System Failure

As a parishoner with a passionate heart for more sustainable churches, I am forever badgering the leadership of my congregation to make a few planet friendly changes. Like a giddy middle school girl I've tossed everything from rain barrels to a community garden to LED lighting on the table at my church.

And, I'm happy to say, almost every suggestion has been applauded! Seriously, it has. Of course there have been a few who fear I am pushing a hidden political agenda or am a pantheist in disguise, but for the most part, people have nodded their heads and even offered to have a few meetings. Excellent I say.

And it gets better. A few LEED certified architects who manage Green Architectural firms have jumped into the conversation and others with practical life experience in everything from wind energy to creating green rooftops in Chicago have sat around the table ready to help.

And then, we have another meeting. And then another. And then a few e-mails. And then a few more people to invite to the next meeting and then, well, you get the point. We're an independent church, no official denominational affiliation, but most of the good folk on staff at my church are graduates of Presbyterian seminaries. So we're pretty big on church polity and, meetings.

Must make sure everyone is on board, in agreement, and okay with it all before we swap out a single light fixture.

I get this. I really do. As a person whose basic mode of operation is to shy away from tension, I want everyone all happy and on board as well. So we wait and get ready to meet again.

In the meantime I decided to push the issue of Fair Trade Coffee at my church. We're a congregation that sees 2000+ people walk through our doors on a Sunday morning. That's a lot of coffee. And we are a host church for the World Vision AIDS exhibit called "Step Into Africa," that is currently on tour. People at our church will eventually walk through this exhibit and come out saying "well, that was something! now what can I do to help?"

Lots of things of course. But one would be to help support the local economies in the places ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Help the people there get paid to do work so that they can support themselves and their communities. You know, things like paying them a fair wage for the coffee they produce.

Something definitely a church can rally behind. And my church says they do. Our mission pastor is top notch. I met with him to push the coffee issue and what I discovered was that, once again, nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

You see, at our church, all our coffee equipment is owned by our current coffee vendor. We don't own it. The only reason we are allowed to have it is because we buy coffee from said vendor. Stop brewing their non-Fair Trade brew and say adios to the coffee equipment. Which means 2000+ people with caffeine withdrawal on a Sunday morning.

So to do something as simple as swap out the coffee for a morning cup with integrity will run our church about $35K in equipment (remember, big church, lots of people, multiple coffee stations etc). Which means, guess what, more meetings.

Which is frustrating for more than just the added levels of bureaucracy. It is frustrating because we've put ourselves at the mercy of an outside organization who could give a rip about our do-gooder intentions. They are less interested in God's economics and more interested in their bottom line. I cannot fault them for this, it's business. But when God's business is thwarted not only by business meetings but also this sort of business arrangement, I start to lose hope.

Honestly, I do. So maybe at this point I should try to insert some sort of winsome solution into this post. But I don't have one. I am just a bit deflated and frustrated. How has everyone else managed this sort of gig?