So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth. (Genesis 1:27-28 AMP)
One of the reasons that I have gone mobile is because I better understand that while the ability to be connected is good for the Body, the ability to use devices and services that better utilize the limited resources of this planet means that other generations will also be able to enjoy such inventiveness.

Something that many do not think about when they use computers, build offices, or even get in their cars to travel to this and that event is that there is a considerable impact on the earth around us that can be minimized when we start looking at the excess and start working to trim things.

It could be as simple as instead of having a church office that the church starts to use a mobile office where the office is actually a data center that is exercising environmentally mindful policies and then the staff members are working from home where they can be a more integral part of their local communities. Trading paper bulletins for SMS alerts might seem like a struggle for some members, but the saving of paper means that the administration staff can spend less time at FedEx and the church can spend those funds on enabling more members to stay connect whether they can make it to a service or the service come to them.

Now, we might not get immediately to the place where we are using phones made from biodegradable materials, but looking at the simple command at the beginning of creation to steward this earth, we can definitely do more than we do.

Has your church or organization started any policies to minimize the environmental impact of doing the work of ministry?

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