Creating Best Practices for Creation Care

Hurricanes. Floods. Heatwaves. Our world is experiencing an increased amount of these natural disasters because of rising temperatures. What can Disciples do to address climate change and be responsible stewards of the environment? Learn the answer to this question and much more with host and Transitional Minister of New Church Strategies, Rev. Dr. Jose Martinez, at New Church Ministry’s New Church Hacks webinar.

Panellists

David Bell is the Minister for Indigenous Justice at the Center for Indigenous Ministries (DOC). In this role, David has helped guide the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to recognize its settler-colonist roots, repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, become more honest with its racist origins, and engage in action-based Indigenous justice.

The son of Robert and Kay Bell, David lives on the JustLiving Farm, located in the Toppenish Creek valley of the Yakama Nation. With friends and neighbors, the JustLiving Farm has become a place where folk are welcome to spend time talking about, imagining, and acting in favor of Creational justice. Believing creational wholeness and harmony is at our fingertips, David invites us to question how our lives intersect with our local landscape, listen for Creation’s insight to enhance our sibling’s well-being, and open ourselves to her plea for action.

Dan Paul is the Senior Pastor of First Christian Church of Huntsville, TX. He will be consulting in oversight of Blue Theology with Creation Justice Ministries and will be part of the staff at the Blue Theology Outpost in Texas City, Texas. He previously served at the Christian Church of Pacific Grove where he was the director of the Blue Theology Mission Station on the Monterey Bay.

“In a time where there is a lot of ‘bad theology’ preached denying the climate crisis, it is crucial that mainline church leaders speak out about how human beings are interdependent with nature and not removed from it.”

Brooks Berndt is the UCC’s Environmental Justice Minister. Before becoming the UCC Minister for Environmental Justice in 2015, Berndt served as a pastor in Vancouver, Washington, where he was active in two successful environmental campaigns: transitioning the state of Washington away from its only coal plant and preventing the establishment of the largest marine oil terminal in the country in Vancouver. Berndt is the author of two books: Sounding the Trumpet: How Churches Can Answer God’s Call to Justice and Cathedral on Fire!: A Church Handbook for the Climate Crisis. As the Minister for Environmental Justice, Berndt led the way in the issuing of the UCC’s 2020 report entitled “Breath to the People: Sacred Air and Toxic Pollution” which identifies 100 of the nation’s super polluters and how their toxic emissions threaten communities and children, especially in places such as Houston, Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, and Ohio’s Lake Erie coast. Berndt writes and edits an environmental justice newsletter called The Pollinator, while co-hosting monthly Creation Justice Webinars which have featured everyone from the climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe to Senator Cory Booker.