What is Good Seed Sunday?
Good Seed Sunday is a national A Rocha initiative that provides resources to church communities who want to celebrate creation care in their church and neighbourhood.
Why is A Rocha developing Good Seed Sunday?
First, we want to impact the Christian community to see creation care as imperative to local Christian mission and part of our Christian mandate. Second, this is a great way to raise awareness and support for community outreach and environmental projects throughout North America Thirdly, A Rocha wants to share the practical resources that we have developed over the past 10 years. Lastly, we want to address the many requests that A Rocha gets for resources for our varied program areas in a sustainable way, by making them accessible online.
What does A Rocha offer Good Seed Sunday participants?
Accessed online, it is a church resource package and experience for engaging the whole church to worship God through caring for creation.
- Church Service Package: Sermons, service outline with suggested readings.
- Sunday Schools: Lesson plans and educational games.
- Bible Study & Small Group Material: 2 sets of 5-week discussion materials.
- Daily Devotionals: Multiple authors and reflections on creation care in scripture.
- Online Community: Join the Good Seed Sunday community network and share stories of creation care in your church (include link).
- Action Projects: Practical community initiatives, including community garden projects, designed to serve your local community.
- Living Lighter Resources: Initiatives to glorify God through living lighter at church and at home. Principles for reducing energy consumption and household waste.
- Resource Library: Recommendations of relevant websites, books, films and other resources for education and discussion.
Where and when is Good Seed Sunday happening?
Good Seed Sunday starts online, moves into church congregations, families and individuals and then out into neighbourhoods. The best way to get folks engaged is to promote the Good Seed Sunday website (goodseedsunday.com) in your emails, blogs, Facebook and twitter. Then, we hope to capture contact information from people so that we can engage with them by email, phone or face-to-face. Think of this happening on many fronts all across North America. It launched on February 29th and starts April 22nd.
How do I become an advocate or encourage others to advocate?
You are an advocate if you simply talk about Good Seed Sunday. Here is how you might share the buzz:
- Spread the Seed – Tell 3 people in your church about Good Seed Sunday and then ask them to pass it on to 3 others.
- Expand it Further – “Like” Good Seed Sunday on Facebook, follow on Twitter, email a friend or even blog about Good Seed Sunday.
- Action Seeker – Show a video about Creation Care to your church! Arrange for your church to hand out seed packs (see resources).
- Ultimate Action Seeker – Ask your Pastor to preach on Creation Care. Organize motivated congregation members to start a Community Garden, neighbourhood clean-up, or recycling/sharing program.
Why should I encourage friends to sign-up to the email list (here)?
Email is the quickest way to start the relationship with Good Seed Sunday participants. If we do not capture email addresses we will not be able to effectively follow-up with phone conversations and longer-term relationships. Also, we hope to engage new friends of A Rocha throughout the year with our e-news and Good Seed Sunday update emails.
The most important thing you can do is build excitement in yourself. When friends ask what you’ve been up to, one of the things you can share is this exciting new project you’re involved in.
You are invited to be part of the vision of inspiring change and caring for creation at churches and other Christian communities across the country. Join the A Rocha ambassador team today and contact us through goodseedsunday.com or email Luke at goodseed@arocha.ca
