“We, the people called United Methodists, affirm our faith in the living God, who created everything that is and called it good, and created human beings in God’s own image.”*
This quote is the first sentence in the Preamble of the recently revised United Methodist Social Principles. For those that are not familiar with my work I am Pastor Bob Prudhomme a Commissioned Deacon in the United Methodist Church. My ministry and in fact my life has always been focused on caring for the beautiful creation that God has blessed & graced us with. I was trained in architecture, and my practice has always centered on building energy efficient and environmentally conscious projects. Now in the work of my Ministry, I am developing several projects that I would like to work with all of you on in order to protect and heal God‘s creation wherever and whenever we can.
The first of these is a planned Scripture Study focused on just what it is that our Scriptures tell us about Caring for Creation. This will be a six-week program beginning the first week after Easter. It will be offered in person and preferably we will be able to do this regionally where two or three neighboring churches will collaborate as a group. It can also be offered via Zoom online. We will begin with Genesis and cover stories throughout the Bible all the way through Revelation. Since it is six-week program, we will not be able to cover every story in scripture that reminds us how and why we are to care for creation but will use examples from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. We will also delve into the Methodist Social Principles that have just been revised in 2025. There is so much to say about caring for creation. I could write a book on this subject and not completely cover it. I look forward to meeting with you and sharing your thoughts and experiences with my own on how we care for God’s beautiful and abundant creation.
The second project I want to invite you and your church to participate in is what is referred to as a Fruitfulness Project. I am looking for congregations in the Detroit District to work with to audit their current energy usage. Then starting with low hanging fruit, such as insulation and energy sealing and Energy efficient lighting, ultimately, we would like to get to a place where we are providing and installing solar energy systems so that we can move from spending our resources on utilities to spending our resources on our ministries.
I have recently obtained a small grant to aid in the Energy Audit process and will be working with a firm that is experienced in working with houses of worship to start this once you sign on and ultimately- as I stated above- using our resources for ministries not for utilities. I’m still researching grants and have had discussions with several grantors that are giving me some very positive feedback. I look forward to working with your congregation. First thing we’ll have to do is get 12 consecutive utility bills, including gas and electricity bills to start the process. The best way we can do this is for your church to set up an online account if you don’t already have one and then share your username and password with me. We can then obtain 12 months, utility bills and move forward quicker. Or you can copy 12 months bills for our use in the Project. We will be utilizing a sliding scale fee structure as well as augmenting your resources with the Caring For Creation Ministries funds so we can include more congregations.
Once your church has signed onto a proposal and we have obtained the energy bills, the audit process can begin. I look forward to working with all of you from pastors to trustees to finance committees and moving these projects forward A last note is that if we can have these projects in place by December 2027, your houses of worship will be eligible for a 30% energy rebate! That’s dollars that will come straight back to your church so let’s get started and move forward with Caring for Creation.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Bob Prud’homme
248-765-1761 Mobile
*Excerpt From Social Principles of The United Methodist Church 2025-2028
United Methodist Church