Congratulations! You decided to move the needle. Now for the two pieces of bad news. First, you won’t be able to do it alone and second, it’s going to take longer than you expect.

But, there is good piece of news. You won’t have to do it alone. There are probably others in your church who are thinking exactly the same way as you are thinking. Your first task is to find them, and start working together as a team.

Some people call these teams “Green Teams” and others call them “Eco Groups” or “Affinity Groups” (so called because it is a group of people in the church who are interested in a specific subject).

Whatever name you choose for your group, your goal is both to educate and to gently demonstrate to others in the church practical ways that they can be good stewards of your building and your land.

At this point, pondering a bit on what James says in James 1:22 will help you to understand your goals

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (James 1:22 NIV)

How To Form A “Green Team”

Here are some suggestions to smooth the process of forming a green team:

1. Find others who may be interested in the subject of creation care. You may want to locate these people by word of mouth or by putting a notice in the church bulletin or on the church bulletin board, A short simple notice is probably best. Something like: “We are looking to put together a group of people who are interested in helping to make Southside Church ‘greener’. If you are interested in recycling, alternative transportation  and conservation, please call me.”
2. For your first meeting, just spend the time getting to know each other. A potluck dinner (of local foods) might be a perfect way to do this. Try and let everyone tell about why they decided to come and what they might like to accomplish in the group.
3. At one of the meetings after you all get acquainted, come up with a set of goals for the group. More on this later but for now, make sure that you set a small set of goals that you can accomplish in a short time. Set yourself up for success. For example, you might want to take on a simple project like adding recycle bins to the fellowship hall or gathering space so that bottles, cans and paper coffee cups can be separated at the time they are used. Or you might want to set out a basket to make sure that the church bulletins are recycled.
4. Find out who else on the church staff you have to work with to make your project a success. If you need to work with the church custodian or maintenance crew, by all means do so. Your job is to get others on-board and involved so make sure you make these kinds of contacts early.
5. If you aren’t ready to take on a project yet, you may want to consider having your group read through and discuss a book about creation care. Doing this makes a great bible study and helps people understand the reason that we should be caring for creation.

Seven Key Points For A Successful Group Meeting

Good meetings are something that requires work. Here are some “rules” to follow:

1. Include everybody. Make sure that everyone in your group feels included and participates as much as they want to. Let everybody shape your projects and contribute their expertise.
2. Communicate sideways. E-mail and other tools are ideal for communicating and encouraging. Keep people up to date on what is happening with the group. Start a mailing list and make sure that people who have expressed and interest in the subject but can not attend meetings are copied  on  e-mails about the group.
3. Communicate upwards. Make sure that you have personal meetings with the church leadership to keep them up to date on what you are doing and what the group is thinking. This will help make sure that they endorse what you are doing and don’t see your group as “radical activists”.
4. Start small. You will build encouragement if your group works on one or two small projects to start. After you are successful with these projects, get together and decide what to do next. You might want to start with the “low hanging fruit” — projects that are obvious, not to complex and will give an immediate benefit.
5. Meet on a regular basis. Make sure that you meet regularly to bring others in the group up to date. Be aware of people’s schedules and conflicts they might have. Set your meeting schedule so that you always have something to act upon or discuss. Once every two or three weeks may be a good starting point — it’s enough to keep people involved but not too much so that that it terribly impacts their schedules.
6. Send out meeting reminders ahead of time. Include the agenda and minutes of the past meeting.
7. Start and end with actions. Always start a meeting reviewing what you decided and assigned last time. Always end the meeting with assignments and actions to be completed by the next meeting.