Prairie Restoration and New Earth Partnership

Lutheran Church of the Reformation
St. Louis Park, MN

At first, church members were suspicious of pulling up the nice lawn and towering trees to replant their church grounds with native prairie grass and burr oaks. As Pastor Dennis Ormseth notes, “The new proposal to re-landscape our highway frontage, for environmental reasons, asked for a transformation of the aesthetic of the congregation’s chief presentation of itself to the general public.” But Lutheran Church of the Reformation took a leap of faith and passed the proposal. They recognized that this new project would reduce air and water pollution. It would demonstrate that people of faith care for God’s creation and actively work to restore and protect it.

In re-landscaping the church’s entire frontage on Highway 100, the congregation eliminated the need for mowing and fertilizing. Wildflower and rain gardens also now have a space on church grounds. They hope to demonstrate the benefits of natural landscaping in reducing air and water pollution in the metropolitan area. Rev. Dennis Ormseth explains, “Neighbors and members of other churches and synagogues in the community will be invited to walk the grounds in order to experience close-up the delightful variety and beauty of prairie grasses and wildflowers, and the birds and butterflies they attract. Perhaps they will come to share the congregation’s new sense of what it means to stand on holy ground.”

Clean Air Minnesota helped to fund the project and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy agreed to assist with project management. Throughout this experience, Pastor Ormseth explains, “We have gained experience with building bridges between state, church and environmental entities. Also, church members are coming to rank environmental issues as high in importance as other issues when they vote.”

The project began as part of a pilot project of New Earth Partnership, an interfaith coalition of environmentally engaged individuals and congregations in the Twin Cities. Lutheran Church of the Reformation was the first congregation in the area to complete a full assessment of their congregational life in its relation to ecologic sustainability. They studied their worship, education programs, fellowship, property management, and advocacy efforts. A three-year “agenda for action” resulted.

Now, the congregation describes itself as a church “amidst the gardens and woods on our land in St. Louis Park, for which we have special responsibility as caretakers of the creation God loves.” New Earth Partnership is part of the church’s identity; they were a founding partner for this organization, the goal of which is to promote spiritually grounded ecological awareness and action in the Twin Cities area.

For Lutheran Church of the Reformation, care of the earth is integral to its life as a spiritual community seeking the common good. All groups using the building are asked to follow sustainability guidelines developed for the congregation’s own hospitality. Weekly connections are made to scriptural bases for the celebration and care of the earth. In the green season of the liturgical year, a “circles of creation” worship is celebrated and a fabric “tree of life” is hung over the communion table.

Contact: Pastor Dennis Ormseth at 952-929-0439 or dormseth@reformationslp.org