"Using an Oft-Neglected Asset to Fund Ministry" by Dr. R. Mark King
The American church is unique in that, historically, churches have been dependent on the generosity of their members, as opposed to European churches, which benefit from state-supported taxation.
We are increasingly daunted by challenges in teaching, inspiring and receiving that generosity. While I strongly believe that stewardship should be preached from the standpoint of abundance and not scarcity, the needs of congregations today outpace the will of people to give, especially given the generational differences between "the great generation" and baby boomers and then between baby boomers and millennials.
Churches need money for ministry. We typically generate income from contributions and offerings, program fees and revenue, issuance of debt (yes, it is a source of funds...albeit one that must eventually be returned) and investment income. Fortunately, many churches are investigating and establishing endowments that foster planned gifts from donor assets as opposed to annual gifts from donor income.
But are there other models available - ones that can fund ministry and operate with integrity, but not displace the priority of free-will giving? I believe so.
There is one asset that nearly all churches possess. Land.Placing buildings on church land does not have to be the land's sole function. Land can also be used advantageously to fund ministry.
The Collegiate Churches of New York City, which include the congregation I presently serve (Marble Collegiate), have embarked on a joint project with a recognized developer in New York City. We plan to construct a mixed use facility of some sixty stories that will encompass both needed sacred space for our ministries and residential condominiums for the public at market prices.
Working with a developer enables the church to obtain first-rate connections in navigating the vast legal requirements of the city, while also securing advantageous financing for the project. What did the church bring to the relationship? Land. Valuable land that sits in proximity to Fifth Avenue and the Empire State Building. We will split the profits 50%-50%, and after all expenses, that will more than secure a healthy return for our own endowment.
We're not alone in this. I am aware of other churches utilizing the same concept with joint ventures. For example, in the Southpark region of Charlotte, North Carolina, Sharon United Methodist Church is embarking on a similar mix use approach that will gain the congregation a brand new facility.
Context determines some possibilities, of course. In urban areas, congregations can use land for mixed use projects jointly occupied with other tenants or owners. Others might use their land as the investment in the project but have no plan to occupy, yielding new tenant buildings, commercial spaces and retail ventures. In rural areas, land can be used in leasing opportunities for timbering, oil and natural gas extrapolation, tenant farming or other uses.
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R. Mark King: "Using an Oft-Neglected Asset to Fund Ministry"
The American church is unique in that, historically, churches are dependent on the generosity of their members as opposed to European churches, which benefit from state-supported taxation.
We are increasingly daunted by challenges in teaching, inspiring and receiving that generosity. While I strongly believe that stewardship should be preached from the standpoint of abundance and not scarcity, the needs of congregations today outpace the will of people to give, especially given the generational differences between “the great generation” and baby boomers and then between baby boomers and millennials.
Churches need money for ministry. We typically generate income from contributions and offerings, program fees and revenue, issuance of debt (yes, it is a source of funds…albeit one that must eventually be returned) and investment income. Fortunately, many churches are investigating and establishing endowments that foster planned gifts from donor assets as opposed to annual gifts from donor income.
But are there other models available – ones that can fund ministry and operate with integrity, but not displace the priority of free-will giving? I believe so.
There is one asset that nearly all churches possess—land. Placing buildings on church land does not have to be the land’s sole function. Land can also be used advantageously to fund ministry.
The Collegiate Churches of New York City, which include the congregation I presently serve (Marble Collegiate), have embarked on a joint project with a recognized developer in New York City. We plan to construct a mixed use facility of some sixty stories that will encompass both needed sacred space for our ministries and residential condominiums for the public at market prices.
Working with a developer enables the church to obtain first-rate connections in navigating the vast legal requirements of the city, while also securing advantageous financing for the project. What did the church bring to the relationship? Land.Valuable land that sits in proximity to Fifth Avenue and the Empire State Building. We will split the profits 50%-50%, and after all expenses, that will more than secure a healthy return for our own endowment.
We’re not alone in this. I am aware of other churches utilizing the same concept with joint ventures. In Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, Sharon United Methodist Church, in the Southpark region, is embarking on a similar mix use approach that will gain the congregation a brand new facility.
Context determines some possibilities, of course. In urban areas, congregations can use land for mixed use projects jointly occupied with other tenants or owners. Additionally, some simply use their land as the investment in the project with no plan to occupy, producing new tenant buildings, commercial spaces and retail ventures. In rural areas, land can be used in leasing opportunities for timbering, oil and natural gas extrapolation, tenant farming or other uses.
Tips for Developing Successful Land-Use Strategy
Before embarking on such an undertaking, keep these strategies and recommendations in play:
- Make sure your leadership (and as much as possible, your congregation) is on board with the venture. It will call for many diverse ways of thinking and acting over the life span of the project. Once a contract is executed, there is no reversal. Just because you are a church does not mean that even the best of business partners will allow you to back out. They can and will use any means necessary, including the courts, to enforce the agreement.
- Seek out professional consulting or support before even attempting to explore a possible land use swap or investment. Consultants such as real estate or capital developers, legal counsel, professional property management and banking/financial companies are a few desirable resources.
- If a project seems possible, do not “step over dollars to save dimes.” You will need to be prepared to spend some funds on legal and professional counsel to measure the project for economic feasibility as well as legal stipulations. You will need to enter the project with a very well-defined partnership agreement.
- Finally, it takes time. It will take tremendous time. You will need a project manager to work on your behalf and solely on your behalf. But such expenses can be drawn from the financing you arrange. Be patient, knowing that you are in this for the long haul and be as flexible as necessary.
Dr. R. Mark King is the executive minister at Marble Collegiate Church in New York, NY.
Monday, March 28, 2016
Much has been written about the changing landscape the church finds itself in, and even more about the church's waning influence in our culture. From her vantage point as an under-40 pastor, Carol Howard Merritt, author ofTribal Church, moves away from the hand-wringing toward a discovery of what ministry in, with, and by a new generation might look like. What does the substance of hope look like right now? What about when it's framed by a new generation? Motivated by these questions, Merritt writes Reframing Hopewith the understanding that we are not creating from nothing the vital ministry of the next generation. Instead, we are working through what we have, sorting out the best parts, acknowledging and healing from the worst, and reframing it all.
Buy the book »
Ideas that Impact: Church Land & Buildings:
"Buildings for a New Tomorrow: A Faith & Leadership interview with Julia Groom"
At a time when the Episcopal Church and other denominations are closing churches, the Episcopal Church Building Fund has expanded its mission to help distressed congregations think in new ways about their buildings and the future of the church, says the fund president.
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CONGREGATIONS, BUILDINGS, INNOVATION
Julia Groom: "Buildings for a new tomorrow"
istock/SochAnam
At a time when the Episcopal Church and other denominations are closing churches, the Episcopal Church Building Fund has expanded its mission to help distressed congregations think in new ways about their buildings and the future of the church, says the fund president.
For more than a century, the Episcopal Church Building Fund(link is external)’s sole focus was just what its name suggests: it loaned money to build new churches and other buildings for the Episcopal Church. But in recent years, as the denomination began closing churches at the rate of four or five a month, that no longer made sense, says the fund’s president, Julia Groom.
So after an intense period of internal change, the fund emerged with an expanded mission, no longer simply loaning money but also helping distressed congregations address the complex issues surrounding the use of church buildings.
“We recognized that there was no national discussion around the issue of church buildings,” Groom said. “Or to put it in another way, ‘What are we going to do with all of these empty buildings, and how can we stop this decline?’”
Under Groom’s leadership, the fund began an ecumenical symposium, Buildings for a New Tomorrow(link is external), along with other programs to help congregations think about and address building-related issues.
“It was the first time that there was an honest, open, realistic discussion about church buildings,” she said.
A lifelong Episcopalian, Groom became president of the fund in 2008. Before that, she worked for the American Red Cross for more than 25 years, including stints as executive director of state chapters in Maine, Utah and Pennsylvania.
She spoke recently with Faith & Leadership about the fund and its work. The following is an edited transcript.
- Q: Tell us about the building fund and how it evolved.
- The building fund was established more than 130 years ago to help the westward expansion of the Episcopal Church in terms of actually building buildings. A group of bishops came together, raised some money and started the building fund, which is a revolving loan fund. We help churches who want to build a new property or rehab a property. That was our primary focus for 130 years. When I came on board as president six years ago, I -- though a lifelong Episcopalian -- had never worked for the church, so I was very green. I had a lot to learn, and of course I looked at everything with a different perspective, because I was an outsider. One thing I couldn’t figure out was that the Episcopal Church nationwide has been closing four or five church buildings a month for the past decade due to financial pressure and instability. So I thought, “Well, if we’re closing four or five churches a month, is it really the best use of our very small endowment to be loaning money to build new buildings?” It just didn’t make sense. But the board was open to exploring how we could change and update our mission. For a couple of years, we asked ourselves, “What’s going on in the church? What are the trends? How can we be most relevant to the church of the future?”
Buildings for a New Tomorrow(link is external)
An Annual Ecumenical Symposium
Change the way you use your church
and grounds
April 13-15, 2015 | Raleigh, N.C.
- We started thinking about what our new mission could be. We decided that we were going to hang on to the loan business, because that helped fuel the building fund financially, but we realized we didn’t have enough money [on our own].
- The largest loan that we were making at that time was $350,000, and there’s really precious little you can do with $350,000. So we managed to leverage some ecumenical partners who had far more money, and this past September made a loan for $6 million. That’s something that can really help. So that’s No. 1.
- No. 2, we started thinking about churches that were in financial distress and what we could do to help them vis-à-vis their buildings, and we came up with three related mission focus areas.
- One, we recognized that there was no national discussion around the issue of church buildings.
- Or to put it in another way, “What are we going to do with all of these empty buildings, and how can we stop this decline?” So we started something called Buildings for a New Tomorrow, which was a symposium to talk about the reality of our church buildings. It was the first time that there was an honest, open, realistic discussion about church buildings.
- Q: And this was still within the Episcopal Church?
- It was then. But last year our ecumenical partners became interested in Buildings for a New Tomorrow, and have since become involved. Now it’s financially supported by and has workshops and speakers from the United Church of Christ, the ELCA, the Disciples of Christ and the PCUSA. [The next symposium is scheduled for April 13-15, 2015, in Raleigh, North Carolina.] I also felt a need for collaboration with the presidents from the other [denominational] building and loan funds, many of which are in a different stratosphere from our fund, which has only an $8 million endowment. So now I and the building and loan fund presidents from the PCUSA, ELCA, UCC and Disciples of Christ meet monthly to talk about ways to collaborate. We all have the same problems. It’s not which denomination can be the smartest, brightest, fastest, and do it the best. It’s how can we all work together to do the work that we’re all doing. In addition, we started something called the Recasting of Building Assets Process(link is external), a yearlong process where we bring together a group of churches -- usually in a state or a diocese -- and work with them to figure out how they and their buildings can become financially self-sustaining, and if not, then how they can talk through the possibility of selling the building if they don’t need it, or merging with another church, and how to work ecumenically in their community, all toward becoming a thriving, vital part of their local community. We did a pilot project in northwestern Pennsylvania, and then in Iowa, Albuquerque and Fort Worth, and this winter we’re starting in western Massachusetts.
- Q: How does that process work?
- It’s a series of four meetings over a year. In between, we connect with the parishes and their teams via WebEx to keep the momentum going. It’s mostly helping them first to figure out how they can become financially self-sustaining. Sometimes it can be as simple as looking at their budget and figuring out how they can stop the bleeding. If they’re living on an endowment, how they might be able to use their building to develop revenue, and if they’re already doing that, how they might use it better. We help them with change management. We help them to crack open their church to become a part of the community, which in the Episcopal Church has not always been our strong suit. We do things like get them to do community focus groups and interview people about what they would like to have in a faith experience.
- Q: You’ve mentioned community several times and said you wanted these church buildings to be part of a vibrant community. Is this also a new focus of your organization?
- Absolutely, for the Episcopal Church Building Fund, and I’m seeing a similar desire with our other building and loan fund partners -- not only to open up to the community but to reach out to other denominations and identify community problems and ask how might we work together to solve that problem.
- Q: Is your mission always to preserve a building as a church building? Do you sometimes simply conclude that a building should be closed or sold?
- Absolutely. In New England, for example, you can go into a little community and find three Episcopal churches within a three-mile radius. How does that make sense? So my thought process would be, “OK, let’s have one church where we worship, a second church be a place where we do the mission of all three churches, and sell the third one and use the money for the mission, or how could we develop a revenue center from that third building to support the mission.”
- Q: How do you help people make and then execute these often very painful decisions?
- What we’re doing is about a culture shift over a year. People have told me that that is impossible, but I’ve already seen that it’s not. It depends on the community and the churches. Some of them need some tough love. We start with a reality check about the church. We lay out the landscape, and we say, “OK, here’s what’s going on. Here are the numbers; here are the statistics. We are sucking wind, and we are going down.” That’s a depressing story. It’s the Good Friday story. But it gets everybody on the same playing field. They hear the same information. The laypeople and the lay leadership sit there and they say, “Oh my God, it’s not just us.” They’ve had this sense of shame and isolation. They thought their church is the only one that’s tanking. So when you say, “Look, it’s happening to everybody; here’s your chance,” they realize that the Holy Spirit is jumping up and down and screaming, “Come, follow me; there are better ways to do this.” And they say, “We’ve got a choice. We can dig our heels in, and we can be fearful and dream of the ’50s when everything was so fabulous, or we can figure out how we are going to make a change. And our legacy is going to be a new church.” It doesn’t always work. Sometimes churches quit. They get into it, and they’re like, “Wow! Too hard, too much, too tough; we’re out.” But there are others. We worked with three Episcopal churches in one town for a year, and none of them got along. They had a lot of history and a lot of baggage and all this crazy stuff -- so much dysfunction and animosity. And they didn’t get along with the diocese leadership and did not see them as a trusted partner. But at the end of the recasting process, one of the church representatives stood up and invited the diocese and staff to preach at their church and then to meet with them afterward about merging with the other two churches. And a month after the process was over, they sent us a picture of a sign at the entrance to their town with the names of all three Episcopal churches on it that were now worshipping with one clergyperson in one church. They said, “What matters here is the Episcopal presence in our community, not our individual churches.” That is as close to a miracle as you can get.
- Q: You said at the outset that when you came on board, the fund had to rethink its mission to adapt to changed circumstances. How hard was it to effect cultural change within your own organization?
- It was challenging. I had been hired by a board that was willing to make a change. The organization had been around for almost 130 years, and this was the first time they had hired as president a layperson and a woman. The board was ready for some kinds of change. As we all know, that’s easy in the abstract, but when you get into it, it can be painful. There were things that we had to let go of that were difficult. There were changes that had to be made that everybody was not completely happy about. But the toughest part for me as a leader was that my board -- some of my board -- would ask, “Where are we going to wind up? Where are we going to go?” I felt like I was looking through a kaleidoscope and turning it, and everything wasn’t in focus yet. I knew that there was a better place for us -- a bigger, better, more consequential, helpful mission. I didn’t have all the parts and pieces together. I didn’t know yet. I would say, “I’m not sure where we’re going. I just know we’re not staying here. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense sitting on this little pot of money, loaning it out to churches to build buildings when we’ve got so many of them we don’t know what to do with.” That period of living in the wilderness -- that was not easy. It was a period of mystery, of unknowing, of all of us as an organization learning about the church, thinking about ourselves and really having an openness to the Holy Spirit. Why is that so hard? But it is.
"Growing in Relevance" by Lori Stahl
Our Saviour Community Garden began as an effort to show that a parish with dwindling membership still had relevance in an older Dallas neighborhood. Eight years later, the church garden has yielded nearly 20 tons of organic produce for the needy, serving as a destination for gardeners and a model for other churches.
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ENVIRONMENT, GARDENING, FOOD
Growing in relevance
Our Saviour Community Garden began as an effort to show that a parish with dwindling membership still had relevance in an older Dallas neighborhood. Eight years later, the church garden has yielded nearly 20 tons of organic produce for the needy, serving as a destination for gardeners and a model for other churches.
Members of the tiny Episcopal Church of Our Saviour asked themselves this question eight years ago: If the church closed, would it be missed?
The answer, congregants sadly agreed, was no. They cast about for ideas to help the church connect with the surrounding neighorhood, eventually deciding to start a community garden(link is external) as an outreach ministry. It was truly a leap of faith in 2003, well before the “eat local” craze and before Michelle Obama planted an organic garden on the White House lawn.
Church members chose the project for one simple reason: “We had no money,” said garden coordinator Becky Smith.
The only thing they had was land; the one-story brick church sits on four acres in Pleasant Grove, an older, lower-income neighborhood eight miles from the glittering skyline of downtown Dallas. And they had Smith, a lifelong gardener whose mother descended from sharecroppers in rural Arkansas.
Our Saviour members recall how amazed they were when crops from six 10-by-24-foot plots yielded more than 1,000 pounds of vegetables the first year. They donated the crops to a nearby food pantry, reversing the sense of irrelevance they’d had just a year earlier.
“They were just very down in the dumps,” said Suffragan Bishop Paul E. Lambert of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. “The next thing I know, they’ve got this garden out here.”
“It’s on a giant piece of property that if it’d been in another part of the city would’ve been sold and it’d be a Wal-Mart,” Lambert said, referring to the development boom going on in other parts of Dallas.
By the time Our Saviour’s garden reached the five-year mark, it had produced 11 tons for charity alone. With a partner agency, church gardeners quickly leveraged grant funding that helped them get tools, seeds, trees and other key equipment for expanding and sustaining the project.
Donations snowballed. They got a rainwater cistern and a roofed pavilion. Area Wal-Marts awarded a matching grant for a plant sale. JP Morgan Chase Bank donated picnic tables and money for fencing. Starbucks sponsored a plot.
As Thanksgiving approaches and the harvest season winds down, church members say that the total yield since the garden started is approaching 20 tons. (It likely would have passed that mark but for the severe drought this summer.) Regardless of the precise number, church members say they are amazed they’ve been able to grow so much just outside the church doors.
Sophia Brown, a longtime church member, said, “It’s awesome to see what God can do with a little bit of something.”
A testament to what can be done
On a recent cool autumn day, gardeners were eager to see what had survived the summer’s triple-digit heat and scorching drought. Mustard greens, peppers, long beans, okra and eggplant proved among the hardiest.
Pinkie White, a retiree, has a small plot that she has been tending for about three years. That makes her something of a veteran gardener.
“A lot of the people that were here at first, they got jobs and went on,” said White, who visits the garden about three times a week to water her greens, beets and Swiss chard.
It’s a fact of life -- particularly in the current economy -- that gardening takes a back seat to working, or looking for work. But new people continue to arrive to replace those who’ve left.
The garden has a Facebook fan page(link is external), but most people seem to find their way to Our Saviour’s garden by word-of-mouth. On a recent morning, one new volunteer said his mother suggested he visit after she read about it.
Another first-timer, Charles Shipp, said a friend referred him to Our Saviour because he knew Shipp had previously worked at a community garden in California.
On Tuesdays, the newcomers are invited to join regulars at a breakfast prepared by church members. The fellowship typically continues as they head out to the field to harvest.
Susan Balsam, who has been volunteering for about six months, read about Our Saviour’s garden in a supermarket flier and now drives across town from North Dallas to pull weeds, plant seeds and dig in the dirt.
“At first, I was kind of scared to drive out there,” she said. “I wasn’t aware of that part of town.”
Even some longtime Pleasant Grove residents say they were surprised to see a garden spring up in their neighborhood.
“I was just like, ‘What is this out here in the Grove?’” said Patricia Guynn, who lives about a mile away. The first time she noticed the garden while driving by, she pulled over to check it out. She now comes back to visit.
Recently, she brought her son Benjamin, who said the garden is a visible sign that Pleasant Grove is home to many good families.
“We have a bad rap,” he said. “A lot of people are afraid to come out in this area.”
But they said they’re glad to see a community project develop, particularly when it benefits neighbors.
“This is awesome,” Patricia Guynn said. “It’s a testament to what can be done.”
Connecting with neighbors
In some ways, Our Saviour’s garden is an indirect response to the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas’ church planting program. The diocese’s strategic plan calls for creation of new churches aimed at capturing some of the explosive population growth in Dallas/Fort Worth, which has been one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country in recent years.
While new residents have accelerated the growth in North Dallas and its suburbs, older neighborhoods like Pleasant Grove have struggled. First settled in the 1840s, the Pleasant Grove area exploded with new homes between 1943 and 1952, according to the Handbook of Texas Online.
But development since then has been scant. Although the area is ethnically diverse, the population is more transient now, making it difficult to grow the size of church membership.
But at Our Saviour, church members decided they could “grow” their church by forging stronger connections with their neighbors, many of whom seemed to be barely scraping along. Back in 2003, they considered a range of ideas, including opening a day care.
Their decision to start a community garden is now part of a growing trend, because the work and the yield provide so many benefits, both tangible and spiritual. People are increasingly drawn to the idea of eating nutritious food, and most find a deeper connection to their communities when they work on a joint project.
“Jesus was in the food business, and I think it’s time for Christians to be in the food business, too,” said Norman Wirzba, a theology professor at Duke Divinity School. He is an interdisciplinary specialist who has focused his teaching and research on the overlap between theology, philosophy, ecology and agrarian and environmental studies. His most recent book is “Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating.”
Questions to consider:
But in Dallas in 2003, the trend hadn’t really caught on. Our Saviour’s garden idea was sparked by a presentation by Don Lambert, who had visited the church a year or so before the garden outreach began. Lambert, who was once called “the acknowledged dean of the community garden movement in Dallas,” is a former Peace Corps volunteer and Berkeley-trained anthropologist.
He had helped develop gardens for Asian refugee families who settled in Dallas in the late 1980s and had been trying for years to interest churches and other organizations in starting their own community gardens. But he had met with resistance from homeowner associations, elected officials and city staff, some of whom worried that community gardens would be unsightly and hard to regulate. Lambert, a former city parks employee, suspects the garden concept seemed too left-wing for red-state Texas.
“Implementing it here is very tough,” Lambert said. “The local culture. The inertia. Local community associations haven’t seen gardens as anything they want in their neighborhoods.”
Against this backdrop, Our Saviour launched its roadside garden with help from Lambert and his nonprofit, Gardeners in Community Development, which provided crucial technical assistance on starting and maintaining the garden.
Because Our Saviour was built on church property, gardeners were able to sidestep many of the regulations from City Hall.
But some church members did have concerns. They wondered whether the gardeners would track a trail of mud and debris into the church. They were a little concerned about having so many strangers visiting at one time. And they wondered whether irrigation costs would burden the water bill.
The garden started with 20 small plots, six of which were set aside for growing donated food. Others were tended by individuals or families who wanted to grow their own food. Lambert gave advice about how to keep things going with an ever-shifting workforce of Boy Scout troops and other volunteers.
“He usually knows (what we need) before we know to ask,” said Smith, the indefatigable garden coordinator.
Although Smith has been a catalyst within the church, as well as the garden, she said anyone could coordinate the garden. “It doesn’t have to be me doing it.”
For the most part, the congregation’s worries have been laid to rest. Not only has the original garden grown in size, but gardeners have tried their hand with a worm farm, a beehive for honey and an orchard with fruit trees.
The church still operates some plots specifically to grow food for charity, as well as designating some for individuals who want to grow their own food.
A new measure of success
The garden has increased traffic at Our Saviour, although it has not added to the thin ranks on Sundays. Some weeks, just 10 families attend.
But the gardeners say they measure their success by the many people who’ve been touched in one form or another. There are the people who tend their own small plots, plus a cast of volunteers that includes countless Boy Scout troops, students, interns, civic clubs and neighbors. And now there are other parishes that want to replicate Our Saviour’s model.
“It’s just amazing what this small group of people has done,” said Paul Lambert, the suffragan bishop. “Now you have churches 15 to 20 times the size of them coming to them for information.”
And then there are the needy in Pleasant Grove, who recently lined up outside a food pantry even as the gardeners were pulling produce from the ground and shaking the dirt off the plants less than a mile away.
Balsam, the volunteer who commutes from North Dallas, said it’s gratifying to know that the food is going directly to people who need it.
“They’re really lucky, that particular food bank,” she said. “I’ve been to other food banks and they have no fresh produce, or it’s rotting. This is just-picked, and it’s organic.”
One food pantry client, Alice King, 55, lost her job 14 months ago. She brightened at the sight of the fresh produce after spotting it amid the cereal, rice and other food pantry staples.
“I love veggies,” she said. “These will be a meal for me all week.”
Before she left the parking lot, King had menus in mind.
For the greens, “I already know. I’m going to boil them. The peas, I know I’ll shell them and freeze them until I need them. The eggplant, I’m not really sure. She said you can cook it like you do squash. I had never tried it before.”
That’s why the garden ministry is considered a resounding success, regardless of whether it boosts church membership. If Our Saviour disappeared today, it’s plain that the garden ministry would indeed be missed.
"An Atlanta Church Restores Its Forests and Helps Neighbors Connect with God and Nature" by Lindsay M. Moss
Under the guidance of a visionary minister and an energetic lay leader, Central Congregational UCC turned its overgrown eight-acre forest into a nature preserve. The payoff has been far greater than the church expected.
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ENVIRONMENT, CREATION CARE, CONGREGATIONS
"An Atlanta church restores its forest and helps urban residents connect with God and nature"
The sanctuary of Central Congregational UCC in Atlanta looks out upon 8 acres of woods, which the congregation has been working to restore.
Photos courtesy of Central Congregational UCC
Under the guidance of a visionary minister and an energetic lay leader, Central Congregational UCC turned its overgrown 8-acre forest into a nature preserve. The payoff has been far greater than the church expected.
On a hot, humid summer afternoon in Atlanta, children at Camp Beech Grove are enjoying their daily hike down to the creek. Here, in the nature preserve of Central Congregational United Church of Christ (CUCC), they find relief from the sizzling sun, surrounded by a canopy of trees -- many of them beech, the camp’s namesake. In these woods, a butterfly goes by, a frog makes a splash, and children learn about the native plants that surround them.
Today, the children can enjoy all that nature has to offer here. But that hasn’t always been the case.
For five years, the 450-member congregation at CUCC(link is external) has been working to restore the 8 acres of woods surrounding the church. A certified wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the woods offer a magnificent view through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the church’s sanctuary. It was there that Ron Smith, gazing out those windows, had a vision.
“These woods were a mess,” said Smith, who initiated the project. “Nobody went out there. They were overgrown, and they weren’t inviting. And I thought to myself, ‘I want to change that.’”
Ron Smith works with kids planting a garden.
Smith set out to reverse decades of neglect and to rehabilitate the surrounding woods, where he says he can be closer to the Creator.
“God is speaking in nature, and we’re losing something when we don’t make nature a part of the community or when we don’t show respect for it. He created all of this. All life is sacred, and all of nature is sacred,” Smith said.
Active with the church since 2010, the year he retired from his 60-hour-a-week corporate job as a CPA, Smith knew that creating a sustainable wildlife habitat would also provide ecological benefits, including the preservation of native species and better air and water quality. What he didn’t know is that his vision would ultimately bring an awareness of and connection with the surrounding community, providing an urban oasis and a place for the church’s neighbors to be closer to God.
It started with a trail
Smith had learned to love the outdoors at a young age. He grew up in a farming area of Pennsylvania, and his mother had vegetable gardens and an infectious love of nature. From these influences, Smith said, he knew he would be a gardener when he retired. He first tackled the overgrown yard of a home he and his wife purchased in nearby Decatur before setting his sights on the distressed woods at CUCC.
“The times I accompanied my wife, Martha, to church, I would notice the magnificent trees that were dying from the oppression of invasive species,” said Smith, who is a member of the Georgia Native Plant Society. “The woods needed care, and I knew they offered a place of sanctuary for me.”
In spring 2011, Smith told his wife he wanted to work in the CUCC woods. He joined the congregation’s Garden Team, which meets once a month to work on the church grounds. As Smith worked, he realized that a path through the woods would not only invite people in but also provide the access needed to remove and replace unwanted plants.
Our Saviour Community Garden began as an effort to show that a parish with dwindling membership still had relevance in an older Dallas neighborhood. Eight years later, the church garden has yielded nearly 20 tons of organic produce for the needy, serving as a destination for gardeners and a model for other churches.
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ENVIRONMENT, GARDENING, FOOD
Growing in relevance
Our Saviour Community Garden began as an effort to show that a parish with dwindling membership still had relevance in an older Dallas neighborhood. Eight years later, the church garden has yielded nearly 20 tons of organic produce for the needy, serving as a destination for gardeners and a model for other churches.
Members of the tiny Episcopal Church of Our Saviour asked themselves this question eight years ago: If the church closed, would it be missed?
The answer, congregants sadly agreed, was no. They cast about for ideas to help the church connect with the surrounding neighorhood, eventually deciding to start a community garden(link is external) as an outreach ministry. It was truly a leap of faith in 2003, well before the “eat local” craze and before Michelle Obama planted an organic garden on the White House lawn.
Church members chose the project for one simple reason: “We had no money,” said garden coordinator Becky Smith.
The only thing they had was land; the one-story brick church sits on four acres in Pleasant Grove, an older, lower-income neighborhood eight miles from the glittering skyline of downtown Dallas. And they had Smith, a lifelong gardener whose mother descended from sharecroppers in rural Arkansas.
Our Saviour members recall how amazed they were when crops from six 10-by-24-foot plots yielded more than 1,000 pounds of vegetables the first year. They donated the crops to a nearby food pantry, reversing the sense of irrelevance they’d had just a year earlier.
“They were just very down in the dumps,” said Suffragan Bishop Paul E. Lambert of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. “The next thing I know, they’ve got this garden out here.”
“It’s on a giant piece of property that if it’d been in another part of the city would’ve been sold and it’d be a Wal-Mart,” Lambert said, referring to the development boom going on in other parts of Dallas.
By the time Our Saviour’s garden reached the five-year mark, it had produced 11 tons for charity alone. With a partner agency, church gardeners quickly leveraged grant funding that helped them get tools, seeds, trees and other key equipment for expanding and sustaining the project.
Donations snowballed. They got a rainwater cistern and a roofed pavilion. Area Wal-Marts awarded a matching grant for a plant sale. JP Morgan Chase Bank donated picnic tables and money for fencing. Starbucks sponsored a plot.
As Thanksgiving approaches and the harvest season winds down, church members say that the total yield since the garden started is approaching 20 tons. (It likely would have passed that mark but for the severe drought this summer.) Regardless of the precise number, church members say they are amazed they’ve been able to grow so much just outside the church doors.
Sophia Brown, a longtime church member, said, “It’s awesome to see what God can do with a little bit of something.”
A testament to what can be done
On a recent cool autumn day, gardeners were eager to see what had survived the summer’s triple-digit heat and scorching drought. Mustard greens, peppers, long beans, okra and eggplant proved among the hardiest.
Pinkie White, a retiree, has a small plot that she has been tending for about three years. That makes her something of a veteran gardener.
“A lot of the people that were here at first, they got jobs and went on,” said White, who visits the garden about three times a week to water her greens, beets and Swiss chard.
It’s a fact of life -- particularly in the current economy -- that gardening takes a back seat to working, or looking for work. But new people continue to arrive to replace those who’ve left.
The garden has a Facebook fan page(link is external), but most people seem to find their way to Our Saviour’s garden by word-of-mouth. On a recent morning, one new volunteer said his mother suggested he visit after she read about it.
Another first-timer, Charles Shipp, said a friend referred him to Our Saviour because he knew Shipp had previously worked at a community garden in California.
On Tuesdays, the newcomers are invited to join regulars at a breakfast prepared by church members. The fellowship typically continues as they head out to the field to harvest.
Susan Balsam, who has been volunteering for about six months, read about Our Saviour’s garden in a supermarket flier and now drives across town from North Dallas to pull weeds, plant seeds and dig in the dirt.
“At first, I was kind of scared to drive out there,” she said. “I wasn’t aware of that part of town.”
Even some longtime Pleasant Grove residents say they were surprised to see a garden spring up in their neighborhood.
“I was just like, ‘What is this out here in the Grove?’” said Patricia Guynn, who lives about a mile away. The first time she noticed the garden while driving by, she pulled over to check it out. She now comes back to visit.
Recently, she brought her son Benjamin, who said the garden is a visible sign that Pleasant Grove is home to many good families.
“We have a bad rap,” he said. “A lot of people are afraid to come out in this area.”
But they said they’re glad to see a community project develop, particularly when it benefits neighbors.
“This is awesome,” Patricia Guynn said. “It’s a testament to what can be done.”
Connecting with neighbors
In some ways, Our Saviour’s garden is an indirect response to the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas’ church planting program. The diocese’s strategic plan calls for creation of new churches aimed at capturing some of the explosive population growth in Dallas/Fort Worth, which has been one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country in recent years.
While new residents have accelerated the growth in North Dallas and its suburbs, older neighborhoods like Pleasant Grove have struggled. First settled in the 1840s, the Pleasant Grove area exploded with new homes between 1943 and 1952, according to the Handbook of Texas Online.
But development since then has been scant. Although the area is ethnically diverse, the population is more transient now, making it difficult to grow the size of church membership.
But at Our Saviour, church members decided they could “grow” their church by forging stronger connections with their neighbors, many of whom seemed to be barely scraping along. Back in 2003, they considered a range of ideas, including opening a day care.
Their decision to start a community garden is now part of a growing trend, because the work and the yield provide so many benefits, both tangible and spiritual. People are increasingly drawn to the idea of eating nutritious food, and most find a deeper connection to their communities when they work on a joint project.
“Jesus was in the food business, and I think it’s time for Christians to be in the food business, too,” said Norman Wirzba, a theology professor at Duke Divinity School. He is an interdisciplinary specialist who has focused his teaching and research on the overlap between theology, philosophy, ecology and agrarian and environmental studies. His most recent book is “Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating.”
Questions to consider:
- Our Saviour's “deficits,” such as being in a poor neighborhood, helped make the garden possible. If you viewed your organization's weaknesses differently, how might they contain seeds for future success?
- What are the most pressing needs and hungers of the neighborhood surrounding your church? What could you offer to satisfy those needs?
- Our Saviour’s garden has not yet yielded a harvest of new members. So, has the program been successful? In what ways?
- Would your church be missed if it closed? By whom? Why?
But in Dallas in 2003, the trend hadn’t really caught on. Our Saviour’s garden idea was sparked by a presentation by Don Lambert, who had visited the church a year or so before the garden outreach began. Lambert, who was once called “the acknowledged dean of the community garden movement in Dallas,” is a former Peace Corps volunteer and Berkeley-trained anthropologist.
He had helped develop gardens for Asian refugee families who settled in Dallas in the late 1980s and had been trying for years to interest churches and other organizations in starting their own community gardens. But he had met with resistance from homeowner associations, elected officials and city staff, some of whom worried that community gardens would be unsightly and hard to regulate. Lambert, a former city parks employee, suspects the garden concept seemed too left-wing for red-state Texas.
“Implementing it here is very tough,” Lambert said. “The local culture. The inertia. Local community associations haven’t seen gardens as anything they want in their neighborhoods.”
Against this backdrop, Our Saviour launched its roadside garden with help from Lambert and his nonprofit, Gardeners in Community Development, which provided crucial technical assistance on starting and maintaining the garden.
Because Our Saviour was built on church property, gardeners were able to sidestep many of the regulations from City Hall.
But some church members did have concerns. They wondered whether the gardeners would track a trail of mud and debris into the church. They were a little concerned about having so many strangers visiting at one time. And they wondered whether irrigation costs would burden the water bill.
The garden started with 20 small plots, six of which were set aside for growing donated food. Others were tended by individuals or families who wanted to grow their own food. Lambert gave advice about how to keep things going with an ever-shifting workforce of Boy Scout troops and other volunteers.
“He usually knows (what we need) before we know to ask,” said Smith, the indefatigable garden coordinator.
Although Smith has been a catalyst within the church, as well as the garden, she said anyone could coordinate the garden. “It doesn’t have to be me doing it.”
For the most part, the congregation’s worries have been laid to rest. Not only has the original garden grown in size, but gardeners have tried their hand with a worm farm, a beehive for honey and an orchard with fruit trees.
The church still operates some plots specifically to grow food for charity, as well as designating some for individuals who want to grow their own food.
A new measure of success
The garden has increased traffic at Our Saviour, although it has not added to the thin ranks on Sundays. Some weeks, just 10 families attend.
But the gardeners say they measure their success by the many people who’ve been touched in one form or another. There are the people who tend their own small plots, plus a cast of volunteers that includes countless Boy Scout troops, students, interns, civic clubs and neighbors. And now there are other parishes that want to replicate Our Saviour’s model.
“It’s just amazing what this small group of people has done,” said Paul Lambert, the suffragan bishop. “Now you have churches 15 to 20 times the size of them coming to them for information.”
And then there are the needy in Pleasant Grove, who recently lined up outside a food pantry even as the gardeners were pulling produce from the ground and shaking the dirt off the plants less than a mile away.
Balsam, the volunteer who commutes from North Dallas, said it’s gratifying to know that the food is going directly to people who need it.
“They’re really lucky, that particular food bank,” she said. “I’ve been to other food banks and they have no fresh produce, or it’s rotting. This is just-picked, and it’s organic.”
One food pantry client, Alice King, 55, lost her job 14 months ago. She brightened at the sight of the fresh produce after spotting it amid the cereal, rice and other food pantry staples.
“I love veggies,” she said. “These will be a meal for me all week.”
Before she left the parking lot, King had menus in mind.
For the greens, “I already know. I’m going to boil them. The peas, I know I’ll shell them and freeze them until I need them. The eggplant, I’m not really sure. She said you can cook it like you do squash. I had never tried it before.”
That’s why the garden ministry is considered a resounding success, regardless of whether it boosts church membership. If Our Saviour disappeared today, it’s plain that the garden ministry would indeed be missed.
"An Atlanta Church Restores Its Forests and Helps Neighbors Connect with God and Nature" by Lindsay M. Moss
Under the guidance of a visionary minister and an energetic lay leader, Central Congregational UCC turned its overgrown eight-acre forest into a nature preserve. The payoff has been far greater than the church expected.
Read more »
ENVIRONMENT, CREATION CARE, CONGREGATIONS
"An Atlanta church restores its forest and helps urban residents connect with God and nature"
The sanctuary of Central Congregational UCC in Atlanta looks out upon 8 acres of woods, which the congregation has been working to restore.
Photos courtesy of Central Congregational UCC
Under the guidance of a visionary minister and an energetic lay leader, Central Congregational UCC turned its overgrown 8-acre forest into a nature preserve. The payoff has been far greater than the church expected.
On a hot, humid summer afternoon in Atlanta, children at Camp Beech Grove are enjoying their daily hike down to the creek. Here, in the nature preserve of Central Congregational United Church of Christ (CUCC), they find relief from the sizzling sun, surrounded by a canopy of trees -- many of them beech, the camp’s namesake. In these woods, a butterfly goes by, a frog makes a splash, and children learn about the native plants that surround them.
Today, the children can enjoy all that nature has to offer here. But that hasn’t always been the case.
For five years, the 450-member congregation at CUCC(link is external) has been working to restore the 8 acres of woods surrounding the church. A certified wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the woods offer a magnificent view through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the church’s sanctuary. It was there that Ron Smith, gazing out those windows, had a vision.
“These woods were a mess,” said Smith, who initiated the project. “Nobody went out there. They were overgrown, and they weren’t inviting. And I thought to myself, ‘I want to change that.’”
Ron Smith works with kids planting a garden.
Smith set out to reverse decades of neglect and to rehabilitate the surrounding woods, where he says he can be closer to the Creator.
“God is speaking in nature, and we’re losing something when we don’t make nature a part of the community or when we don’t show respect for it. He created all of this. All life is sacred, and all of nature is sacred,” Smith said.
Active with the church since 2010, the year he retired from his 60-hour-a-week corporate job as a CPA, Smith knew that creating a sustainable wildlife habitat would also provide ecological benefits, including the preservation of native species and better air and water quality. What he didn’t know is that his vision would ultimately bring an awareness of and connection with the surrounding community, providing an urban oasis and a place for the church’s neighbors to be closer to God.
It started with a trail
Smith had learned to love the outdoors at a young age. He grew up in a farming area of Pennsylvania, and his mother had vegetable gardens and an infectious love of nature. From these influences, Smith said, he knew he would be a gardener when he retired. He first tackled the overgrown yard of a home he and his wife purchased in nearby Decatur before setting his sights on the distressed woods at CUCC.
“The times I accompanied my wife, Martha, to church, I would notice the magnificent trees that were dying from the oppression of invasive species,” said Smith, who is a member of the Georgia Native Plant Society. “The woods needed care, and I knew they offered a place of sanctuary for me.”
In spring 2011, Smith told his wife he wanted to work in the CUCC woods. He joined the congregation’s Garden Team, which meets once a month to work on the church grounds. As Smith worked, he realized that a path through the woods would not only invite people in but also provide the access needed to remove and replace unwanted plants.
Question to Ponder:
In what ways would this be a useful attitude in your church or institution?
With no church budget, Smith personally purchased the first equipment and plants and began clearing a path to the creek, thinking, “If I build a trail, people will come.” And he was right.
Since then, much has happened to the neglected wooded area. Nature trails have been created. Trash and debris have been removed from the creek. Invasive plants -- aggressive species that grow outside their natural range and crowd out the native plants -- have been removed and replaced with species indigenous to the area. Meadows and gardens have been established.
Over time, more people from the congregation have showed up to help: working, bringing plants or donating money. Local businesses and nonprofits have joined the effort, too. In 2012, Trees Atlanta donated 40 trees, while Hands On Atlanta sent 30 volunteers to help plant, clear ivy and mulch trails. Members of the Native Plant Society have also donated trees and shrubs, helped Smith identify appropriate grasses for the creek area and assisted with transporting the plants. The Garden Team and its supporters continue to invest their time and money to support the forest restoration and gardens as well.
And this past spring, reinforcements were brought in -- 12 sheep stayed for two months, eating the English ivy that overran the grounds. This literal flock was a big hit with the metaphorical one.
“The congregation fell in love with the sheep,” said the Rev. Ginnie Ferrell, the associate minister for children and youth at CUCC. “We can be so separated from creation that sheep … give us warm fuzzies.”
Sheep love to eat ivy, which is an invasive species that needed to be removed.
It’s bridging this separation from nature that inspires Smith and Ferrell to continue their efforts and watch the project evolve.
“Love is the greatest gift any of us can give,” Smith said. “It is an act of love to care for God’s creation. Humans do not and cannot exist in isolation from plants, animals, water, air or soil. Our earth is in peril. What greater mission could there be than to take care of all creation?”
Drawing from the congregation’s beginnings
At this liberal, progressive, mission-oriented church, Ferrell says, there’s a history of people wanting to worship in a natural setting.
When the CUCC congregation moved from downtown Atlanta in the late 1960s to what was then considered the suburbs, it chose to build the church in the middle of an 8-acre forest. Today, that property is surrounded by an urban landscape. It’s just minutes from downtown, located on a major four-lane road.
The congregation continued to enjoy the leafy view from the sanctuary, but over time, the land -- like many urban forests -- became overgrown. Every urban woods, forest and preserve fights invasive plants, Smith said; the deterioration is slow and organic.
The church started to take notice and reverse this decline shortly after Ferrell joined CUCC in 2008.
Question to Ponder:
In what ways would this be a useful attitude in your church or institution?
With no church budget, Smith personally purchased the first equipment and plants and began clearing a path to the creek, thinking, “If I build a trail, people will come.” And he was right.
Since then, much has happened to the neglected wooded area. Nature trails have been created. Trash and debris have been removed from the creek. Invasive plants -- aggressive species that grow outside their natural range and crowd out the native plants -- have been removed and replaced with species indigenous to the area. Meadows and gardens have been established.
Over time, more people from the congregation have showed up to help: working, bringing plants or donating money. Local businesses and nonprofits have joined the effort, too. In 2012, Trees Atlanta donated 40 trees, while Hands On Atlanta sent 30 volunteers to help plant, clear ivy and mulch trails. Members of the Native Plant Society have also donated trees and shrubs, helped Smith identify appropriate grasses for the creek area and assisted with transporting the plants. The Garden Team and its supporters continue to invest their time and money to support the forest restoration and gardens as well.
And this past spring, reinforcements were brought in -- 12 sheep stayed for two months, eating the English ivy that overran the grounds. This literal flock was a big hit with the metaphorical one.
“The congregation fell in love with the sheep,” said the Rev. Ginnie Ferrell, the associate minister for children and youth at CUCC. “We can be so separated from creation that sheep … give us warm fuzzies.”
Sheep love to eat ivy, which is an invasive species that needed to be removed.
It’s bridging this separation from nature that inspires Smith and Ferrell to continue their efforts and watch the project evolve.
“Love is the greatest gift any of us can give,” Smith said. “It is an act of love to care for God’s creation. Humans do not and cannot exist in isolation from plants, animals, water, air or soil. Our earth is in peril. What greater mission could there be than to take care of all creation?”
Drawing from the congregation’s beginnings
At this liberal, progressive, mission-oriented church, Ferrell says, there’s a history of people wanting to worship in a natural setting.
When the CUCC congregation moved from downtown Atlanta in the late 1960s to what was then considered the suburbs, it chose to build the church in the middle of an 8-acre forest. Today, that property is surrounded by an urban landscape. It’s just minutes from downtown, located on a major four-lane road.
The congregation continued to enjoy the leafy view from the sanctuary, but over time, the land -- like many urban forests -- became overgrown. Every urban woods, forest and preserve fights invasive plants, Smith said; the deterioration is slow and organic.
The church started to take notice and reverse this decline shortly after Ferrell joined CUCC in 2008.
Question to Ponder:
What natural resources could your institution protect, nurture, share or explore in order to cultivate a sense of wonder about God’s creation?
Wanting to create manageable volunteer opportunities to help with care for the church’s gardens, Ferrell established the Garden Team.
The team divided the land into 35 sections. Members were asked to adopt a section, which they tended on their own time. This worked well, and the team took steps to have the forest designated as an NWF wildlife preserve. This is significant, Smith said, because the certification is a badge telling people the land has intentionally been set aside to be cared for in order to provide refuge for wildlife.
Children examine life under a log.
Now, on any given day, members of the church and surrounding community can be found walking the nature trail, which starts at a memorial garden just outside the sanctuary. At the creek, 700 feet down the path, they’ve built a fort for children out of the remnants of Chinese privet, an invasive plant that was removed from the forest.
Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts spend time in the woods, now referred to as the nature preserve, to plant, work on trails and visit the award-winning pollinator garden, which is designed to attract insects that feed on and pollinate surrounding plants. Children, from the on-site preschool and the summer camp, are out in the woods almost every day of the year.
This, according to Ferrell, is how it should be. Worship and outreach are amplified to include the earth, she said.
“When we walk out into a forest or step into a creek, we are reminded that we are a part of the natural world,” Ferrell said. “Our time watching a bee sleep on a flower or a goldfinch sitting on the tiniest stem brings us in touch with the gifts of our Creator. The forest helps us to remember the incredible gift of life, all life, on this planet.
“If people realize from an early age that they are a part of nature, will they grow up to live more sustainably and to invent things that are more compatible with the natural world?”
Children at Camp Beech Grove take a nature walk near the restored creek.
According to Richard Louv, the author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” and co-founder of the Children & Nature Network, the answer is yes.
“Smart religious leaders of all faiths, and many nonbelievers as well, intuitively understand that all spiritual life begins with a sense of wonder, and that sense is usually formed early in childhood, often in natural settings. Most religious traditions and, especially, indigenous cultures offer ways to discover the divine in the natural world. In these cultures and faith-based communities, individuals, families and religious organizations can play an important role in helping children and adults know the world and beyond through nature,” Louv said.
There is also an expanding body of scientific evidence linking experience in the natural world to better physical and mental health and enhanced cognitive abilities, Louv said. How can we tap into this for ourselves and our children? The answer, according to Louv, is to rethink nature within cities. And CUCC is doing just that.
Authentic mission
When Smith looked out the sanctuary windows that Sunday in 2011, his desire was to heal the earth. But this mission has also helped the congregation cultivate relationships in the community, largely through the preschool(link is external) and the summer camp(link is external).
“Camp Beech Grove and the preschool would not be here today without the trail,” Ferrell said. “They are both nature-oriented, and without this land, we couldn’t have done it.”
Children at the creek in 2014, before the invasive plants were cleared and replaced.
Since 2012, the church has hosted Turning Sun School, a place-based preschool that emphasizes the local community and natural environment as an extension of the classroom. The children have fun with activities such as the fall lantern walk, a nighttime family hike along the trail, illuminated by lanterns they have made, and the spring fairy breakfast, for which they create their own fairy houses.
“Having the nature preserve outside our windows and within our reach has been such a great resource to our school,” said Alicia Karpick, the school director. “Children need to be able to play and experience nature with all their senses. If we want children to be environmental stewards, we need to give [them] the freedom and space to love and understand nature.”
Ferrell echoes this sentiment, which is why she, along with the CUCC Board of Christian Education, created Camp Beech Grove, a summer camp offering six one-week sessions focused on learning about the outdoor world and the sacredness of creation. For years, Ferrell and the board discussed this idea, hoping to create a way for children and families of the community to be connected to the church, and after five years of rehabilitating the nature preserve, Ferrell knew they could offer something great.
“Stepping into a cool and shaded forest, we feel like we are walking into a mysterious and healing space where we are cradled by the trees and the land,” Ferrell said. “That is what we hope children will feel as they walk through the forest at church, or anywhere in nature -- that they are held by God’s gift of the whole earth.”
The camp, held in June and July, had 61 campers this first year. The church offered 45 scholarships to children in a nearby neighborhood. Campers began each morning with a sacred story before a daily hands-on nature lesson. This type of learning was especially beneficial to 6-year-old Gabe Narducci, who attended all six weeks of Camp Beech Grove.
Storytime at Camp Beech Grove in the indoor church space.
“He is an outdoors kid, so we knew this camp would be perfect for him,” said Donna Narducci, Gabe’s grandmother, who found out about the camp from a community email list. “The things he learned on the nature walks were really interesting, and he would come home and tell us about a bird or bug or something growing there. It really allowed us to engage with him and find out more about how much he learned and retained.”
And Camp Beech Grove is just a first step. As the project continues to evolve, Smith has plans for more trails and gardens, including a community vegetable garden, where neighbors can participate in growing their own produce.
“The preserve keeps us alert to the hope of nature’s ability to heal and to our need as humans to heal and restore the earth in all the ways we can,” Ferrell said. “As humans, it is more clear every day how much we have impacted all life and the very ground on which we live. The whole church is called to remember this sacred planet, our home. If we want to have a healthy planet for future generations, then the whole human community needs to learn to live sustainably.”
Questions to consider:
Planting & Harvesting Seeds of True Self:
A Circle of Trust® Retreat for Women and Men of Faith
April 18-20, 2016 | Lake Louise Christian Community | Boyne Falls, MI
Our souls want to experience a connection with one another and creation, and to develop the habits that will sustain our passions without wearing us out. Our souls crave opportunities to pause, reflect, and re-discover who we are, not who the world proclaims that we are. There is a desire to be seen and to see what is true and real for us, beyond role or position. Our souls long to engage in a community that listens to and affirms the stories of our lives. We long to know that the work we do and the way we live is planting seeds toward a hopeful, world-changing harvest.
This three-day retreat is designed to help you imagine what it would mean for you to inhabit your life and work fully as your best self, and will use the Circle of Trust® model developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. This is an intergenerational retreat for women and men of faith who desire to step out of the rigors and routines of daily life and into a time of renewal and restoration for their soul -- a time to name and claim their soul stories.
This retreat will be facilitated by the managing director of Alban at Duke Divinity School, Nathan Kirkpatrick, and the program development director at Lake Louise Christian Community, Sarah Moore Hescheles.
Learn more and register »
Visit Alban.org
STAY CONNECTED:
Wanting to create manageable volunteer opportunities to help with care for the church’s gardens, Ferrell established the Garden Team.
The team divided the land into 35 sections. Members were asked to adopt a section, which they tended on their own time. This worked well, and the team took steps to have the forest designated as an NWF wildlife preserve. This is significant, Smith said, because the certification is a badge telling people the land has intentionally been set aside to be cared for in order to provide refuge for wildlife.
Children examine life under a log.
Now, on any given day, members of the church and surrounding community can be found walking the nature trail, which starts at a memorial garden just outside the sanctuary. At the creek, 700 feet down the path, they’ve built a fort for children out of the remnants of Chinese privet, an invasive plant that was removed from the forest.
Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts spend time in the woods, now referred to as the nature preserve, to plant, work on trails and visit the award-winning pollinator garden, which is designed to attract insects that feed on and pollinate surrounding plants. Children, from the on-site preschool and the summer camp, are out in the woods almost every day of the year.
This, according to Ferrell, is how it should be. Worship and outreach are amplified to include the earth, she said.
“When we walk out into a forest or step into a creek, we are reminded that we are a part of the natural world,” Ferrell said. “Our time watching a bee sleep on a flower or a goldfinch sitting on the tiniest stem brings us in touch with the gifts of our Creator. The forest helps us to remember the incredible gift of life, all life, on this planet.
“If people realize from an early age that they are a part of nature, will they grow up to live more sustainably and to invent things that are more compatible with the natural world?”
Children at Camp Beech Grove take a nature walk near the restored creek.
According to Richard Louv, the author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” and co-founder of the Children & Nature Network, the answer is yes.
“Smart religious leaders of all faiths, and many nonbelievers as well, intuitively understand that all spiritual life begins with a sense of wonder, and that sense is usually formed early in childhood, often in natural settings. Most religious traditions and, especially, indigenous cultures offer ways to discover the divine in the natural world. In these cultures and faith-based communities, individuals, families and religious organizations can play an important role in helping children and adults know the world and beyond through nature,” Louv said.
There is also an expanding body of scientific evidence linking experience in the natural world to better physical and mental health and enhanced cognitive abilities, Louv said. How can we tap into this for ourselves and our children? The answer, according to Louv, is to rethink nature within cities. And CUCC is doing just that.
Authentic mission
When Smith looked out the sanctuary windows that Sunday in 2011, his desire was to heal the earth. But this mission has also helped the congregation cultivate relationships in the community, largely through the preschool(link is external) and the summer camp(link is external).
“Camp Beech Grove and the preschool would not be here today without the trail,” Ferrell said. “They are both nature-oriented, and without this land, we couldn’t have done it.”
Children at the creek in 2014, before the invasive plants were cleared and replaced.
Since 2012, the church has hosted Turning Sun School, a place-based preschool that emphasizes the local community and natural environment as an extension of the classroom. The children have fun with activities such as the fall lantern walk, a nighttime family hike along the trail, illuminated by lanterns they have made, and the spring fairy breakfast, for which they create their own fairy houses.
“Having the nature preserve outside our windows and within our reach has been such a great resource to our school,” said Alicia Karpick, the school director. “Children need to be able to play and experience nature with all their senses. If we want children to be environmental stewards, we need to give [them] the freedom and space to love and understand nature.”
Ferrell echoes this sentiment, which is why she, along with the CUCC Board of Christian Education, created Camp Beech Grove, a summer camp offering six one-week sessions focused on learning about the outdoor world and the sacredness of creation. For years, Ferrell and the board discussed this idea, hoping to create a way for children and families of the community to be connected to the church, and after five years of rehabilitating the nature preserve, Ferrell knew they could offer something great.
“Stepping into a cool and shaded forest, we feel like we are walking into a mysterious and healing space where we are cradled by the trees and the land,” Ferrell said. “That is what we hope children will feel as they walk through the forest at church, or anywhere in nature -- that they are held by God’s gift of the whole earth.”
The camp, held in June and July, had 61 campers this first year. The church offered 45 scholarships to children in a nearby neighborhood. Campers began each morning with a sacred story before a daily hands-on nature lesson. This type of learning was especially beneficial to 6-year-old Gabe Narducci, who attended all six weeks of Camp Beech Grove.
Storytime at Camp Beech Grove in the indoor church space.
“He is an outdoors kid, so we knew this camp would be perfect for him,” said Donna Narducci, Gabe’s grandmother, who found out about the camp from a community email list. “The things he learned on the nature walks were really interesting, and he would come home and tell us about a bird or bug or something growing there. It really allowed us to engage with him and find out more about how much he learned and retained.”
And Camp Beech Grove is just a first step. As the project continues to evolve, Smith has plans for more trails and gardens, including a community vegetable garden, where neighbors can participate in growing their own produce.
“The preserve keeps us alert to the hope of nature’s ability to heal and to our need as humans to heal and restore the earth in all the ways we can,” Ferrell said. “As humans, it is more clear every day how much we have impacted all life and the very ground on which we live. The whole church is called to remember this sacred planet, our home. If we want to have a healthy planet for future generations, then the whole human community needs to learn to live sustainably.”
Questions to consider:
- Ron Smith began his work on a path through the woods surrounding his church by thinking, “If I build a trail, people will come.” In what ways would this be a useful attitude in your church or institution?
- Why did this nature preserve project attract the attention and resources of the wider Atlanta community? What project are you excited enough about to share with your community?
- Smith and the Rev. Ginnie Ferrell note that the woods foster a sense of wonder. What natural resources could your institution protect, nurture, share or explore in order to cultivate a sense of wonder about God’s creation?
- What resources -- natural or made by people -- are abundant in your setting or organization? How might you use them to cultivate a thriving community?
Planting & Harvesting Seeds of True Self:
A Circle of Trust® Retreat for Women and Men of Faith
April 18-20, 2016 | Lake Louise Christian Community | Boyne Falls, MI
Our souls want to experience a connection with one another and creation, and to develop the habits that will sustain our passions without wearing us out. Our souls crave opportunities to pause, reflect, and re-discover who we are, not who the world proclaims that we are. There is a desire to be seen and to see what is true and real for us, beyond role or position. Our souls long to engage in a community that listens to and affirms the stories of our lives. We long to know that the work we do and the way we live is planting seeds toward a hopeful, world-changing harvest.
This three-day retreat is designed to help you imagine what it would mean for you to inhabit your life and work fully as your best self, and will use the Circle of Trust® model developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. This is an intergenerational retreat for women and men of faith who desire to step out of the rigors and routines of daily life and into a time of renewal and restoration for their soul -- a time to name and claim their soul stories.
This retreat will be facilitated by the managing director of Alban at Duke Divinity School, Nathan Kirkpatrick, and the program development director at Lake Louise Christian Community, Sarah Moore Hescheles.
Learn more and register »
Visit Alban.org
STAY CONNECTED:
Alban
1121 West Chapel Hill Street, Suite 200
Durham, North Carolina 27701, United States
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