By Joanne Mellema, JONAH Board Member
Hope United Methodist Church joined JONAH as a member in 2019. A core group of individuals met with Paul Savides, from First Congregational UCC, who trained and answered questions about what our core group would do at Hope and what it meant to be a JONAH member church. After that, we met as a group and put forward some priorities. That first year, we had one-on-one discussions with most members of our church to listen to what our members felt were concerns and needs of our church. We also, as a group, felt we would focus on environmental topics in our church and provide some resources for individuals to talk about racism.
With these priorities, one of our group led several book studies. The books she used were “Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace” by Osheta Moore and “Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization” edited by Steve Heinrichs.
As far as our environmental emphasis, we:
1) initially did an inventory of our church as far as environmentally friendly practices/needs
2) switched to locally based Earthbound Environmental Solutions for our garbage and recycling hauling
3) began a program to collect batteries to recycle instead of trashing them
4) placed small, useful environmental action items in our weekly church bulletin
5) combined with our children’s ministry area to place Earth Day activity bags for neighborhood children to take during Earth Week and also led an Earth Day children’s sermon during our church service that week
6) attended the JONAH Interfaith Green Team meetings that gather monthly with representatives from local churches sharing ideas and plans for encouraging good environmental practices in their respective churches
7) collected used shoes to repurpose in the “Soles 4 Souls” organization
8) recently, some areas around our church grounds have been developed into pollinator-friendly places with most work done by a super gardener from our church. We currently host the JONAH office in a room within our church and regularly provide space for JONAH activities. We are grateful to support this work in a tangible way. Our pastor serves as JONAH president, and two members of our congregation serve on the JONAH Board. In addition, several of us have participated on the JONAH Fundraising Committee, helping to ensure financial stability. We also work to keep our congregation informed about JONAH’s efforts and encourage participation and support.