A Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has called on other churches locally and nationally to follow in their footsteps as they attempt to be more climate friendly.
Calvin Christian Reformed Church is a church based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a member of Christian Reformed Church in North America, or CRCNA for short. The church decided to install more than 120 solar panels onto its roof in hopes of diminishing the amount of energy and waste that the church consumes.
“As Christians, we are called to be stewards,” Calvin Christian member Nate Dierlam told Fox 17. “This array lowers our carbon emissions and supports our calling to respect God's creation and address climate change.”
“We want to help other churches see how they can afford this and fulfill a Biblical mandate in scripture to take care of our planet,” says Dierlam. “We want other churches to know it’s not difficult and there are ways they can financially do this.”
The church is anticipating a 38 percent reduction in energy consumption, as they swap over to different energy sources.
The White Evangelical Church has historically had mixed feelings about climate change. According to a 2020 Pew survey, only 35 percent of U.S Protestants believe that the Earth is warming due to human action. Only 24 percent of white Evangelical Protestants believe the Earth is warming; a stark contrast with how believers outside the United States tend to believe.