At Missouri church, green movement gathers steam

At Missouri church, green movement gathers steam
Kansas City Star - MO,USA
... Wind turbines power his kitchen stove, and biodiesel fuel propels the fleet of cars that connect Davis and other residents to the outside world. ...

NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - Addicted to drugs and alcohol and sleeping on the streets of St. Louis, Leon Davis had little use for solar panels, composting toilets and other esoterica from the off-the-grid environmental movement.

Then he moved to the New Life Evangelistic Center, where the Rev. Larry Rice, a television preacher, showed Davis the wonders of relying upon the sun, wind and other natural sources of power.

Skeptical at first, Davis now uses a wood stove to heat the geodesic dome home he shares with other recovering addicts at the ministry's complex north of Jefferson City. Wind turbines power his kitchen stove, and biodiesel fuel propels the fleet of cars that connect Davis and other residents to the outside world.

"I'm from the big city," said Davis. "I didn't know anything about this."

For years, such energy conservation measures in this country have typically been the province of elementary school science fairs, back-to-nature urbanites and others with the necessary means to go green.

But for Rice, spreading the gospel of renewable energy is an ideal way to share the word of God while appealing to the bottom-line impulses of the poor and homeless - not to mention otherwise comfortable Americans tired of paying nearly $3 a gallon for gas.

"A lot of this was being done among middle- and upper-income people," said Rice, who operates 14 church-based homeless shelters in St. Louis, Kansas City, southern Illinois and northern Arkansas. "We wanted to get this to the people who needed it the most."

Rice, 57, is a former independent candidate for governor best known as a homeless advocate and anti-death penalty activist. He regularly delivers sermons on New Life's nine TV stations in Missouri and Arkansas and its network of Christian radio stations in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Illinois.

A long-standing concern over skyrocketing utility bills among poor Missourians prompted Rice to search for alternatives, he said. In recent years, that search has taken him to Colorado, Montana, Washington state and beyond as a sort of renewable energy apprentice.

Now he shares those lessons with New Life residents at the Missouri Renewable Energy center in New Bloomfield, where Davis and others regularly host workshops for interested locals.
Nearly 100 people attended the center's Memorial Day workshop, with previous events attracting as many as 400 participants, organizers said.

"People are looking for ways to bring down their energy costs. They were always interested in it, kind of fascinated, but now they see the practical uses," said Will Joyner, who coordinates New Life's operations in southwest Missouri.

For Rice, the gradual awakening of religious leaders and their congregants to environmental concerns - what he calls "the awakening of the sleeping giant of the church" - is long overdue.
"There's all this free energy that God has given us," he said. "It causes us to open our eyes to all the wonders of Creation. ... He has called us to be Earth keepers, not Earth breakers."

In return for free room and board, New Life residents work as sound and video engineers and in other capacities for the ministry's TV and radio network. They also work in the greenhouse, raise tilapia fish, clean the wind turbines, convert used cooking oil into biodiesel and perform other tasks to maintain their sustainable lifestyles.

James Chapman, 55, has lived and worked at the New Life center for three years after bouts with substance abuse, depression and suicidal tendencies. With Rice frequently on the road, Chapman, a Vietnam veteran, has emerged as a supervisor of the alternative energy complex, skills he hopes will translate into employment opportunities once he leaves.

"There is a market for the stuff I know," he said.

Christopher Allison, 35, quickly embraced the center's use of renewable energy. Like Rice, he speaks of the possibilities of alternative power with the fervor of a true believer.

"I never even heard of this stuff until I came out here. Now I live completely off the grid," he said.