Courtesy of www.lmlc.org

For the past five years, Luther Memorial Lutheran Church in Blacksburg has taken incremental steps to make the church more environmentally friendly, says the Rev. Gary Schroeder.

| Mary Hardbarger

mary.hardbarger@roanoke.com, 381-1679

BLACKSBURG -- "Going green" isn't a new concept at Luther Memorial Lutheran Church.

In fact, the Blacksburg congregation has been in on the movement for several years, the Rev. Gary Schroeder said.

And the church is encouraging other congregations to join in on the concept that Schroeder said has helped significantly reduce energy bills and bring the 1970s-era church up to date.

On the weekend of Feb. 27, Luther Memorial will be holding several "green" events including "The Green Congregation" workshop with guest speaker the Rev. David Rhoads.

Rhoads is a visiting theologian and professor of the New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

Schroeder said he hopes that Rhoads' knowledge and passion for the movement will inspire others to implement Earth-friendly practices into their daily lives.

For the past five years, Schroeder said, Luther Memorial has taken incremental steps to make the church more environmentally friendly.

First, it was recycling, then replacing florescent lights with more energy-efficient bulbs and then, the latest endeavor -- composting.

Now, instead of setting out two to three bins of trash a week to be collected by the town, the church sets out just one. Another container full of leftover food is hauled off by a local composting service.

"Basically, we've cut down by about 50 percent what we send to landfills," Schroeder said.

Inside the church, a recycling station was set up to provide a visible and easy way for those in the building to get rid of trash.

"We're moving in smaller steps so anyone can look at what we're doing and say, 'I can do this, too,' " Schroeder said.

Rebekah Paulson, a church member and chairwoman of the church's CreationCare Committee, has been part of the movement for years.

She tends to her 100 percent sustainable and organic country garden at her home in Blacksburg. It's her hobby-job, Paulson said.

"I've believed from the very beginning that if everyone was going to join in on the movement, then it had to be led by faith-based groups," Paulson said. "The movement is biblically based."

Schroeder agrees.

"We are God's stewards," Schroeder said. "It is our responsibility in that role to take care of God's creations."

Paulson said that the first step to learning anything new is education, and Rhoads will provide just that during the "Go Green" weekend efforts.

At the Saturday workshop, Paulson said Rhoads will first talk about how churches can go "green" and then allow participants to discuss what they can to implement those steps into their own churches.

"Every group will be at a different place in the process," Paulson said. "Some churches have already implemented some green practices, some haven't at all. But there really are a million things that can be done."

On Monday night, Rhoads will speak at Torgersen Hall, Room 3100, at Virginia Tech. His lecture is called "Conversion to Earth: A Theology of Creation."

The event is free and open to the public.