Wake Up, Take Heart: A Creation Care Study for the Local Church
A new group study focused on the climate crisis is here, written for all but especially for faith communities.
UPDATE: Now available in print at Barnes and Noble and Cokesbury!
The six week study invites participants to better understand what the climate crisis is, its causes and the escalating effects. It also grapples with the moral questions the crisis calls us to address. The study rises from a moment of realization in 2019, when both Rev. M. Robert Dygert-Gearheart, a retired United Methodist Pastor, and Anita Dygert-Gearheart, a retired social worker, had a ‘road to Damascus moment’ about the reality of climate change. Says Rev. Bob, “I was awakened to an understanding of the existential crisis [of climate change] for the first time in my life.”
The Dygert-Gearhearts have since dedicated themselves to climate change education, starting with educating themselves through classes, podcasts, books and talks on the subject. They shared their story at a recent Climate Cafe sponsored by Circle Faith Future, view the video, below.
The issue is immense and complex, and the Dygert-Gearhearts recognized that churches could be a vital part of education and action in communities. Unfortunately, they also discovered that potential was not being realized. They asked themselves, “what's in every community that could be a vehicle for educating people and motivating people to action? And we said, faith groups.” They raised a hope that with “a church almost on every corner” that that kind of institutional presence could be a “resource” for change. Says Rev. Bob, “we contacted the United Methodist publishing house and were eager to find out what curriculum was available for local congregations, so that local congregations and grassroots people in the churches could learn about the climate crisis. And we were chagrined to discover that there was nothing.”
Crisis needs action and the Dygert-Gearhearts stepped into the opportunity to create something, to write the curriculum that did not yet exist. The result was 'Wake Up World,’ a curriculum they wrote as they learned, listened, and honed together the study they hope will turn things around. They found eager and active allies as first readers, reviewers, and those with online publishing experience, to help them bring it all together. And, by writing the curriculum themselves, a bonus arose: that they could make the curriculum freely available to absolutely everyone online and, soon, on demand.
Their curriculum, Wake Up World, is designed for wide use in small groups among those interested in asking honest questions. While they aren’t climate scientists, that is part of the strength of the study. The Dygert-Gearhearts bring the group on the journey they themselves took to gain a better understanding of what we are up against, and what the faith community can do in their local contexts, and in the face of crisis. For those who want to get started as they get a group together, there is also an individual study option, adapted with permission by James Little.
“The imperative is before us. We have no choice but to speak out and and to become leaders.”
—Rev. Bob Dygert-Gearheart
A recent study from the World Wildlife Federation tells us Animal populations have experienced an average decline of almost 70% since 1970. Photo by NOAA
The Dygert-Gearhearts do some really important things with this curriculum. Making it accessible online for all is a generous response to the imperative we face. But additionally, having spent their lives serving others within faith communities and in public service, they have a really good sense of how to put a complex and at times contentious issue into a framework that is accessible to folks who know what it is to study, learn, and discern together. In the curriculum, they spend time encouraging folks to build relationships during the process, as well as learn a shared language, and listen to both the scriptures as well as wider cultural voices—of our youth, front line communities, and scientists.
They write with forthrightness and also generosity. Rev. Bob is honest about the pain he experienced when he started researching the crisis in 2019. He shared how hard it was to learn about the damage caused, the species lost, and the emergencies to people and nature unfolding in real time around the globe due to the crisis. Rev. Bob credits Anita with helping him through these hard moments, and encouraging a focus on what we can do. In truth, there is a lot ahead of us that can be done—and the sooner the better.
The curriculum includes plenty of hopefulness. Says Anita, “I want to live in the peacefulness of this moment, not in the anxiety of the future of what may happen. For me, I found hope through understanding…for me personally, knowing was a critical piece to finding hope.” Rev. Bob adds, “I think if we can ground this in the biblical narrative of our relationship with the earth, that we could all take responsibility for that in a positive way.” Rev. Bob also shared his confidence in his neighbors and community, “I do have a lot of confidence in the people that I know and love. And I know that actions are going to follow. I think that once people become aware of the gravity of this situation, that they're going to act and they're going to respond.”
During our Climate Cafe conversation over zoom, Rev. Bob shared, “I can't help but say that in one of these little cubes is a little granddaughter of ours. … And you know, there is no better reason in the world to take seriously the future of our earth than this little girl.”
—Rev. Bob Dygert-Gearheart
Photo by Markus Spiske.
The curriculum is written from the perspective of lives lived in service to others, yet also lives lived during a time of tremendous prosperity. The Dygert-Gearhearts grew up and served in a time of abundant harvests, hearty forests, and reservoirs full of water. It was, as they say, a good life. From this life grew a set of expectations that each generation would enjoy good fruits and a vibrant earth. Over the last few years, they began to see something that many young people—inspired by youth leaders such as Greta Thunberg and others—already knew, that something had gone very wrong, and something must be done.
Many in our faith communities share this generational view, and share also the chagrin and surprise that things so carefully built with hope to sustain and widen prosperity had in fact become a danger. It’s hard to grapple with the reality of climate change, but hard also to process the loss of the hopes that as parents and grandparents we have for future generations: that the happiness of their lives will exceed our own. Yet it is not too late. Globally every generation is standing up to meet this moment and rekindle the promise of abundant life, grandparents, parents, and youth together. And the Dygert-Gearhearts are standing up amongst them.
The Dygert-Gearhearts invite us to learn as they did, to grapple as they did, to find hope as they did in meeting what is the central moral imperative of our time—the climate crisis. They have gifted communities of every scope a group study to learn and grow together. They invite everyone to link, learn, and live into a movement for the future.
Thank you, Circle Faith Future for sponsoring this discussion!
For more articles, also news and information, see the Faiths4Future blog page.
Anita Dygert-Gearheart, MSW, ACSW, LCSW - From early childhood my parents instilled in me a deep love of the natural world. My life experiences instilled a deep love for humanity and led to my becoming a clinical social worker. This ecological crisis combines my love for nature and humanity, understanding that we are all part of this incredible home we call Earth. It is my hope that this small study will motivate others to join in responding to this crisis.
Dr. M. Robert Dygert-Gearheart, Ordained United Methodist Minister, Doctor of Ministries - I was ordained a United Methodist minister in 1969 where I served in the Indiana Conference for 42 years. Now I realize that we are awakening to a new scenario, one that will determine the fate of the global community. While we weren’t aware, now we are awake to a defining moment in human history. This existential crisis of our ecological system demands we step through in unity, all together. I have always believed faith communities to be portals where we, together, can bind the broken and heal the injured. Let us look together at what we face as a global community as, truly, this is a moment of liminality (standing on the threshold).
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. She organizes the Climate Cafe Multifaith as a co-leader of Faiths4Future. Find her in real life in Southern Oregon, working as Steward of Climate with the nonprofit Circle Faith Future.