Called to Climate Action Conference

2027 details will be out later this year!

Save the Date:

Saturday, April 17, 2027 – Collegiate United Methodist Church in Ames, IA

Are you called to climate action? We believe you are.

Saturday, March 21, 2026

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
1340 3rd Ave SE, Cedar Rapids, IA

Iowa Faith & Climate Network is excited to gather people of diverse faith and spirituality from across Iowa for Called to Climate Action 2026, our annual one-day, statewide conference rooted in faith, justice, and collective action.

This gathering offers a full day of spiritual grounding, learning, connection, and practical action. We are honored to welcome Rev. Jenny Phillips, Director of Environmental Sustainability at Global Ministries and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), who will offer the keynote address, bringing deep experience at the intersection of faith, climate justice, and global mission.

Through workshops, participants will engage topics including clean water, the state of cancer in Iowa, clean energy and how congregations can get involved, local food systems, storytelling, and screenings of Iowa’s Dirty Secret. These sessions will ground conversations in Iowa’s lived realities and provide pathways for hopeful action. The day also includes time to network with tabling organizations and event sponsors during our Advocacy Fair, as well as regional breakout groups. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with over a dozen nonprofits and businesses doing climate, environmental, and related work across Iowa.

Download a Flyer

2026 Conference Photo Gallery

Thanks to everyone who attended our 2026 Conference! Here are some event photos.

Click Here

Conference Agenda

See the printed schedule in your bag or the workshop descriptions for the locations.

8:00 – 9:00 AM | Registration, Coffee & Networking

9:00 – 9:30 AM | Welcome and introduction to the day

9:30 – 10:00 AM | Workshop leader presentations, topic and key takeaway

10:00 – 10:15 AM | Break

10:15 – 11:00 AM | Workshop #1 (see options & descriptions below)

11:00 – 11:15 AM | Break

11:15 AM – 12:00 PM | Workshop #2 (see options & descriptions below)

12:00 – 1:00 PM | Lunch (included with registration)

1:00 – 1:30 PM | Networking and Climate Advocacy Fair (meet tabling organizations and event sponsors)

1:30 – 2:30 PM | Keynote Address: “Resilience is the Antidote to Chaos” by Rev. Jenny Phillips, United Methodist Church Director of Environmental Sustainability at General Board of Global Ministries / United Methodist Committee on Relief

2:30 – 2:45 PM | Break

2:45 – 3:30 PM | Workshops Round #3 (see options & descriptions below)

3:30 – 3:45 PM | Break

3:45 – 4:15 PM | Regional breakouts

4:15 – 4:30 PM | Break

4:30 – 5:00 PM | Closing ceremony and sending forth

Keynote Speaker & Workshops

Rev. Jenny Phillips

Keynote Speaker

“Resilience is the Antidote to Chaos”

In a season marked by rapid destruction of environmental protections in the US, faith communities must continue to work toward a resilient world. In this session, we’ll consider how to get there and where to find hope along the way.

Rev. Jenny Phillips is Director of Environmental Sustainability at Global Ministries and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the worldwide humanitarian relief and development agency of The United Methodist Church. Jenny is an elder from the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church and is based in Decatur, GA.

Workshops

Climate Action Help Desk

Sanctuary, 2nd Floor

We’ll spend the first 10 minutes making a list of questions participants have about engaging faith communities in climate action. Then we’ll group the questions into core themes and discuss. Whether you’re new to the topic of faith and climate or you’ve been engaged with your church’s green team for decades, let’s talk about the challenges and realities you face!

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Rev. Jenny Phillips

Director, Environmental Sustainability at General Board of Global Ministries

Climate Resolutions and Climate Actions Plans: Achieving and Tracking Results

Choir Room, 2nd Floor

This workshop provides an overview of the climate resolutions, greenhouse gas inventories, climate action plans, and progress made toward emissions reductions in Cedar Rapids and Linn County. It compares existing climate action plans and current progress with the pace necessary to achieve 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets. Participants will explore which specific local actions can deliver the greatest carbon reductions most rapidly, as well as the scale of work required to implement them. The workshop concludes with a brief discussion of the emerging challenge posed by new data centers and their projected impact on energy generation.

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John Zakrasek is a founding member and Director of Linn Clean Energy District, a non-profit committed to accelerating a just and equitable transition to clean energy. He is a board member of the Clean Energy Districts of Iowa and the Iowa Blue Green Alliance. John worked in the energy industry for 20 years managing large information technology projects. Since the 1990s, he has been engaged in addressing environmental issues, climate change and clean, renewable energy. He was a member of the Cedar Rapids Advisory Committee that developed the Cedar Rapids Climate Action Plan and is Co-Chair of the Linn County Sustainability and Resilience Advisory Committee that developed Linn County’s green-house gas inventory and collaborated with the East Central Iowa Council of Governments on the Pathway Climate Action Plan.

John Zakrasek

Founding member and Director of Linn Clean Energy District

How Small-Scale Farmers Can Make a Difference

Chapel, 1st Floor

This workshop highlights how small-scale farmers can be powerful stewards of the land. Through real-life examples and practical insight, participants will explore how farming practices influence soil, water, and surrounding ecosystems. The session emphasizes that regenerative impact isn’t about farm size, it’s about intentional choices that support both the environment and the community.

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Shaffer Ridgeway, a resident of Waterloo, IA grew up in Alabama on a small cow/calf operation owned by his father. He attended college at Alabama A&M University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness. After college, he started his career with the Natural Resources Conservation Service as an intern in 1998. He has served in many positions, including Soil Conservationist, Black Special Emphasis Program Manager, and District Conservationist. He has been the District Conservationist in Waterloo, IA (Black Hawk County) for the past 22 years.

In 2019, Shaffer and his family founded Southern Goods LLC, a family-owned agricultural business focused on bringing high-quality Southern produce to Midwestern markets and directly marketing locally raised cattle to consumers. Through this work, he has helped expand local access to fresh, locally sourced foods, strengthen farm-to community connections, and support more resilient local food systems.

Shaffer has developed an interest in and emphasized regenerative agriculture and teaching producers the importance of following the five soil health principles. He is also a national advocate for Black & minority farmers. He serves on the Board of Directors for Practical Farmers of Iowa and Iowa Farmers Union.

Shaffer and his wife Madelyn have three sons. Solomon, Max and Jacoby

Shaffer Ridgeway

Southern Goods LLC; District Conservationist in Waterloo, IA

Hope Has a Voice: Climate Stories That Connect, Inform and Inspire

Room 101, 1st Floor

Facts and figures alone rarely change hearts…but stories do. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore why personal climate stories are such a powerful tool in faith-based, political, and everyday settings. We’ll look at what makes a climate story effective as we begin crafting our own stories. Plus, we’ll learn how storytelling can open up conversations with the three CS groups: Climate Skeptics, Climate Silents, and Climate Stewards, as we build bridges across differences and bring faith-rooted values into public life. Participants will also explore how climate stories can be used in conversations with legislators and community leaders to humanize climate issues and inspire action rooted in hope rather than fear.

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Tim Gossett is the Associate Director of Iowa Faith & Climate Network, where he writes and leads much of the organization’s climate education and engagement work. He is the primary author of many of Iowa Faith & Climate Network’s resources and has published several books and written or edited hundreds of curriculum lessons used by churches and faith communities across the country.

Tim is passionate about climate storytelling as a way to move conversations beyond data and debate and toward lived experience, shared values, and hope-filled action. His love of storytelling began early, shaped by listening to his father—a pastor who kept file cabinets full of small, carefully collected stories ready for sermons and conversations. Today, Tim helps congregations and individuals learn how to tell and use climate stories that build understanding across differences, including conversations with skeptics and policymakers. His work is grounded in the belief that faith communities already have the moral language, relational trust, and storytelling traditions needed to respond creatively and courageously to the climate crisis. He lives in Ames.

Tim Gossett

Associate Director, Iowa Faith & Climate Network

Iowa’s Dirty Secret: Documentary Screening & Discussion

Youth Room, First Floor

Take in a screening of Iowa’s Dirty Secret: The True Cost of Burning Coal, a short, 30-minute documentary that highlights the often-unseen impacts of coal pollution on Iowa communities. Through personal stories and local context, the film raises important questions about health, environmental justice, and energy in our state.

Following the screening, participants will engage in guided conversation about the film and the questions it raises for people of faith. This session will also introduce What We Breathe Matters: Faith and the Cost of Coal, a new three-week congregational study from Iowa Faith & Climate Network, designed to help faith communities move from awareness to theological reflection and faithful action. Participants will be the first to receive the study and learn how it can be used in congregational settings.

Discussion Facilitators TBA

Local Action for Water Quality on a Global Scale: How Each of Our Actions Can Change the World

Room 117, First Floor

The World Wildlife Fund is a global conservation organization, working in every corner of the world. The work WWF does for people and nature is at the local level, where communities are at the center, from working with companies in textiles in the Mekong to infrastructure in the Rio Grande to agriculture in the Mississippi. Join Angela Bowman for a robust discussion on water quality across the globe and in our own backyard. Then, let’s talk about local projects going on in your communities and ways we can improve water quality together, for us all.

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Angela Bowman is Senior Director of Freshwater Metrics and US Waterscapes at WWF US where she drives freshwater strategy and thought leadership. Dr. Bowman has over twenty years of experience in earth systems science, modeling environmental change and leveraging her passion for mitigating human impacts to restore and protect aquatic ecosystem diversity.

She holds a Ph.D. in hydrology from Iowa State University and a B.S. in geology from the University of Iowa. She enjoys everything outdoors from camping and hiking to bicycling the trails where she lives in central Iowa and spending time with her wife and many pets.

Angela Bowman

World Wildlife Fund Senior Director, Freshwater Metrics & US Waterscapes

Understanding Iowa’s High Cancer Rates & Environmental Risk Factors: A Research and Community Engagement Initiative

Wesley Center, First Floor

Our environment plays a pivotal role in our health and wellbeing. Iowa is currently facing an urgent public health challenge as the state with the second highest age-adjusted rate of new cancers diagnosed in the nation and is one of only two states where the incidence of new cancer is rising. The Iowa Environmental Council, Harkin Institute, and Iowa Farmer’s Union have launched an initiative to investigate environmental pollution and exposure-related risk factors contributing to Iowa’s increasing cancer rates. This presentation will outline progress on the phases of this project, including an academic literature review, community listening sessions across Iowa, and a comprehensive report outlining key findings. From clean water to radon and industrial pollution, Iowans can attend this session to learn about the environmental risk factors that may play a role in our high and rising cancer rates.

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Cody Smith is the Director of Climate Initiatives at the Iowa Environmental Council, where he leads efforts to strengthen climate resilience and advance environmental justice across the state. In this role, he develops and implements policy strategies that empower communities to respond to climate impacts and promote equitable, science-based solutions. Cody previously served as Senior Policy Advocate with the Council, managing clean energy and transmission portfolios, and as a Policy Associate with the Center for Rural Affairs, advancing renewable energy and watershed management policy. His experience also includes international environmental policy work with the U.S. Department of State, the Central Caribbean Marine Institute, and the Brazil National Health Foundation. Cody holds a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University–Bloomington, with a concentration in Natural Resources Policy in a Changing Climate, and a Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University. His work centers on the intersection of climate policy, community resilience, and public health.