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3
Church
The Green Church
by
Tri Robinson
PASSING IT DOWN IN BOISE
As our church began to explore what it means to be good stewards of the environment, two men from the Parks Department brought me a shocking statistic: in the past 10 years in the state of Idaho, there was one-third less exploration of the state’s wilderness area. At the same time, there was a one-third increase in the state’s population. This puzzled me. How could Idaho, which has the largest wilderness areas in the continental United States, experience such a decline with an inverse boom in the population? It didn’t make sense.
Then, the reality hit me that fathers have quit taking their children hunting, fishing and hiking. More kids were sitting in front of the television playing video games on the weekend. And the families who were getting out weren’t doing so in the traditional sense—they were going in vehicles or machines where they couldn’t possibly hear nature and were probably going too fast to appreciate it. I know that what people don’t see, they can’t appreciate. And what they don’t appreciate they won’t value. People weren’t getting into the mountains.
One of our strategies was to get the people in our church outside the city limits where they could see the stars at night and the beauty of their surroundings. Many of them had not seen it because of their lifestyle. I realized in order for the environment to become a value in the church, it had to be experienced individually and passed on generationally. At our church, heritage is an important element in our ministry philosophy. We want people to understand that following Jesus isn’t something you simply do—it’s part of who you are. And when it becomes part of who you are, it’s something you naturally desire to pass down to the generation behind you.
As our church began to weave heritage into the fabric of our faith, realizing that this value was of great importance to living out what it means to be a follower of Jesus, we presented many opportunities for people to get involved. And one of the ways that enabled parents to pass stewardship values down to their kids was through organized camping trips, where many parents took their children into the woods with other families for wilderness cleanup and restoration projects. Kids were seeing first-hand ecological values being lived out by their parents. When we model how to steward what God has given us, our children will catch the lifestyle and it will become part of who they are.
CREATION CARE AS SOCIAL JUSTICE
Why is it that when disaster strikes, the church is one of the first responders? Why do the poor turn to the church for help? The reason is simple: acts of compassion and mercy display the heart of God. This is especially true in the area of social injustice. Our desire to see justice take place is intrinsically linked to our relationship with God. He is a just God—and as participants in the Kingdom of God, we are to demonstrate acts of social justice, being an advocate for those who don’t have a voice and aiding the helpless.
How does going into a village in Rwanda and drilling a well spread the love of Christ? It is a practical demonstration of the heart of God. We don’t want these people to die, and they will if they don’t have clean water. Caring for people in developing countries through environmental education and provision of tools to continue to have a clean water supply is a way to practically show them God’s love. Teaching people how to manage their land so they don’t misuse it and extract all the nutrients out of it is also a way that helps us care for God’s creation and demonstrate God’s love. If they have food and proper nourishment, the people in developing countries will live longer and not die from so many malnourishment-related diseases.
In looking at the way we approach ministering to others through the lens of the Kingdom of God, we should follow Jesus’ lead. He did not simply say, “Be warm and be filled”, rather, he fed people. The demonstration of the Kingdom took place when the apostles cared for the widows and the orphans. Those acts of love and kindness spoke just as loudly as the signs and wonders that also demonstrated the heart of God. As followers of Jesus, we should be willing to help people in a practical way just as easily as we would pray for them and ask God to change them supernaturally.
Discipleship is a verb, measured not so much by what we say but by what we do. In proclaiming the Good News to others and demonstrating the love of Christ in a practical way, we must fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples, teaching others in very practical ways how to follow Jesus. As we begin to connect with people’s hearts through sharing our love for God’s creation, we will begin to have the opportunity to show people how to love the Creator. We model for others how a follower of Jesus pursues wholeness in relationship with God and other people. And we also model how we are to care for and steward what God has given us—whether it be our relationships, our money, our time, or our environment.
When we are presented with an idea such as changing people’s views on the environment when they have been shaded by political overtones for decades, it can seem overwhelming. And when that happens, we have two choices: We could become paralyzed and do nothing. Or we can roll up our sleeves and get to work. We can take a step forward, believing that God is leading us.
There are many people who talk about caring for the environment but are actually doing very little about it—so-called “environmentalists” included. I don’t think you can proclaim something without doing something about it. The church has garnered a reputation for such inconsistent behavior, and we must begin to reverse that trend. This is not a topic that can simply be talked about. We must act.
While the world is debating what is causing global warming, poor countries are dealing with the indisputable evidence that their world is changing. For example, Bangladesh is already changing its agricultural system to a method that is more accommodating to salt water. Due to its severe poverty, Bangladesh can’t afford the type of preventative measures being used in low lying areas throughout Europe and in New Orleans. “It is poor countries that are suffering the brunt of climate change,” Saleemul Huq, the climate change program director for the International Institute for Environment and Development, recently told
Time
magazine,
6
“But it is the rich countries’ greenhouse gas emissions that caused this problem in the first place.” The debate on what’s causing global warming has its place, but the church has more at stake than a simple debate of who’s right and wrong about global warming. There are people who are suffering because of the environmental decline. Literally thousands upon thousands of poor people could be displaced—and that’s a problem that the church must address.
OUR FUTURE IN MIND
In implementing the value of environmental stewardship into our lives, we naturally shift from thinking about the here and now to thinking about the future. As a member of the Baby Boomer generation, I have seen firsthand how people in my generation have made shifts from shortsighted thinking to serious reflection on the future with the addition of each generation to their own families. When people have their first child, this tends to initiate a sudden transformation in the way they view the world around them. New parents begin to ask some challenging questions: Will the world be safe for my kids? Will my children have all the same opportunities that I did? Will they be able to succeed? Will they have all the same freedoms I have? Will they be able to enjoy life the way I did?
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Comments
Wes Widner
There is a great danger with Christians jumping on the popular environmental or green bandwagon. The danger is not that we will start taking care of the environment like we have for thousands of years as members of the environment, but that we will start to see men as a virus or scourge on the environment. The danger is that we will stop focusing on ways to save our fellow human beings from the plight of poverty and real injustice as opposed to the imagined social injustices of environmentalism instead of advocating and teaching time-tested principles of wisdom that have helped lift whole nations out of poverty and greatly improve the lives of millions.
As Michael Creighton rightly pointed out, environmentalism is a religion, and God help us if we think that we can mix foreign contaminants with Christianity with no ill effects.
waseem yousaf
Dear Brother,
Greetings
I am Waseem Yousaf from Pakistan. I have studied your web site, and
have found it to be one of many wonderful sites offered on the
internet which gets to the Truth of the Word of God. As is the case
with others whom I have contacted, you have created material which is
full of knowledge concerning development of religious faith. Living in
Pakistan, weChristians face many obstacles in getting access to God's Word. Most
people in Pakistan speak Urdu, and are not capable of understanding the
English language. Because of limited access in our native tongue, my
people have a true hunger for fresh Christian Perspectives.
Proficient in both English and my native languages, I would like to
offer my services as a translator to you. Presenting your material in
both Urdu and Punjabi would be a true blessing to the Pakistani and
Indian people. For a nominal fee, I will enable you to bring the message
of Salvation to a most deserving people.
Blessing you in advance for your consideration,
In Him,
Waseem Yousaf
Email: wygodblessyou2@gmail.com
P Bjorling
Those who have the least power in the world, those who are already the victims of poverty and injustices of all kinds, are usually the ones that will suffer most from the effects of environmental degradation wrought by humankind. Who lives in the shadow of dirty power plants? Not those who control wealth. Not the powerful. Who lives in the lands being devastated by mountaintop removal? Not the corporate mine owners. Who will have to endure the long-term effects of poisoned water from proprietary fracking chemicals that leak into water systems (and ask folks in North Dakota, where they now have to have potable water trucked in...this isn't mythology). Social injustices resulting from environmental damage caused by those who have no moral compass are not simply figments of people's imaginations. If Christians say nothing and do nothing, we are complicit.
Comments are now closed
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