So, the Green Team Formation resolution passed, and you are wondering where to start or how to strengthen your church’s green team…
How to Develop an Effective Green Team, offered by BeADisciple.com and led by Crys Zinkiewicz, may be your answer.
Set for August 12–16, this online microcourse begins with a three-hour Zoom class that covers—
- Why Christians Care—The Very First Commandment (Genesis 2:15)
- Hope and Action—Me Power/We Power
- Getting Started—Engage, Empower, Encourage
- What YOU Can Do—Ideas and Planning Tools
Over the next four days, learning continues with opportunities to engage with other class members through the Discussion Board. You will be able to participate in each day’s follow-up questions and discussion at a time that works for you.
Cost is $45 per person. For shared learning, consider enrolling two or more people who are or will be working together on your green team.
10 Benefits for YOU
1. You will discover that How to Develop an Effective Green Team is more than a “how-to” course! “Why to” sets a solid starting point, from which the course moves from inspiration to ideas to implementation. Have a Bible handy.
2. You will gain skill and confidence to be able to start, strengthen, and lead a green team effectively in addressing creation justice—caring for God’s Creation and addressing the consequent justice issues, even if you don’t feel like you are “enough” for this calling.
3. You will be able to participate in the four-day follow-up Discussion Board activities at whatever time suits your schedule.
4. You will be enriched by not only the leader’s input, but also by the experiences and insights of the other participants, and you can pass along learnings from your own experiences.
5. You will be able to articulate why Christians are called to this work.
6. You will know how to engage, empower, and encourage green teams to be effective.
7. You will experience tools that will help your green team accomplish their goals.
8. You will receive additional resources, addressing both the Green Team Formation and the Church Land Use resolutions, which provide a wealth of ways your church can work together to care for God’s creation and for justice.
9. You will be able to have your team members (or potential ones) learn along with you, which will give your green team a jumpstart. The manageable cost per person ($45) encourages multiple registrations per church.
10. You will be able to develop an EFFECTIVE green team and together help change the world.
Crys’ Story
Over several years of dinners together, I would hear my friend Clare say how worried she was about climate change. I was usually busy cooking or hosting and assuming the powers-that-be were at work solving the problem. Meanwhile, I didn’t realize it, but Clare had planted seeds in me.
In 2019 I attended the Creation Care Summit that was held in Nashville, you know, because it was just down the street from me and I really ought to go, I supposed.
Wow, it changed my life!
For the first time, I became aware of the complexity and urgency of climate-related issues, and I clearly saw the connection to faith and God’s call for justice. Clare’s seeds were taking hold. Three months later, I took the training and am now a commissioned United Methodist EarthKeeper and those seeds have become full blown plants!
The passion has flowered, and I am engaged on several levels:
Nationally, I am part of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement, working primarily with the communications work group, where I am a contributor to and editor for the UMCJM Newsletter. As part of the movement, I was the writer of the model resolution for Green Team Formation, which several annual conferences passed in 2023, and it was also passed at General Conference in 2024.
I also write the monthly Creation Justice Tips, which go out to a mailing list of 2,500 people for them to use for themselves and for their congregations. I’m now in year 5 and have written more than 550 Tips. Writing the Tips is my EarthKeeper project.
Conference-wide, I have served on what is now the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Creation Care Ministry Team for five years. During that time, we took the Green Team Formation and the Church Land Use resolutions to our annual conference, where they passed. Subsequently, I have created a video to support the implementation of green teams. I participate in the other projects and ministries of the conference team, as well.
In my local church, West End United Methodist, I served for three years (term was extended due to Covid) as chairperson of the church’s green team, leading and learning from a wide variety of creation justice efforts related to education, practice, and advocacy. Our pastors are an example of seamlessly integrating creation care and justice in nearly every worship event. In many ways I modeled the Green Team Formation resolution after the success I experienced and learned from in my congregation.
In my new home (an independent senior living facility), in the first 11 months I successfully mobilized interest into action: setting up composting for the facility’s kitchen, moving the dining room away from the usage of Styrofoam, identifying and facilitating responsible ways to donate or recycle, and pulling together a team for an Earth Day 2024 Show ‘n’ Tell event around alternatives to plastic use in daily life.
I am passionate about taking care of God’s Creation and doing so in ways that are just. All these experiences have shown me again and again the power of Margaret Mead’s insight:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals
can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
I see green teams as having that possibility—especially because we start with faith.
—Crys Zinkiewicz