Author: greenminister
Children’s Ministry in the Garden
A garden can become a wonderful place for children’s ministry because it does not ask children to sit still before they are allowed to learn. It invites them to notice, touch, smell, ask, wonder, help, taste, wait, and try again. Children do not need much convincing that the world isRead more…
Seed Saving as Hope
Some garden practices feel almost like prayers. Saving seeds is one of them. At first, it may look like a small practical task: drying bean pods, scooping tomato seeds into a jar, writing a label, tucking paper envelopes into a cool place for winter. But seed saving can become somethingRead more…
Preserving the Harvest as Stewardship
A garden can surprise you. For weeks, it may feel like nothing much is happening. Then suddenly there are tomatoes on every counter, beans in every bowl, herbs needing to be cut before they flower, zucchini arriving with the confidence of a weather system, and someone asking what exactly theRead more…
A Stranger Here: Receiving the World as Gift
A Salutation for Creation Thomas Traherne begins with astonishment: From Dust I rise,And out of Nothing now awake,These brighter Regions which salute mine Eys,A Gift from GOD I take,The Earth, the Seas, the Light, the Day,The Skies,The Sun and Stars are mine; if those I prize… A Stranger hereStrange ThingsRead more…
How a Church Can Begin a Green Ministry
A church does not need a perfect plan to begin Green Ministry. It does not need a large property, a full committee, a grant, a master gardener, or a five-year strategy before taking one faithful step. Those things may help later. But they are not the beginning. The beginning isRead more…
Prayer in the Garden
A garden does not need to become a chapel in order to become a place of prayer. It already has much of what prayer needs. Silence. Attention. Waiting. Repetition. Dependence. Beauty. Frustration. Growth we cannot control. Work we can offer. Life we can receive. Prayer in the garden is notRead more…
Community Gardens as Common Ground
A community garden may look like a practical project. Soil. Seeds. Compost. Water. Tools. Volunteers. Schedules. Raised beds. Tomato cages. Zucchini that gets enthusiastic. It is practical. That is part of its goodness. But for Green Ministry, a community garden can also become something deeper: common ground. Common ground isRead more…
Is Creation Good?
Before we can talk well about creation care, climate change, gardens, stewardship, or green ministry, we may need to begin with a more basic question: Is creation good? It is easy to lose sight of goodness in the middle of ordinary life. Tasks pile up. News scrolls by. We getRead more…
God Is the Gardener
I had been thinking about setting aside time to garden with God. In my mind, that meant doing ordinary garden work prayerfully: potting up seedlings, pruning, watering, weeding, noticing what was growing, and inviting God into the rhythm of it. Then my dear sister in Christ Wilma said something thatRead more…
Climate Change and Christian Hope
Global warming is not only a scientific issue, and it is not only a political issue. For Christians, it is something we can bring before God. That may be the first faithful thing many of us need to do. Climate change can feel too large to face. None of usRead more…