Creative Ways to Engage with Your Congregation For Earth Day
Here are several creative ways to invite your church into a conversation or rhythm or caring for the land around them. Included below are seasonal practices, hands-on ideas, and spiritual reflections that root environmental concern in our faith, deepen our witness, and spark meaningful action. If you have a suggestion we should add to this collection, comment below!
Small Steps - if you’ve next introduces this topic before
Make a Green Resolution as a church - Start the year by committing to more sustainable choices, such as reducing single-use plastics or hosting eco-educational events.
Organize a Climate or Creation Focused Bible or Book Study - Here are some you could start with:
1) Stewards of Eden: What Scripture Says About Environment and Why It Matters by Sandra Richter
2) Climate Justice Bible Study from Citizens for Public Justice
3) Eco Bible and Climate Change from Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development
4) Rooted in Wonder: Nurturing Your Family’s Faith Through God’s Creation by Eryn Lynum
5) Life After Doom by Brian McLaren
Celebrate Earth Day Sunday with a themed worship service, and consider hosting a community clean-up, festival, or prayer walk.
Medium Steps - if you’re ready to build a rhythm through out the year
Winter
Reflect on Sabbath and the rhythms of creation. Use winter as a time for spiritual rest and renewal.
For Black History Month, consider the intersection of social and ecological justice—honour leaders who embody both.
Spring
Explore “ecological resurrection” stories—species or ecosystems restored after damage.
Mark Ash Wednesday and Lent with climate-conscious practices: giving up meat, carpooling, or reducing waste (St. Andrew’s KW produced a Lenten Carbon Fast several years ago you could consider adopting - find it here)
Hold a Nature Walk - Go on a walk and try to pay a little more attention than usual to the trees, or the water, and the grass. Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor speaks to this spiritual practice of paying attention in her book, "An Altar in the World."
Summer
Host a Church of the Wild service in a local park or garden.
Organize a lake or watershed clean-up day.
Plant native plants and pollinators or consider creating a community garden (Find inspiration from churches like Scottlea PC in St. Catharines, Glenbrook PC in Mississauga, and Kortright PC in Guelph.)
Fall
Participate in the Season of Creation (September–October) with sermons, liturgy, and local nature walks.
Start a Creation Justice Group to guide your church’s ongoing commitments.
Host a recycled Halloween event - encourage everyone to get creative with recycled materials or pick a nature theme
Rethink coffee hour with sustainability in mind - is your coffee/tea fare trade? Could you swap out single-use plastics?
Include land acknowledgements and traditional ecological knowledge as part of Thanksgiving reflections.
Advent and Christmas
Reflect on incarnation and the physical world: where do you encounter the divine in creation?
Create a “Green Christmas” by reusing decorations, gifting sustainably, and writing prayers for creation.
Big Steps - Get Outside Your Church Building
Connect Faith with Public Witness
Write letters to elected officials advocating for environmental justice, especially during key moments in the political year - you can learn more about to organize a group or rally other churches in your are through the example of Faith Climate Justice
Participate in Endangered Species Day or local environmental awareness days to learn and act together.
Make a bold commitment toward sustainability - whether it’s transitioning to renewable energy sources for your church building, conducting an energy audit with follow-up action, divesting from fossil fuels, or publicly adopting a creation care covenant. Let your community see that your faith leads to tangible, visible change.
Always Wrap Your Actions and Initiatives Prayer and Reflection
Meditate outside with Job 12:8: “Speak to the earth, and it will teach you.”
Let’s make space in our churches not just for talking about the climate—but for loving the Earth in ways that are faithful, joyful, and just. Whether you start with a song, a seed, or a shared prayer, creation care begins with community.
What’s one new idea you’d love to try in your church this year? Have a creative idea to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!
Plus head over to our companion posts this week: