Today, we welcome back guest writer and Circlewood friend Mac Taylor as he shares about his experiences in bringing solar to his home and church.


We flipped the switch! The new, beautiful, 52-panel solar array is turning the electric meter backwards. In our first two weeks of production, the system produced over twice what the building consumed, banking credits for the upcoming winter months. We are literally a “light to the neighborhood,” caring for God’s creation by doing our part to reduce fossil fuel consumption.

I attended Circlewood’s first Ecological Pastoral Leadership Learning Cohort in February 2023, taught by James Amadon. Each participant was given a final project. My “Case Study” was to present the church council with a solar proposal and to share with other churches and non-profits the new solar incentives available.

Monroe Covenant Church knows my passion for creation care and my engineering background. During my 11 years as pastor (retiring in 2020), we introduced recycling and composting to our community dinners, after school Kidz Club, “Take the Next Step” Community Resource Center, Youth for Christ, and church gatherings. And we successfully replaced a natural gas furnace with an electric ductless heat pump system (disconnecting natural gas to the building). I preached a series on creation care and mentioned climate related topics in sermons regularly.

Mac and Debbie Taylor's garage



In 2016, my wife and I had solar installed on our garage roof, taking advantage of an amazingly generous Washington State rebate program that paid us for producing electricity at five times the kWh rate during the first four plus years of production. The solar array paid for itself in eight years, and we are now producing free electricity. At the same time, I eyed the south facing, unshaded metal roof of our church as a perfect location for solar panels.

I solicited a solar bid for the church in 2018, but since the Washington State rebates were no longer in effect, it didn’t make sense for the congregation at that time. During the Eco Theology Cohort, fellow Covenant pastor Sarah Robinson invited me to attend an online workshop, Ready, Set, Solar! Workshop: How Your Nonprofit Can Go Solar.” The workshop explained incentives included in the 2022 U.S. Inflation Reduction Act – a 30% federal rebate for non-profits who install solar, with an additional 10-20% available for a variety of non-profits, including those located in low-income neighborhoods, food banks, and homeless shelters.

Armed with the updated information, I began to re-investigate solar. After receiving a go ahead from the church council, I gathered a team of like-minded parishioners. We solicited multiple bids, choosing a $50,000 bid for a 21-kW system from Western Solar in Bellingham. A congregational capital campaign raised $35,000 to pay for the solar array with an additional $15,000 in interest-free bridge loans to cover the period until we receive the federal rebate.

With the rebate, the net cost of solar came was 50% lower than our 2018 estimate. We expect to pay off the system in approximately 13 years, with many free years of electricity (hopefully well beyond the 25-year warranty). That is a well-spent investment in the kingdom, extending the life of the 1905 church building, where solar should cover about 85% of our annual electrical consumption. We hope to be an example to our local community, that as followers of Jesus we care about creation, and are cognizant of climate change and our need to wean human beings off fossil fuels with clean energy.

Co-Pastors of Monroe Covenant Church

Monroe Covenant is now pastored by two very gifted women, Rachel Gough and Michelle Huskamp, who have big smiles when they talk about our solar panels. They continue highlighting creation care and eco-theology. I heard from fellow parishioners, “It’s just the right thing to do.”

Now that our church has such a gorgeous roof, maybe your church or non-profit could be next? Do you have a south facing roof? I would love to be a sounding board/coach for churches and non-profits to consider installing solar and to connect with other like-minded souls. It gives me an opportunity to engage my engineering brain, my love for creation and my pastoral calling.

Photo by Mac Taylor

I want to thank James Amadon and my Eco Theology cohort for their encouragement along the way. As our roof absorbs God’s light, may we reflect his light to those around us.


“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). May we heed God’s call to care for the for his beautiful creation. (Genesis 2:15)

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Mac and Debbie Taylor

Mac Taylor 

Feel free to reach out to me at mactaylor99@gmail.com. 

Mac Taylor is a retired pastor/missionary, last serving with his wife Debbie at Monroe Covenant Church from 2009-2020. Mac and Debbie have three married adult children and eight grandchildren. They live in Monroe, Washington and are members of the Circlewood Stand.