In his book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip Heath suggests that people who are seeking change may slip into ideas about others like, “Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people.” Instead, he suggests that we lead by setting up situations that bring out the good in people, including ourselves.
Sometimes a brief restart or behavioral experiment can support a new habit. This is one reason why Green Chalice is inviting all and any faith communities and individuals to participate in the 21-Day EcoChallenge October 3-24, 2018.
The EcoChallenge is a 21-day sustainability engagement program. Individuals and faith communities track and share their creation care progress online in a robust platform and earn points for taking action. The combination of collective action, camaraderie, and friendly competition make change a little easier – and a lot more fun. The EcoChallenge is free and open to the public, and may help kickstart your congregation into some new habits.
Over 100 actions within nine Challenge categories provide participants with diverse options to take action. Challenge categories include waste, food, health, transportation, energy, community, nature, water, simplicity and “create your own.”
You can participate in two ways:
- You can join the denominational Green Chalice Team – Rev. Brian Frederich Gray is the team captain and can answer questions you might have
- Register your congregation or group as a team (it only takes one person to form a team)
If you are joining the October Eco-Challenge as a team, please consider naming the organization Green Chalice with your congregational team name. This will help us identify congregations that are connected to our network while still highlighting your congregational team name.
An example would be:
Organization: Green Chalice/Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Team Name: First Christian Church, Black Mountain (or add more than one, FCC Elders, FCC Youth and FCC Choir)
“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8
Blessings,
Green Chalice Team
P.S. Small actions add up to big impact — here are a few examples of what happens when thousands of actions are taken together. This is a glimpse from an April EcoChallenge:
- Up to 2677 light bulbs were replaced
- Up to 150,402 pounds of CO2 saved
- Up to 56, 169 Gallons of water saved
- Up to 183,396 minutes spent learning about creation care
- Up to 21,165 meatless or vegan meals consumed
- Up to 2,037 public officials and community leaders contacted
- Up to 42,989 miles traveled by bike or bus
You can get a sense of the format and impact here from a team that participated last spring.
Source: Disciples.org Green Chalice