1 / 12

Cultivating an Environmental Ethic Within the United Methodist Church

Cultivating an Environmental Ethic Within the United Methodist Church. Team Members: Hal Gunder, Justin Schott, Jesse Turner Advisor: Mike Wiley Client Contact: John Hill, Program Director of Environmental Concerns. Outline:. Research questions & project goals

ricky
Download Presentation

Cultivating an Environmental Ethic Within the United Methodist Church

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Cultivating an Environmental Ethic Within the United Methodist Church Team Members: Hal Gunder, Justin Schott, Jesse Turner Advisor: Mike Wiley Client Contact: John Hill, Program Director of Environmental Concerns

  2. Outline: • Research questions & project goals • Structure of The United Methodist Church (UMC) • Study site: Holston Conference • Methodology • Deliverables • Timeline & Budget

  3. Research Questions: • What role can Christianity play in resolving the environmental crisis? • How does UMC address environmental issues throughout different levels of the organization? • How do religious beliefs of UMC members affect their environmental attitudes and behaviors?

  4. Project Goals: • Analyze the status of Christian-environmental research and activism • Build the capacity of the Church to deal with environmental issues • Assess the attitudes and behaviors in Holston Conference congregations and clergy • Clarify and promote relationship between Christians and environmental groups • Contribute some type of resource to both individual churches and UMC as a whole

  5. Structure of UMC: • 8.5 million members (1997) - 2nd largest Protestant church in the U.S. • 5 jurisdictions; 14 conferences in SE Jurisdiction • Research conducted in Holston Conference • General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) addresses six areas of social concern, including the “Natural World”

  6. Site Selection: • Input from John Hill • Existing connections • Bishop’s support • Characteristics: - rural and urban diversity - working with potentially resistant population

  7. Methodology: Preface: Action Research “aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to the goals of social science by joint collaboration within a mutually acceptable ethical framework.” (Rapoport, 1985) I) Recruitment: - local contacts and recommendations - letters from the Bishop - attend Holston Annual Conference in June - church attendance

  8. Methodology Cont’d: II) Assessment of attitudes and behaviors: - develop theological and env. measures - congregational survey - sub-sample interviews - focus groups III) Analysis: - stats, comparison to other studies - interviews as qualitative support - focus groups as brainstorms for deliverables

  9. Deliverables: • Potential Church Resources: Educational: website, educational needs assessment, Sunday school lessons, sermons, worksheets Stewardship: individual commitments, church greening, retreats, local volunteer projects • Report and presentation to GBCS • Conference presentation

  10. Budget:

  11. Timeline:

  12. Maggie Schneider reacts to being named this year's National Cherry Queen:

More Related