The Lutheran Community Foundation is pleased to award $100,000 in grants through its Creation Care Environmental Initiative. The grants will fund two projects, Lutherans Restoring Creation and Engaging Lutheran Congregations through Sense of Place. The focus of the initiative is to help church congregations reduce their energy footprint and promote leadership around creation care among pastors, laity and resident theologians within the Lutheran community, while engaging our donors around the concern of creation care.
Engaging Lutheran Congregations through Sense of Place
Advent Lutheran Church has been a leader in reducing its congregation's energy footprint. It was recently designated one of the Great Green Congregations in a program sponsored by Eco-Justice Program and national Council of Churches. Drawing from Advent's experience, a model will be developed to engage "Lutheran congregations in a process of cultivating a theologically-grounded sense of place as gift and responsibility that will lead them...to reduce unsustainable consumption on their property and in the local community," said Pastor Jeff Wild, pastor of Advent Lutheran Chuch, and a leader of Engaging Lutheran Congregations' project team. Guidance and support will be piloted to three to five Lutheran congregations in Wisconsin through online and offline resources, coaching, networking and trainings.
UPDATE: See pictures and outcomes from Jan. 2010 workshop
Lutherans Restoring Creation
Web of Creation and the Lutheran Earthkeeping Network (LENS) are two organizations that make up a collaborative called Lutherans Restoring Creation. They have been awarded grant funds to challenge and engage Lutherans to promote caring for creation through the development of workshops and training for congregations and clergy. The grant will help Web of Creation build on the success they've experienced with their Green Congregation Training Workshops, which have already engaged over 800 participants from approximately 300 congregations.
UPDATE: Grant Progress Report on Lutherans Restoring Creation, May 2010