Why Would You Want to Be a Global Ministries Earthkeeper?

By Rev. Jonathan Brake (EarthKeepers Class of 2016)

Training Dates: In-Person October 5-8, 2014 (plus pre-training online preparation before the in-person weekend)

Training Locations: Birmingham, AL; Denver, CO; Hartford CT (Three places on the same weekend. Choose the closest location to reduce your travel emissions.)

Details: umcmission.org/earthkeepers

EarthKeepers are Action-Oriented

It happened again. You read about or watch a news report and feel that sense of despair rising in your stomach. A heat wave won’t let go of half the USA. An atmospheric river dumps so much rain that whole towns and acres of farmland wash away. California, Colorado, Canada, Spain, and Greece are burning. Microplastics are being found at the deepest reaches of the ocean as well as inside of human infant cells. The river running through your city gets contaminated by an industrial spill. Agricultural runoff chemicals poison ever-larger sections of the Gulf of Mexico. On and on the stories wash upon the shore of your psyche and pull upon your faith. Today’s environmental challenges seem too great for us to do anything about it. But what if I told you there is hope? What if I told you that hundreds of United Methodist laity and clergy are already responding with grass-roots action in churches, neighborhoods, communities, and beyond? What if I told you that over 280 Global Ministries EarthKeepers are addressing issues of pollution, water and food availability, church energy upgrades, rewilding church campuses, leading creation-focused summer camps and Vacation Bible School, and much more. What if I told you that what you are passionate about can become an actionable reality through the Global Ministries EarthKeepers Training?

Why I Became an EarthKeeper

While there are many reasons why I signed up for training 7 years ago, I’ll share my two most important. First, I’m a father who wants the best for my children and many generations still to come. Twenty years ago we moved to a house with well water and when our baby was born we were given instructions to test that water. I’ll never forget the results of the report: “Unsafe for livestock” (we had been given a test kit from a farmer at our church). A few years later, the same child started middle school (this time in a city) and by the end of her first semester, the school was closed down because of toxic groundwater seeping in from nearby industrial businesses. Our child’s life was in danger again. During my lifetime (I’m now 50 years old), half of the wildlife on this planet has disappeared and the predictions of global warming/climate change from the 1980s have become our daily reality. Our children and grandchildren deserve a livable planet. Which leads to my second reason for becoming an EarthKeeper, my Christian faith. As a pastor, I was teaching and preaching about our Creator and our responsibility to be stewards of all that belongs to God. How we are treating the life-giving and life-sustaining world that God so loves, is directly related to our love for God and neighbor. If God is a God of life, then God’s children must reflect that characteristic too. However, I knew I wasn’t doing enough. So, I became an EarthKeeper to learn to put my faith and calling into action.

EarthKeeper Projects

Every application to the Global Ministries EarthKeepers training must include a project idea. You must know what you plan to work on when you apply. A core component of the training is to develop a plan for a project that you will implement in a community with which you have a relationship. It should address some aspects of creation care and/or justice. Through the training, you’ll identify the problem or issue you wish to address and learn to articulate how your project responds to the problem. The training is designed to support your idea and help you develop an action plan to make it a reality. It can be a new project or a new phase of an existing project. It’s okay for your project to change as you develop it during the training. Projects may include one or more of these areas: ecosystem health, efficiency, environmental justice and anti-racism, food security, innovative responses to creation’s needs, renewable energy, waste reduction/management, water issues, etc. Components of the training include eco-theology, antiracism, community organizing, and project planning. If you would like to discuss your idea with a training leader, contact us at environment@umcmission.org.

Beyond the Training

As mentioned above, we have trained almost 300 United Methodist laity and clergy as Global Ministries EarthKeepers in the last seven years. You will become part of a wonderful network across the United States of men, women, and youth (you must be at least 13 years old for the training) for learning, sharing, collaborating, and connecting. You will meet EarthKeepers from your region of the country as well as others doing similar projects to yours. The Global Ministries Creation Care Network is our online networking platform that expands even beyond just EarthKeepers, giving you access to people worldwide doing this kind of ministry (creationcare.umcmission.org). And all commissioned Global Ministries EarthKeepers are able to apply for grants of $2500-$10,000 to help with the cost of the project you design during the training or other projects in the future.