Confessions of a Reluctant Environmentalist

Missions and the Environment: Confessions of a ‘Reluctant Environmentalist’

by Ed Brown – Director, Care of Creation

Call me a ‘reluctant environmentalist’.

I’ve always been in frontline, evangelistic ministry – as a campus worker, a pastor, and a missionary. I even started out as a missionary kid. And now I find myself working with an evangelical Christian environmental organization. This is not where I thought I would be midway through my ministry career.

Why was I reluctant to pursue this path? It wasn’t that I didn’t think we should care for the earth. I took part in the very first Earth Day, as a high school junior. I paid lip service and a bit more to concepts like energy conservation and recycling. But concern for the environment would never have been high on my ministry priority list. It was a nice add-on, perhaps, but nothing more than that. My priorities were evangelism, student ministry – caring for people’s spiritual needs. Important stuff like that. Care for the environment was good – but definitely optional.

Beyond that, I harbored a few suspicions of the environmental world. It seemed to have more than its share of New Age crackpots, and there was this tendency to put spotted owls and other creatures ahead of the needs of human beings.

The transition from evangelism and preaching to environmental work has not been an easy one. I’ve been dragged into the environmental camp, not exactly kicking and screaming, but certainly with a little hesitation. I had to convince my family, and my wife’s family (both committed missionary families) that this was a reasonable course of action. I also had to be convinced myself. Was environmentalism consistent with my beliefs? with my call to ministry? was it a reasonable use of my time, gifts and abilities?

Reluctantly Convinced

So what convinced me? Well, to start with, God did. It was a question of guidance – “I’ll go where you want me to go, Dear Lord.” He guided me from missions to work with an environmental organization very clearly. But beyond experiencing God’s guidance, I found myself being convinced by several other things. My eyes were opened in ways they had not been before.

I discovered, when I looked again at most of the things I believed, and had believed for a long time, that these convictions were consistent with an active concern for the environment. In fact, I discovered they demanded that I give high priority to taking good care of God’s Creation.

That discovery was followed by another. I realized that the missionary task in its most complete sense could not be carried out without including environmental issues as part of a strategic agenda. Many, if not most, of the problems being experienced in the developing world today are fundamentally caused by environmental abuses. If the damage being done to the environment is not addressed as part our relief efforts, we will not succeed in ministering to those in need, no matter how sincere our efforts.

Thus I find myself compelled by my beliefs and convinced by practical realities. I reluctantly admit that I am an environmentalist.

I want to explain these more, but before continuing, we need to discuss a bit of terminology. I’m sure you understand what we mean by ‘environment’ and ‘environmental’ – but as we move ahead, I’d like to primarily use ‘Creation’ rather than ‘environment’. We don’t live in the middle of a complex system that just happens to be like it is, amazingly beautiful and perfectly balanced to support life; to the contrary, this ‘environment’ is the visible expression of grace from a loving God who created it – it is His Creation, and we want to remember that.

Compelled by Belief

The core beliefs of my evangelical faith, it turns out, are consistent with what I might call a high view of Creation. They demand that I take a proactive stance with regard to care for God’s Creation. I can ignore the devastation and degradation going on in Creation only by doing violence to the things I, and most of my Christian brothers and sisters, already believe.

What are some of those beliefs?

First, God created the world, all of it. And if he created it, every part is precious, from the majesty of mountain peaks to the delicate beauty of a butterfly’s wing, because it comes from him and reflects his glory. In fact, Creation in whole and in each part is a window through which we can see something of God (Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 1:20). While there will always be the need to use parts of Creation to sustain life, there will never be a justification for wanton destruction of the plants and creatures God has made and given to us. If this one fact was the only thing we believed, it would still compel us to love and care for the world – because it was created by a God we love and long to know better.

Second, God made us (human beings) in his image and put us in charge of the rest of Creation (Genesis 1:28, 2:15-16). This belief has been the source of some misunderstanding through the years. Some of us have regretfully concluded that being in charge is a license to do whatever we want to do. The traditional term ‘dominion’ (1:28, also translated ‘rule over’) seems to suggest many negative elements of leadership – the selfishness and abuse of a domineering dictator.

Nothing could be further from what God intended when he put us in charge. Leadership in God’s plan is exemplified in Jesus, who came ‘as a servant’ (Philippians 2:5ff) and who, as head of the church ‘loved her and gave himself up for her’ (Ephesians 5:25). To act selfish and domineering toward our fellow creatures is to play the part of the servant in Jesus’ story in Matthew 24:48ff. He abused his fellow servants, beating them and ignoring their needs because he did not expect his master’s return. How shortsighted and tragic.

We are in charge of Creation, but like the servant in the story, we hold that charge in trust on behalf of another. This idea – being in charge on behalf of someone else – is captured in the word ‘stewardship’. It’s a word we need to revive in order to bring back it’s full meaning. The secular world uses it to mean care for the environment on behalf of future generations – and this is a valuable insight but far from the full Biblical meaning. Many Christians know ‘stewardship’ well – but think only of ‘time, talents and treasure’ when they use it. The full meaning of stewardship includes all of this, but first it points to the first task God gave us as his representatives – stewards over his Creation.

Third, the redemption of the gospel is for all of creation, not just for us as human beings. We know that the Fall had consequences far beyond the persons and lives of us as human beings. When we sinned, we caused a collapse throughout Creation. Our sin brought a curse not only upon us but also upon the rest of Creation (Genesis 3). The visible, material portion of Creation would no longer function as a harmonious, fruitful garden for us – it had been damaged as much as the invisible, ‘spiritual’ realm of our souls.

If this is true, its corollary is true as well: Sin corrupted all Creation, both visible (material or physical) and invisible (‘spiritual’ or having to do with the realm of spirit) . Redemption began a process that will restore all Creation, visible and invisible, to its former glory. Our task as partners in redemption (see II Cor 5:18ff) is to work with God to reverse the curse each of these realms. Consider how this works: We reverse the effects of sin in our own lives by participating in the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification; we reverse the effects of sin in our relationships by participating in community through the church; and we reverse the effects of sin in Creation by learning how to care for it in the best way we can. In the middle of his great chapter on redemption (Romans 8), Paul tells us that all the rest of creation is ‘groaning’ as it waits for our completed redemption (verse 22). The animals and plants, birds and fish, having been dragged down by our sin, are waiting with ‘eager expectation’ for redemption and restoration along with us.

We can’t forget, either, that God is preparing for us a new heaven and a new earth. Our eternal future is not going to be as ethereal spirits floating through the heavenlies – we’ll have new bodies and a new earth in which to experience them. (Rev 21:1, I Corinthians 15). It is occasionally suggested that the fact that this old earth is going to all burn up is reason enough to trash it. Quite the contrary: we’re going to lose our bodies to death, but few of us would use that to justify abusing them. No more can we justify abusing the earth on which we live. Is there a better way to prepare for life in a ‘new earth’ than by learning to love, care for and restore this old one?

Driven by the Task

When we consider the nature of the missionary task in the modern world we discover that it is difficult, if not impossible, to succeed at that task without including care for Creation among our highest priorities and strategies. Let me explain.

In it’s simplest form, the missionary task is summarized by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20: Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… and teaching them… This can be read, and often is read, as an essentially ‘spiritual’ task – that is, a task that has to do with the invisible, but not with the visible, material world. A missionary preaches, teaches, baptizes – and then moves on.

It is clear, however, as we read just a few other passages in the Bible that Jesus never intended our outreach to neglect the visible, material world. He knew what almost anyone who starts to reach out to the poor discovers by experience: Invisible and visible needs can’t be separated. In fact, in Matthew 25:31ff, Jesus suggests that those who minister to people’s physical needs are deserving of the highest praise, while those who ignore these needs receive the most severe condemnation (verse 41-44).

The missionary task has to be seen in two dimensions – spiritual and material, visible and invisible – and this, in fact, is how most missionaries see their task today. Most missions efforts in the developing world today include relief work of some kind along with traditional evangelism and church planting ministries, recognizing not only Jesus’ clear teaching on this subject, but also the practical realities that you cannot minister Christ’s love to hungry and miserable people without doing something about the things that are making them miserable.

What is becoming more and more evident in the world today is that most of the things that are making people poor and miserable are environmental and ecological at their root. Whether overpopulation, agriculture, water, energy or even health – each crisis becomes a question of how we treat our world. Will it be able to continue to support the demands the human race places on it?

I recently attended an Agricultural Missions conference sponsored by Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) and attended by almost 200 Christian agriculture and development workers who are giving their lives to do exactly what I’m talking about. These workers told stories of deforestation – trees being cut down for firewood or commercial sales – which was causing flooding, erosion, loss of valuable cropland. They told of problems encountered in areas where water is chronically short. They described the difficulties of farming when the land has been abused and exhausted and can no longer give harvests of food that it used to give.

Almost all of the people I heard or talked with were dealing, at the most basic level, with environmental and ecological challenges. People in their communities were facing poverty, hunger and disease because the land on which they depend has been abused – polluted, overused, exhausted. Rapidly expanding populations combined with ignorance and poor planning have destroyed the ability of the land to support the people. Creation has been mistreated, and the people are facing the consequences.

These problems can be solved, but only by working to undo the abuse that has created them – that is, by working to restore Creation to the point where it can once again be fruitful and provide for the needs of the people who depend on it for their survival. The poor will not be helped by handouts of food, or by imports of farm machinery. They will only be truly helped when their corner of Creation has been restored to its former fruitfulness.
The missionary task will not succeed without a strong emphasis on caring for Creation as part of it’s planning and strategy.

A Global Irony

Something else became apparent at this conference that needs mention here. A number of workers spoke of phenomena affecting their people that had origins beyond any local influence or abuse. They talked about changes in the weather. In some places, rainy seasons which people used to be able to depend on have become erratic. One brother from Papua New Guinea even described a complete reversal in weather patterns in his area – the former rainy season is now dry, and the dry season now has rain.

In many parts of the world people are suffering because of these changes, which climatologists universally contribute to the phenomenon of global warming, and which they have been predicting for some time. The weather changes which these workers are reporting and which are resulting in increased hunger and poverty for many are being caused by the excessive emission of carbon dioxide and other ‘green house gases’ primarily in the United States and western Europe.

Do you see the irony? We in the West, while concerned about the problems faced by people in the developing world, may actually be making their lives worse through our own excessive use of energy and our affluent lifestyles. Giving lip service to the idea of completing the missionary task, we’re actually making it more difficult to accomplish.

Creation-caring Missions – a new look?

What will a genuine, caring-for-Creation-kind-of-ministry look like? Let me suggest several things that will be true of such an effort:

First, we’ll be teaching a complete message of redemption. We’ll remember that our basic doctrines all point to a love and appreciation for Creation because God made it, and because in Creation we have a window through which we can see God.

This will affect our training. Both training of foreign workers before they go out, and training of local workers who join our projects and outreaches will include appreciation for Creation. We’ll want to be sure that we all understand and keep in mind that we are stewards of all around us – and we are responsible to the Creator to care for his world on his behalf.

A surprising thing may happen when we take this approach to our teaching. Many traditional societies have a higher regard for Creation than does our western culture, and a deliberate effort to include love for Creation in our teaching may create new and unexpected bridges into those societies. Such an approach may actually improve our efforts at evangelism as we come proclaiming the love of the One God who made the world in which we all live. It may also allow us to find out that there are some traditional practices in those societies, which can be applied today to help restore what, has been abused.

Second, we’ll be applying sound environmental and scientific principles to everything we do in our missions work. This means we’ll have members of our teams who have training in environmental fields such as ecological agriculture, and appropriate technology. Many of the development mistakes of the past were made out of sincere ignorance. We just didn’t know what we were doing. There’s no excuse for that now. The knowledge is available to establish sound agricultural practices, to develop micro-enterprises that are environmentally sensitive; to apply appropriate technology solutions that avoid environmental damage.

And third, we’ll be communicating to our donors and supporters how important it is to our work that they take care of Creation seriously as well. It is tragic, but true that care for Creation seems to be largely ignored by the evangelical churches of America. Perhaps if those who are working on the frontiers of missions can communicate to those ‘back home’ how important this is to their work, more of us back home will take it seriously.

In Conclusion

We’ve made a mess of Creation – there’s little question of that. Is it possible to undo all the damage we’ve done as a race? I’m not sure any of us knows the answer to that, but I’m also not sure that it matters. What matters is this:

God is still the Creator, and it’s still his Creation.

We’re still his stewards.

And there a lot of people whose lives would be better if their part of Creation were just a little bit better than it now is.