Texas church builds on eco-friendly foundation
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People worship at The Rock United Methodist Church in Cedar
Park, Texas, where the building was constructed in 2007 on eco-friendly
principles.
UMNS photos by Guy Hernandez.
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By Stephanie Kovac*
April 15, 2008 | CEDAR PARK, Texas (UMNS)
At The Rock United Methodist Church, people are not only interested in saving souls, but nurturing God’s green earth.
"This congregation sees our neighbors not just as the people who live
across the street from us, but also the deer that live on this
property," says the Rev. Kristina Carter, the church’s pastor.
With a degree in engineering chemistry and a Ph.D. in applied chemistry,
Carter is not your typical pastor. She worked 10 years in environmental
remediation and even wrote parts of a 1997 mercury report to the U.S.
Congress.
"I’m always amazed that people think that scientists have a hard time
being people of faith," Carter says. "The scientists that I know who are
ordained are thinking people who are in awe of what we learn. And the
more we learn about the way God has designed things, the more in awe we
are."
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The Rev. Kristina Carter, an environmental scientist, talks with a church member following worship.
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Carter’s background has put environmentalism in the foreground at her
church, and her 100-member congregation has embraced those views.
"The people in the church wanted to grasp the whole idea of being green
and recognizing that we shouldn’t waste what God has given us, and that
became part of the design of the building," says member Will Davies.
Environmental ethics
The Rock was constructed in May 2007 in Cedar Park, a major suburb of
Austin. In keeping with the church’s environmental ethics, many of the
materials were recovered from surpluses at commercial work sites.
"They had raw lumber that was unused at the end of their job that they
were going to send to the dump because it was cheaper to pay the tipping
fee at the dump than it was to pay the restocking fee," Carter says.
Outside, the sanctuary is surrounded by trees and native grasses instead
of a sprawling parking lot. Inside, the church boasts carpet-free
floors, less toxic paint, fluorescent light bulbs, low-flow toilets,
hand towels instead of paper ones, and ceramic coffee mugs instead of
Styrofoam cups.
The church also has rain collection pillars and hopes to add storage
tanks this year, along with a composting site and a community garden.
Still Carter acknowledges that the congregation is not 100 percent
environmentally friendly. She still sees an occasional Styrofoam cup of
coffee at church, for instance. "When I ask those folks, ‘Hmmm,
Styrofoam, that’s so interesting,’ some of them will say, 'Yeah, but
it’s the third time I’ve used the same Styrofoam cup!'"
New life
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Crosses in the sanctuary are made
from recycled cypress. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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Perhaps more amazing is the altar made from discarded wooden pallets, a
church logo that incorporates the recycling symbol, and a cross made
from discarded cypress. The idea came from church members who found the
wood while on a beach vacation in Corpus Christi.
"Tina came over and looked at it, and said, 'That’s a slam dunk. That’s
what we’re going to do with it," says Davies who brought the wood home.
"It washed up on the beach, it was meant for something, and now it’s
hanging in the church as the cross."
Carter says the cross serves as a reminder that God can redeem anything. And, church members seem to be hearing her message.
"We all wash up somewhere," Davies says, "and I think it’s just another
example of God taking what we think may not be worth anything and
putting it to use. And, he does that with every one of us."
Carter believes it would be a sin to ignore global environmental problems and expect God to fix it all.
"We might not be able to do everything, but we can do something, and I
think that’s the biggest lesson we’ve learned," she says. "It’s not like
green is our gospel. Our gospel is Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and
we’re living out that call as best we can."
*Kovak is a freelance producer in McKinney, Texas.
News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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