The church’s Green Team didn’t get around to discussing it yesterday – mainly due to the fact that agenda item #1 began the meeting and ended it 1/2 hour later than planned. There may be updates later.

I forgot in all my years away just how painful church committee meetings can be.

Adam, I don’t think that is a valid critique. It might be that their education has gone down hill for quite other reasons…I don’t necessarily believe that a princeton or harvard education is bad…but I would argue that their dominance has faded tremendously in the past decade.

Whether I agree with Truthseeker’s take on education or not, I still issue the challenge. If this is important to you, do something about it. To some of us it is not important enough to deal with right now. There are bigger proverbial fish to fry. So, whatever. Have at it.

Note the mention of my alma mater, St. Olaf College, that has a new wind turbine (fancy for windmill) that supplies 1/3 of the electricity for the entire campus. Would this have happened were the school not a strong church-related institution? I think not.

[Sarcasm on]

You’re right – I do hope and pray every day that my children will never go to Ivy League schools where the education has simply gone down hill because they are open to thinking about the environment.

[Sarcasm off]

A school’s sole purpose is not always to educate. And especially when we are talking about a seminary. Take for example this line from the mission of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA.

Columbia Theological Seminary is an educational institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and a community of theological inquiry and formation for ministry in the service of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Sure Columbia is an educational institution. We Presbyterians care deeply about an education of the mind. But that’s not it…seminaries are (hopefully) spiritually forming people for ministry in the service of the Church. And while we are being prepared for ministry, for service, for taking part in God’s mission in the world…we are called to think about things other than simply academics and our own education…

So, no. A school’s sole purpose is not always simply to educate…

1. Regarding having green buildings, it is probably pretty difficult to make buildings that are on the historic register green. Arguably, there are a couple of the newer buildings – Templeton and Erdman come to mind – more environmentally friendly, but I have a feeling that even if there was the resolve, it would be difficult to get past Jersey regulations.

2. One would hope that the designers new West Windsor campus would be taking these things into account, since the CRW apartments certainly are not historic buildings.

3. It comes as no surprise to me that the seminary is behind the times. Since we just started (sort of) registering online, perhaps recycling and composting will happen around…let’s say…2025.

some day.

/I agree with the comment above that we have possibly, unfortunately or not, digressed from Adam’s original intention. Hopefully, those students who read this blog and feel strongly about this issue, will take a stand on it and do something.

Ringo, I agree with Cleave and the others who have asked for your real name. I’m in Colorado, I’m clearly not going to come find you, but you using your real name shows a willingness to have a genuine dialogue. My question to you is why you feel the need to prioritize. Why not both? No ones asking you to do the composting personally. How much of your time might it take to ask the kitchens there to donate their organic waste to a farm or someone who would use it for compost? Or to ask the administration to pursue wind power? Is it that the days are so full of the most important thing that there is no time for the things that come second or third in your mind?

And one final thought, what if you someday get called to a church in a place like Boulder, CO where to love the people there you have to understand them and to understand them you have to understand why they love this planet so fiercely?

Again, I am not a theologian, but I have come to believe that the gospel is more whole than we make it out to be.

We should become a community which witnesses to Jesus Christ through prayer and preaching, but also through our actions (which includes environmental concerns) , so that we may be sent into the world. If Seminary is not a reflection of the Church, like the local church, that proclaims and embodies biblical principles in order to send its members into the world, then it is nothing more than another institute of higher education that prepares people for a job–and that is not what I feel called to.

You are right, 100 years from now, like many local churches, this place will probably become obsolete, but the Church will continue. However, if the seminary were to be viewing itself as a church, and dynamically living out its witness to Jesus Christ, then the Spirit may still use our classrooms, chapel and dorms as places for Christian discipleship in order to equip us to be sent into the world.

An environmental testimony by the seminary would give witness to the exact tension you mention and quickly dismiss; Yes, the gospel is focused upon eternity, but an eternal focus includes the present. Any attempt to reduce the gospel to even slightly emphasize either here–such as your concern–or “there”–such as your suggestion–diminishes the Church’s eternal testimony to Jesus Christ.

Apologies for perhaps digressing from the point of this thread:

And Ringo, I am interested in your comments, because I do believe that our primary message must be the saving love of Jesus Christ, but I do not see why having concern for God’s creation has to be an abandoment of the good news. I can be an evangelical and an environmentalist, and considered myself one, by not reducing the gospel to solely self-focused salvation, but being a witness in both our actions and words to the good news about a God who came to be for us within the real time and space of our earth.

For those interested in an awesome podcast about evangelicalism and environmentalism listen to Moyers on America: “Is God Green?”

As for the fake name, I echo Adam’s comment because I would rather have an open dialogue and address you personally, especially since we are both on this campus seeking to serve God in all that we do.

wb=wes barry (pts student)

Personally, I can’t claim to speak for the Sustainability Endowments Institute, Princeton Theological Seminary, or even Christianity for that matter. I can only speak for myself. When I read the report, it bothered me. Legitimate or not (and it seems well documented enough to me), it raised issues that I hadn’t considered, and which are important to me.

Ringo, you said we are a dying church. I think you’re right — we’re a dying church in a dying world. If you want to talk about priorities, which is more important: our institutions or our survival? I also think it’s cruel to put all our emphasis in “salvation”–which we often sell to the world as Disney-Land-After-You-Die. Jesus worked to make the real world he lived in a better place. We should do no less.