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<\/a><\/p>\nClif Bar is a leading global company when it comes to sustainability, winning awards, encouraging other companies to further their sustainability practices, and even helping schools create advanced degree programs in sustainability.[i]<\/a>\u00a0 The way that Clif Bar is able to do these is by intentionally shifting their \u201cbusiness model\u201d to incorporate these five traits:<\/p>\n Of course, the way that these things all can happen is if people keep buying their products.[ii]<\/a>\u00a0 The more Clif Bars people purchase, the better able Clif Bar is at reaching their five goals.<\/p>\n After reading Georgetown University Professor Vincent Miller\u2019s Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, <\/em>I wonder if there aren\u2019t ways the church can participate in these \u201cconsumerism for more than just the bottom line\u201d models.\u00a0 Early in the text Miller explains, \u201cthis book explores how consumer culture changes our relationships with religious beliefs, narratives, and symbols\u201d[iii]<\/a> which is later defined as the \u201ccommodification of culture.\u201d[iv]<\/a>\u00a0 It is true, my colleague Paul and I have frequent discussions about how \u2018transactional\u2019 ministry has become . . . but there has to be some positives to this.<\/p>\n I think about Fair Trade Coffee and how programs like Equal Exchange have completely transformed the way many faith communities of faith purchase their goods.\u00a0 The Presbyterian Women of many Presbyterian Churches partnered with the Presbyterian Coffee Project and through intentional purchasing ended up serving fair trade and sustainably grown coffee at many of their gatherings.[v]<\/a>\u00a0 The famous Abyssinian Baptist Church has created its own sustainable coffee program working with coffee growers in Ethiopia.[vi]<\/a> Many faith communities are encouraging their members to make healthy and local decisions on how they purchase their produce and groceries through partnering with Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) programs.[vii]<\/a>\u00a0 Anytime someone purchases a product that has been locally sourced (produce, dairy, clothing, furniture, beer, wine) in an effort to participate in a more sustainable economic model, and their purchase decision somehow ties into their faith, there has to be some \u201cgood news\u201d in this commodification of culture conundrum.<\/p>\n Miller is right; the church is a part of the consumer culture.\u00a0 There is no going back.\u00a0 However, if Christians can gain an awareness of their place in that consumer culture, and then intentionally use their purchasing power in a healthy fashion, there is a lot of opportunity there.\u00a0 The opportunity is not just to encourage others to make sustainable financial choices, but to improve the common good as an act of faith.\u00a0 That sounds a lot like following Christ to me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [i]<\/a> \u201cOur Sustainable Journey,\u201d ClifBar, last modified February 19, 2019, https:\/\/www.clifbar.com\/article\/our-sustainability-journey<\/a><\/p>\n [ii]<\/a> \u201cInterview Director of Environmental Stewardship Elysa Hammond,\u201d Triple Pundit, last modified February 19, 2019, https:\/\/www.triplepundit.com\/story\/2012\/clif-bar-story-interview-director-environmental-stewardship-elysa-hammond\/69301<\/a><\/p>\n [iii]<\/a>\u00a0Vincent J. Miller, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture<\/em> (New York: Continuum International, 2003), 3<\/p>\n [iv]<\/a> Miller, Consuming Religion<\/em>, 3<\/p>\n [v]<\/a> \u201cPresbyterian Coffee Project,\u201d Presbyterian Mission Agency, last modified, February 19, 2019 https:\/\/www.presbyterianmission.org\/ministries\/compassion-peace-justice\/hunger\/enough\/presbyterian-coffee-project\/<\/a><\/p>\n [vi]<\/a> Trymaine Lee, \u201cHarlem Helps Raise Coffee in Ethiopia,\u201d New York Times<\/em>, July 26, 2010, \u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/07\/27\/nyregion\/27abyssinian.html<\/a><\/p>\n [vii]<\/a> \u201cLet\u2019s Move Toolkit for Faith Communities,\u201d White House Obama Archive, last modified, February 19, 2019, https:\/\/letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov\/sites\/letsmove.gov\/files\/Lets-Move-Toolkit-Faith-Communities.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I recently had a fascinating conversation with Elysa Hammond.\u00a0 Elysa is the Vice President of Clif Bar and their Director of Environmental Stewardship.\u00a0 Simplified, her job is to make sure Clif Bar uses the most delicious, healthy, organic, sustainable, earth friendly ingredients in their products \u2013 and then to make sure that those products are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1458,255,832],"class_list":["post-21627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cosuming-religion","tag-miller","tag-miller-consumer-religion","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21627"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21633,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21627\/revisions\/21633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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