulbs for people who already care about conservation. We can educate about how to recycle difficult materials to people who are looking for those answers. There are eager learners who are ready to apply the knowledge and skills.
But there are occasions when that factual education will not work without building a context.
2. Education that opens up new world views
Similarly, church education on the environment doesn't take hold when folk don't understand concepts of ecological relationship, the limits to natural resources, or the fragility of natural systems. If those concepts are not at least partly in place, people will not see why climate change is a problem. If our members are living from non-ecological worldviews and perspectives – if nature for them is primarily a set of resources, if they believe that perpetual growth is essential, or that humanity can solve any problem – then education will have to address those beliefs and assumptions before or during issue education and behavior change.
As an example of the need to address broad ideas before details information will be interesting, or stick at all, Peter told a story about visiting a church for their mission festival. A dozen agencies supported by the church had displays around fellowship hall during coffee hour. When the service ended, people came into the hall, got their coffee and snacks, and sat down with their friends. There was virtually no interaction between the church members and the people staffing any of the displays. The mission education was ineffective because the congregation as a whole didn't seem to get mission and outreach, so they didn't care about the agencies and projects that were expressions of their own congregation's mission. There was a need to teach the church to be excited about mission before engaging their members with the specific projects of their mission partners.
A colleague of ours in faith-based environmental work, Peter Illyn of Restoring Eden, talks about "movement building" instead of focusing on specific behaviors or political campaigns. He sees a need, in churches especially, to do the deep groundwork that helps people understand why the environment is a faith concern. How can we build the base of support, the worldview, that will lead to action? In many churches, we must start at that level.
We used two stories to highlight the very different kinds of education that may be necessary in "greening" a church.
Sometimes basic facts and information are important and appropriate. Peter told a story about the first time that he made an angel food cake. He was doing fine until the recipe said to "fold" the beaten egg whites into the batter. Since he didn't know what that term meant, he used the mixer to stir the ingredients together -- and got a cake about an inch thick. In this case, Peter knew that he wanted to be able to make a cake, and needed one piece of information to do it well.
The two workshop leaders (Peter and Brian) acted out "a really stupid little skit" where a time machine had brought Brian 2,000 years from the time of the Roman Empire. Peter tried to talk to Brian about Spirit and Opportunity, the two robots that have been exploring the surface of Mars for the last five years. Brian was completely confused, because Mars is either a God or a spot of light on the dome of heaven. He had no comprehension of planets orbiting the sun. It was impossible to talk with him about water on Mars without going way back into what we consider to be basic concepts.
| Goals for education |
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The Eco-Justice Ministries website has an extensive set of reviews of church-based environmental curricula. As we have examined those 90 curricula for children, youth, and adults, we have noticed that those resources can be clustered according to some of their most basic educational goals.
The educational goals can be seen as different entry points for education, and they reflect different questions for organizing the lessons. We highlighted a few examples of each type -- not to describe or endorse any one curriculum title, but to demonstrate the variety of options. (Descriptions of each of these titles can be found in our Eco-Curriculum Reviews.)
What we believe – The curricula deal with theology, ethics, spirituality and values
How the world works – The focus is on science, economics, sociology, etc.
What you can do – The goal is to motivate people toward practical steps and behavior change
Change in laws and systems – Students are encouraged to engage in advocacy
From our perspective, the final goal always includes some sort of action.
| Settings for education |
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We reminded the workshop participants that education happens in many varieties and settings within a congregation. If the focus in entirely on the classroom, then a lot of important educational opportunities will be missed.
| Basic principles |
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The workshop concluded with an affirmation of some of our basic principles about eco-justice education in churches.