Cover Image: Members of the Baltimore-Washington Creation Care Team and partners gathered in Annapolis, MD, at the Asbury United Methodist Church. The were attending a legislative briefing to learn about the priority bills of the session, and how to advocate for just laws for creation with Maryland lawmakers.
Photo courtesy Mike Koob, Baltimore-Washington Creation Care Team, used with permission.
Across annual conferences, United Methodists are responding to the imperative of creation care, including the immediate work of raising up annual conference-level creation care and justice teams.* The United Methodist Book of Discipline calls on every annual conference to form green teams and name a conference Caretaker of God’s Creation Coordinator. These Coordinators do not work in isolation. They work closely with the conference staff, local churches, and the creation care team in their conference.
While many conferences already have a conference team, others do not—not yet. Forming these teams is underway, and to support United Methodists in the midst of this effort, the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement (affectionately known as the Movement) continues to develop resources through teams and work groups. A recent resource is the May 2025 Movement Café, where you can hear from experienced people at the center of these efforts in their conferences.
Below find tips from both lay and clergy leaders who are working within their annual conferences to establish, renew, and grow creation care teams.
Wisdom in this article is shared by Mike Koob and Rev. Sharee Wharton, past and current chairs respectively of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Creation Care Team; Dan Joranko, who leads the Creation Care Ministries of the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference; and Rev. Marty Toepke-Floyd, Interim Caretaker of God’s Creation for the Dakotas Conference. Together, Mike, Sharee, Dan and Marty share decades of experience navigating conference systems, leading teams, and organizing creation care and environmental justice in their conferences.
GETTING STARTED
While different conferences organize leadership structures differently, in many cases legislation to establish a conference creation care team is helpful or essential.
Passing Legislation defines how your conference creation care team is, and will be, part of the larger conference itself. These questions show how important it is to really think about what a conference creation care team would look like in your context. For example:
- Where does the team fit? Is the team a stand-alone team? Or, is it nested with other social and Gospel justice/Discipleship teams?
- Who is the team accountable to? Ultimately, the team will be accountable to the conference body, and will need to offer status reports and budget reports at the annual conference to the people of the conference.
- How is the team connected to the conference? This is important, as the Caretaker of God’s Creation Coordinator will ideally be attending leadership meetings with conference staff and cabinet, and have official conference communication tools. Naming a connected relationship is important.
- How will team members be named to the team? There are a lot of ways to do this. You might discern that conference nominations is the right body to bring names of candidates before the conference to be voted on by the members of the conference, as is done with conference boards such as the conference board of church and society or conference board of trustees. Or, the team might select its own members. Or a combination of these.
- How will it be funded? This is a great moment to bring up what the priorities are for faithful ministries. By our Book of Discipline, Gospel, Book of Resolutions, and the state of our planet, this is a priority.
As you can see, legislation helps define what a conference care team does, who does the work, the lines of support it will need, as well as accountability for the work it will do. Passing legislation makes this official. And it starts with writing and submitting that legislation (find sample legislation here).
Remember, too, that the work often begins well before legislation is written and passed; you can start the work now. Your initial team doesn’t need anyone’s permission, and may act in partnership with the conference, or be part of an existing conference board, or part of a green team or EarthKeeper team. At some point, however, planning around what your team will need from the conference at the conference level likely means your team may look toward developing legislation.
First Steps For Getting Started
When the time comes for bringing a conference-level creation care and justice team into the conference structures, and legislation is needed, your steps may include: Gathering a legislative team and do the writing together. Seek 5-7 people to begin the discernment and writing process. Draw from allies in your conference, including:
- Global Ministries EarthKeepers. Find and connect with trained EarthKeepers in your conference.
- Local church green teams. Reach out to local churches across the districts and ask if they have a green team or green ministries.
- Conference agencies and groups. Think Church and Society, Methodist Federation for Social Action, Camp and Retreat, and United Women in Faith. Reach out to these conference boards discipleship and social justice teams, ask them who is working on creation care or environmental justice.
- People you know. Chances are, if you are reading this, you have been interested in creation care and justice for a while. Who have you already met and worked with in your conference? Reach out to them.
- Denominational Support. Reach out to the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement. Those in the Movement have first-hand experience and can share tips, know-how, encouragement, and strategies to support you in your efforts.
A getting-started story from the Dakotas Conference
Marty Toepke-Floyd is Senior Pastor of First UMC in Jamestown, ND, and he is the interim Caretaker of God’s Creation in the Dakotas Conference. His conference does not yet have a creation care team, though he is actively working on it. In 2016, Marty took some first steps in addressing creation care when he led a series of weekend studies in North and South Dakota, an activity that left him wanting to do more.
“I led a creation care and climate justice study and really hoped that I planted some seeds and they would start growing. We had a wonderful study.” Marty shared. Yet, “not much happened.” He sought ways he could continue to be proactive, and took some next steps, including connecting with the Movement in 2020, and signing up to train as a Global Ministries EarthKeeper in 2024.
“I found out about the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement, and it was like, ‘Oh my! What have I been missing out on?” said Marty. “I learned about EarthKeepers. They ask ahead of time that you come up with a project. And I prayed about it. …my project was to survey the 100 or so churches in the Dakotas Conference as to what they are doing currently, and what we can do to do more to establish green teams.”
Marty asked a number of questions in his 7 question survey, covering everything from LED lighting and recycling to changes in landscaping and embracing creation care through worship and mission. “And finally, I followed up with, ‘would you be willing to serve on a conference level, creation care team or green team,’ and that was great.” From this effort, Marty sees opportunities to move forward in forming an official team. Marty compiled a summary of his findings in this report and they were also featured in a series of Dakota Conference Communications articles here and here.
A getting-started story from the Baltimore-Washington Conference
Interest in creation care and environmental justice was already high in the Baltimore-Washington Conference eight years ago when the team formed, and Mike Koob, an EarthKeeper and passionate advocate served as the team’s first chair. Those in the conference already had a high level of understanding and interest, and in organizing the team, Mike and others brought together local church and conference members and chairs of conference agencies and delegates. Team formation helped focus the work.
“Find your allies any which way you can,” advises Mike. “United Women in Faith had a climate justice study just before we were officially formed, so that gave a lot of people in our conference knowledge about the urgency of this action. EarthKeepers started in 2016 and we’ve had 25 EarthKeepers come out of Baltimore-Washington….if you have a vocation to work in creation care, advocate to get people to join into that.”
A getting-started story from the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference
Dan Joranko convenes Creation Care Ministries in Tennessee-Western Kentucky. The path to forming a team at that conference came through team members starting in local churches and conference districts, and included planning and holding creation care summits and workshops, speaking in local churches, and teaching adult Sunday school education.
“If you’re starting a new group,” says Dan, “having congregation and creation care convenings are a good way to get organized. Organizing a summit or event gives you a project that you can work with as a team. You can do workshops about what congregations can do. You can strategize together. So if you’re floating a new initiative, or you’re trying to revitalize, I would highly suggest that it just seems to be a really effective tool to help catalyze your ministry.”
The team formed first in the Nashville District of the Conference in 2012 with the charge, “With clergy, staff and laity to provide information and resources to help facilitate the formation of new creation care ministries in local churches, strengthen existing creation care ministries, encourage multi-church activities and report on the progress made in supporting efforts to become better stewards of creation.” Dan and early chairs Joe Boyd and Paul Slentz continued to build activity in the districts before coming together as a conference-wide effort in 2017 when the districts were reorganized.
Discernment With Your First Allies and Finding Your Vibe
As you begin this process, multiple creation care leaders will remind you of two things. First, that you are not alone, and teamwork is essential. And secondly, no two conferences are alike, and so no two conference-level creation care teams are alike. As you bring your team together, a big part of the effort is to discover what matters and what is urgent in your context.
Each conference has its own regional expressions of mission and ministry. Each conference has unique history with the land, and unique geographic regions, whether on the coastlines, or crisscrossed by deserts, mountains, rivers or forests. Interest in local creation care in your conference may center on regenerative, local farms and food waste, helping congregations move to clean energy, addressing climate change and environmental justice impacts, and/or speaking boldly against harmful oil and gas buildouts and pollution.
Getting started may look a bit messy. Start anyway as you embrace your vibe.
The pollinator garden at Jones Memorial United Methodist Church in Washington D.C. is Sacred Ground planted in partnership with National Wildlife Federation, Chesapeake Bay Trust, and other community partners.
Photos courtesy Rev. Sharee Wharton, used with permission.
Connecting to Mission
Even as your conference creation care team will center your regional and missional setting, being United Methodist means being part of a global church. Our faith calls on us to look outside our walls and borders to live missionally in the world. This, too, will be part of what informs your team as you develop it.
One of the questions Marty asked in his survey was, “Does your church engage in any foreign mission work?” This question turned out to be unexpectedly important in discerning what might be important to the team as it comes together.
“I found that people that are aware of the rest of the world care about the environment,” said Marty. “You see how climate change is affecting other people. It’s often been pointed out that much of the missionary work in other countries, especially poor countries, can be totally undone by climate change. It just devastates our efforts. So if we care about mission, we really ought to care about climate justice and climate change next.”
It is worthwhile to note, too, that while many impacts have not been as extreme in the US as in other countries, worsening storms, floods, fires, smoke, heat and other impacts are causing disruption to communities in the US now as well. Churches in the path of storms, shrouded by smoke, or inundated by floods or coastal sea rise will struggle to live into the gospel work of mission, even as the need for loving neighbor, feeding the hungry, and welcoming the stranger increases.
PASSING LEGISLATION AND ESTABLISHING THE TEAM
Once that first team comes together, the work itself begins, both in the doing of the work, and in writing the legislation that will establish the team as the conference creation care team. Preparing to write and pass legislation means that you have a good sense that there is support for your effort. That support might come from conference leadership, or it might come from local churches, expertise and interests of the people of the conference.
- Why legislation? Legislation gives the team a “place” in the conference, connects the team to conference systems, and allows for improved communication, leadership, and funding support. There are a lot of ways to connect in the annual conference system, but bringing a team to the conference itself has some advantages.
(Remember, not every team needs legislation. Some teams will be part of existing conference structures, and some teams may work in partnership with the conference differently. The imperative is that this work must get done. Ensure your conference has named a Caretaker of God’s Creation who is, together with their team, supported, and respected for the faithful and urgent work they are charged with.)
Two main paths forward, working with the conference to write legislation in supportive collaboration, or, if dialogue fails, proceeding anyway.
- Working with the conference. If there is mutual understanding around the importance of a creation care team between team organizers and conference leadership, developing legislation together can be a fruitful effort.
- When dialogue with the conference fails. Unfortunately, not all conferences have leaders who will work with you on your creation care effort. You may get stonewalled, or ignored, or dismissed. In these cases, keeping steadfast in your ministry means moving forward faithfully to make the will of the body visible, and not waiting for permission.
Planting a pollinator garden brings a community together in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.
Photo courtesy Rev. Sharee Wharton and Mike Koob, Baltimore-Washington Creation Care Team. Used with permission.
Writing and Passing Legislation with Your Conference Leadership
- What is Legislation? (A quick recap.) Legislation (also called a Resolution) is about how we agree to live faithfully together as a church body. In our conferences we develop rules for many things, administrative things, such as budgets and appointments, worship resources, such as what hymnals we use, and missional work, such as ministries that express our theologies and values. Writing, amending, and passing legislation gives voice to the work of the faithful in The United Methodist Church. (see also the article Pass Legislation for Creation in your Conference.)
By writing and passing legislation in your annual conference, your effort helps define what creation care will look like in your context. Legislation will name what a conference creation care team might do, what budget they might work with, how many people might be on the team, and how the team will be organized.
Passing legislation is also important for what it communicates. When you bring legislation to the floor of annual conference, the body of the conference can read it, discuss it, amend it, discern around it, pray over it, and learn about it. It might be a conversation some people in the conference have never had, or have never thought about.
A Legislating Story from the Baltimore-Washington Conference
In Baltimore-Washington, legislation to form their Creation Care Team came out of general efforts to address the climate and environmental crisis. During annual conference sessions in 2014 and 2015, members of the conference demonstrated support for addressing climate change through fossil fuel divestment. The conversation on the floor made it clear that people in the conference wanted to work much more broadly and intently to address fossil fuel impacts, environmental justice, and creation care.
“Fossil Free UMC legislation was introduced as a conference resolution for divestment in 2014 and 2015,” explains Mike, “and that raised the visibility of the need at the conference level to do something more for creation care. Whenever you have a resolution, it really raises the visibility of what you’re trying to do.” Members of the conference followed up the successes of 2014 and 2015 by establishing a conference-level creation care team in 2017.
This cooperative effort with the conference enabled the growth and reach of the team, including missional partnerships with local organizations.
A Legislating Story from the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference
In Tennessee-Western Kentucky, legislation also flowed from a cooperative process between creation care proponents and the conference leadership. The approach of holding summits and events, as well as visiting local churches, started in a Tennessee district built regionally. As the ministry grew, so did support for the effort.
Legislation came to the floor of the annual conference to consolidate the team and establish the ministry as conference-wide. And then was reaffirmed when two conferences merged, bringing together the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences to become Tennessee-Western Kentucky. Again, the body affirmed its desire to have a conference-level creation care ministry, creating a renewed team.
“We are organized under what the conference calls The Connectional Table, which is a consortium of all the charitable and social ministries in the conference,” Dan explains. “Again, we got recognized as a merged conference ministry, and we identified some of the creation care leaders in the Memphis conference, and invited them into our team. We had a great retreat out of one of the camps, and planned how we were going to go about with our merged ministry.”
Passing Legislation when Dialogue with Your Conference Leadership Fails
Passing legislation in some conferences is straightforward. But in other conferences, there may be more challenges. As a team, you may need to discern the crux of the problem, and work toward solutions–solutions which will also be opportunities to strengthen the ministry.
If, however, despite your efforts your conference will not work with you, or worse, if your conference seeks to undermine your effort, you can take additional steps for support. Be assured. The United Methodist Social Principles, Book of Discipline, Book of Resolutions, and the Gospel itself all affirm creation care as an essential ministry.
If you find that inaction by conference staff and leadership is preventing action or effectiveness of creation care ministries, the most faithful next step is to proceed anyway. Inaction or disinformation or the busy schedules of those in conference leadership do not mean you should or must sit by and do nothing. Our tradition is clear. You do not have to wait for permission. (See the May 2025 Movement Café on establishing conference-level creation justice teams where we address this specifically.)
At the annual Green Day Service at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington D.C., participants surveyed the neighborhood for methane leaks, finding 6 leaks within a 6 block perimeter of the church.
Photo courtesy Mike Koob, Baltimore-Washington Creation Care Team, used with permission.
When dialogue with the conference fails, keep going. Write legislation anyway. You may need to keep your prayerful legislation unseen as you prepare. The process to write and pass legislation is still the same. You and your team know your conference better than anyone, have faith in God’s call to this work. Write and submit your legislation to annual conference, and be open to what happens next.
In the Pacific Northwest Conference, legislation written by a small team to form a conference-wide creation care team passed by over 90% when brought to the floor of annual conference. That high approval number made the desire of the body visible. It tasked the conference leadership to take action, and helped communicate that there was broad support for the effort.
Happily, with the legislation now established, conference leaders responded in a good way, including encouraging staff and team members to participate in Global Ministries EarthKeeper training. On December 4, 2024, the Pacific Northwest Conference officially named members to its first conference-wide creation care team, called the Commission for Environmental Stewardship.
GROWING THE MINISTRY
Once your creation care team is established at the conference level, new possibilities for building relationships and developing ministry open up. Next steps are things like developing team cohesion and trust, which can happen through retreats and one on ones. The team can continue, also, to build connections with other ministries in the conference, especially where creation justice is vitally intersectional, in areas like racism, immigration, human rights, land stewardship, and economic justice.
A Glimpse of What is Possible.
A story from the Baltimore-Washington Conference.
Rev. Sharee Wharton is the current chair of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Creation Care Team. Her background as an educator means she brings an educator’s eye for programs that grow everybody, mobilizing laity, boosting engagement at local churches, and deepening ties with regional partners. As legislation makes the will of the body visible, so the advocacy and passion that launched the conference team itself becomes a mobilizing spirit for others.
“As a team, the Baltimore-Washington Conference currently has launched a comprehensive Green Team initiative aimed at mobilizing all of our churches in the conference to engage in environmental stewardship,” says Sharee. The initiative is a partnership with Interfaith Partners of the Chesapeake, and is “an invitation for our laity to become heavily involved in helping to care for God’s creation. …giving each church tools and the knowledge that’s needed, as well as providing ongoing support to launch a vibrant green team within their church.”
And, she says, “this is just the beginning.”
In the effort to mobilize across the conference churches, community partners like the National Wildlife Federation, allow the team to “effectively bring resources and expert guidance on things, everything from solar energy, to native gardens, to tree planting, water management, and energy conservation, both for our congregations and individual member homes,” Sharee says.
As Sharee names new initiatives, from addressing flooding to channeling money saved on LED bulbs into mission, she offers a vision of work that comes together “under the green umbrella.”
She explains, “We fully understand that each of our churches may have different needs and have different issues that they may be dealing with. …This summer and fall, we’re inviting everyone to look for our lineup of webinars and information sessions, where we’ll be connecting with experts and connecting churches, to ask questions, be inspired, and share stories.”
A story from the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference
Dan also speaks to the power of partnerships and strategies. Creation Care Ministries in Tennessee-Western Kentucky continue in the spirit of their founding, which means investing in ongoing actions and conversations at the local level.
“Tennessee is very diverse. You often talk about the three grand divisions, we got Appalachia, we got Middle Tennessee, and the Memphis area is also part of the Delta,” says Dan. “A challenge is the political divide. Tennessee, in some rankings, is the most conservative political state in the United States, which is a reminder that we are called to be not partisan, but faithful in our work.”
Holding faith as a core, unifying value in the conference, the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference continues to organize local events, retreats and summits as a sustaining source of funding, action, formation, and recruitment.
Creation care ministry is also a way to reach younger people. One of their original summit sites in Tennessee is an organic farm called Green Hill. As the Creation Care Ministry continues to develop partnerships, the team has partnered with Wesley Foundations in the conference. The Green Hill site’s yearly events now include a majority of youth and young adult participants.
The United Methodist Creation Justice Movement, itself, as well, was founded following a Summit in Nashville. The summit served as a launchpad for the developing denominational grassroots Movement in the summer of 2019.
To reach out to the Movement with questions or to connect, link to the Movement website and resources. These are a great way to begin.
* Different conferences have different names for their teams. To be consistent for this article, we are using “creation care,” but yours could be named “creation justice” or “environmental stewardship” or “resilience ministries” or “green team” or “climate task force” or some other name.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversation. She chairs Oregon Interfaith Power and Light, part of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and serves as an advisor to the Pacific Northwest Conference Commission for Environmental Stewardship and the Oregon-Idaho Creation Care and Resilience Team. She is part of the UMCJM Communications and Movement Cafe teams, part of Fossil Free UMC, and is a trained Global Ministries EarthKeeper.