Gift-giving and baggage dumping
In this space you are invited to think about what you have brought into this house and what you might like to get rid of. This is a space where you can offer your own unique gifts, pledge to do more, change your life or offer new thoughts and ideas to those Christians working in the area of climate change, ecology, conservation and sustainability. What have you got to offer?
Another thing you can do in this space is to think about any ideas, or activities you might have changed your mind about and now want to leave behind. There's an opportunity here to repent of anything you might feel sorry about and to think about how you want to change and do better. It's up to you and how you want to approach what you have done, or intend to do with the resources and opportunities you find here.
John
Gift giving
Spend some time thinking about the gifts you have brought to this place and what you might want to share with the people who inhabit its various spaces. What knowledge, skills or insight do you have to offer to those working out what it means to respect our planet and who are working to sustain and renew it? What story might you have to tell to encourage, sustain, inspire or uplift the people who live and work in this place? How does your understanding of the fifth mark of mission feed into what you have found here?
Make a list of any skills, stories, ideas, dreams, projects or experiences that could feed into the spaces in this house. This could be as simple as going on a litter-picking day in your neighbourhood, or relate to special skills that you have to offer in your community. Could you help someone start an allotment, teach children a recycling skill, plant a tree, or raise awareness of environmental issues through work, home or school? How would you relate such activities to sharing your faith with others?
Choose ONE thing you could do in the future which would be a gift or a challenge to those who live in this house.
Some examples of things people have offered as gifts:
- A supply of biodegradeable packaging and bags for people at church to use
- Planting and growing vegetables in one area of the garden and sharing them with others
- Committing to an energy audit of the church and passing on the savings
- Ethical, ecologically friendly Christmas presents such as solar powered toys; find and make kits; bamboo soft toys (ideas from the Eden Project).