GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The Rev. Sarah Scherschligt walks behind her Prince of Peace Lutheran Church to the spot where she feels “closer to God.”

Surrounded by a chicken-wire fence and marked by a sign that reads “Fruitful Fields,” is her church’s new vegetable garden. Growing there are tomatoes ready to be picked for the local food kitchen, basil that a member may use in some home cooking, green beans that can be eaten right off the stalk.

Scherschligt’s church is part of a, well, growing trend among houses of worship. Instead of merely changing light bulbs and installing thermostat controls for greater energy efficiency, congregations are now “going green” the old-fashioned way — by planting gardens in their backyards.

Some are driven by the economy. Others are following the example of first lady Michelle Obama, who planted a vegetable garden at the White House this spring to emphasize healthy diets. Still others consider it a hands-on way of living a simpler life — and connecting with God.

“Some kid in our congregation planted this seed in a little Dixie cup six months ago and then they come out and they see this is how things grow and this is how God works through nature,” said Scherschligt, associate pastor of the church.

Statistics on church gardens are hard to come by, but experts on religion and the environment say they are hearing more about congregations that have decided to make planting and produce a part of their ministry.

Nancy Sleeth, program director of Blessed Earth, a faith-based environmental nonprofit based in Wilmore, Ky., said she didn’t know of any church vegetable gardens five years ago. Now, everywhere she goes, she hears about congregations growing green thumbs.

Sleeth said a number of factors could be driving the interest, including churches’ increased concern about climate change, the savings gained by growing food rather than buying it at the store, and the opportunity to get kids away from the TV screen.

“Once people read their Bible, then they realize that this is something that we as Christians should be leaders on,” said Sleeth, author of “Go Green, $ave Green,” which cites examples of church gardens. “What more visible way to do that than to physically put a garden on your church property?”

Angela Smith, director of the Baltimore Food and Faith Project, said she’s seen an increasing interest in her workshops called “Growing Food, Growing Faith: Creating a Vegetable Garden with Your Faith Community.”

While about 20 people attended workshops in previous years, she said about 70 showed up at the one she held in February.

“The Obamas have planted a vegetable garden,” said Smith, whose initiative is part of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future. “More and more people are hearing about … the benefits of growing your own food.”

Jo Ann Windman, executive director of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, which received a grant from Smith’s initiative, said her congregation has started a Sukkot Garden. Gourds and cornstalks from its harvest will decorate the sukkot, or makeshift shelters, the congregation erects each year for the fall harvest-related holiday.

The Reform synagogue, whose July newsletter touting the garden notes that “vegetables do not grow in shrink-wrap,” will share its harvested decorations with a neighboring Orthodox congregation and donate food that lasts beyond the holiday to soup kitchens.

Some houses of worship work with governmental and nonprofit agencies to grow food and provide it to the needy. Others have community gardens, where people ranging from low-income housing residents to inmates of a nearby prison have been involved in the planting of seeds or the tilling of the soil.

Crews at Good Works, an interdenominational Christian ministry that works with the poor in rural Appalachia, have developed eight gardens at the homes of widows and people with disabilities in southeast Ohio.

“You can do a community garden in an urban area because people can walk to them but in rural areas, transportation is a big issue,” explained ministry founder Keith Wasserman.

While some congregations have several acres or farms on which they grow their produce, others are gardening on smaller plots near their sanctuaries.

Leah Garrett, a Sunday school teacher at College Park Church of the Nazarene in Maryland, started a vegetable garden with five elementary-age students last year. They harvested cucumbers and tomatoes as recently as Sunday (Aug. 9) for a food bank at her church that is seeing more needs this year.

The efforts provide fresh produce for people who usually receive canned goods and a teachable moment for her Sunday school class.

“It’s connecting an easy thing that a child can do with those people who are in need,” said Garrett, a development staffer at the social justice organization Sojourners in nearby Washington. “My hope is that these kinds of experiences will shape these younger people into being folks who really care about those who are in poverty.”