A Spirit-Led Journey to Sustainability
A Spirit-Led Journey to Sustainability
Grinnell Friends Church Solar Field
Jim Kessler
By way of introduction, Grinnell Friends Church, which is on the edge of Grinnell, Iowa, is a growing pastoral Meeting that averages 100 to 115 worship attenders on a Sunday morning. Our building is located on 3 acres adjacent to the main highway into Grinnell from Interstate 80. We are deeply committed to serving our community in tangible ways. For example, our recycled furniture ministry, Renewed Hope Home Furnishings provided free used furniture and donated bedding for more than 400 materially poor and immigrant families in our area during 2024.
I had hoped for many years that Grinnell Friends Church could transition to solar power. The desire seemed like an impossible dream due to financial constraints. Our large building, which includes a worship center that seats up to 150, an educational wing, a large foyer, and a fellowship hall/gymnasium, has always been heated and cooled entirely by electricity. Our annual bill for electricity during 2024 was close to $8,000.
I had hoped for many years that Grinnell Friends Church could transition to solar power. The desire seemed like an impossible dream due to financial constraints. Our large building, which includes a worship center that seats up to 150, an educational wing, a large foyer, and a fellowship hall/gymnasium, has always been heated and cooled entirely by electricity. Our annual bill for electricity during 2024 was close to $8,000.
However, the Spirit moves in mysterious ways to make the seemingly impossible happen. About a decade ago, the farm that surrounds our property was in an estate sale. A family member contacted me, as Clerk of the Meeting, to ask if we wanted to purchase a third of an acre that bordered two sides of our property. We had less than a week to decide. I contacted our pastor, the chair of the Trustees, the chair of Stewardship, and Bob Burnham, a weighty Friend. Without time for Monthly Meeting approval, it was decided to purchase the additional land. We were all forgiven for moving ahead. How we might use that land in the future was a mystery.
One of our members, Dr. Jim Hoeksema, is a retired William Penn University Technology professor. Jim had installed solar panels at Quaker Heights, our Iowa Yearly Meeting Camp. Later, with help from a QEW Mini-grant and other generous donations, Jim constructed a solar field with battery storage at the Friends Theological College in Kenya.
Obviously, we had the expertise in our midst to plan a solar field for our needs. In 2024 Velma Burnham bequeathed a significant amount of money to Grinnell Friends. We waited for instructions from her family about how they desired that the money be spent. Bob Burnham, her husband and a man of few words, was a spiritual giant in our midst. He was in his nineties and was still the person we looked to for wisdom. During mid-June of 2024, Bob approached the Grinnell Friends Trustees and proposed that we should use a portion of the money to install a solar field that would supply all the electricity for our building. A few days after Bob approached the Trustees, he fell, suffered a brain injury, and passed. In late June of 2024, our Monthly Meeting approved installing a solar field that will cut our annual utility bill to about $300. By late October 202,4 the solar field was installed on the third of an acre that we had purchased a decade ago. Our dear friends, Bob and Velma, left us with both a rich spiritual legacy and a way to completely eliminate our electrical carbon emissions. What a blessing!
Jim Kessler is a member of Grinnell Friends Church in Grinnell, Iowa. He has been active in QEW since 2012. Jim frequently shares presentations about the importance of native plantings and habitat restoration to all of life.
