WAUKESHA - Being an environmentally conscious congregation means caring for God’s creation, local clergy say.

"The Earth is not just a temporary place for us to live or use, it is the home that God created for us. If we don’t care for it, we are showing contempt for the Creator," said the Rev. Rick Engen.

Rick Engen said that members of Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, 2016 Center Road, Waukesha, have taken steps to lessen its negative impact on the Earth, including creating dialogue on the topic, offering educational opportunities and creating a green committee.

He said many different church denominations have begun to think and act green.

"This is going on in most denominations," Engen said.

His wife Laurie is on the green committee and has helped to organize green activities.

"We have done something that is kind of against the mainstream," she said.

On Sundays, parishioners and visitors will find a much smaller bulletin distributed in an effort to cut down on paper use.

Other changes at the church include recycling efforts, no longer using Styrofoam cups and planting a 1-acre memorial garden.

"Care of the earth and the beauty of the earth," Laurie Engen said. "This is part of our faith."

Going green is also part of the values at Unitarian Universalist Church West, 13001 W. North Ave., Brookfield, so using solar panels to generate electricity is simply the next step for the church. In the coming months, pending city approval, the roof of the church will be fitted with black solar panels.

"This congregation is very green. They’re really concerned about the environment," said Amy Taivalkoski, a solar and wind consultant, and member of the church.

She had been doing solar site assessments on several members’ homes, when some realized they they couldn’t afford it or the location of their home wasn’t suitable. Taivalkoski said, for example, Wauwatosa has too many trees for solar power systems.

Still, members wanted to contribute to green power and the church was the best place to start because anyone could help, no matter how big or small their contribution, she said.

"This provided broad participation in a project and I think people who contributed really felt good about the project," said Dennis Briley, a member of the church and president of RENEW Wisconsin.

It is in the church’s values to protect and use wisely the resources God provided people with, said the congregation’s minister, the Rev. Suzelle Lynch.

"Living your values through your church. How cool is that?" she said. "It’s grounded in who we are as people of faith."

Taivalkoski said about 10 percent of the church’s electricity will be generated from the solar panels.

Having the panels will reduce the church’s energy costs by an estimated $600 a year.

The solar panels are going to cost $73,000. The church received a grant from Focus on Energy that covers 25 percent of the cost. Another grant from We Energies was awarded to the church, which would cover 50 percent of the rest of the cost. The church is going to pay for the rest, which is about $28,000. Lynch said that has been paid for through member donations.

The church’s green efforts have resulted in certification by the Universalist Unitarian Ministry for Earth’s Green Sanctuary program. The church was certified in 2004 for having a green sanctuary. Briley said this certification commits the church to continue its green efforts.

Laurie Engen said the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is also encouraging individual churches to start thinking green.

During Lent, Christ the Servant partners with St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Waukesha for weekly services.

"The theme for this year has been based on caring for God’s earth," Rick Engen said.

On March 13, the churches are hosting the Rev. Margaret Schoewe from St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, who will be talking about what it means to become a green church.

"We’re doing it in a deliberate way," Laurie Engen said about making more environmentally friendly practices at Christ the Servant.

"Knowing ourselves as utterly dependent beings in a universe of intelligence and beauty may we pause and remember ourselves as a part of a larger wholeness, may we pause and pray and act and pray and act in all the ways we know how to transform earth’s future," Lynch said in a sermon on the environment.