Creation-Care
Taking Care of What God Loves
interview by Diane J. McDougall
Across the country, the emerging generation is leading the way in caring for creation. In some cases, “caring for” has turned into “worship of,” but EFCA leaders know the difference. Meet Josh Carroll, youth pastor and church-planting intern at Ambassador Church (EFCA) in Brea, Calif.—as well as married father of three and M.A. student at Talbot School of Theology.
Why is creation-care such a big issue now?
Josh: A couple of generations ago, Christians were content to live in their suburban churches, have their lives neatly cordoned off and not worry about people on the fringe of society. Now, important issues like social justice, racial reconciliation, mercy ministry and creation-care are gaining prominence.
Sadly, these concerns can become paramount in some church cultures, and a Christ-centered relationship gets pushed into the background. We have to address these concerns while at the same time keeping our theology sound. In short, loving God causes us to love the things He values.
Isn’t there a risk of going liberal if we’re going green?
Josh: In the past, environmental issues were addressed by the more liberal element of Christianity. Therefore, to express interest in the environment was to be labeled as a liberal by other conservatives, and the assumption followed that you harbored liberal tendencies in every other issue.
I show people that my foundation for caring about the environment is rooted in Scripture and grown out of my devotion to God rather than a devotion to creation. That’s when the Holy Spirit starts to take off with the conversation.
Be honest: Are you a tree-hugging liberal?
Josh: I do have a hat with a picture of a tree and the word “hugger” written under it. When I’m wearing it on campus at Talbot, I see people looking at it and becoming uncomfortable: Oh man, I thought I had this guy figured out. They think I could be a liberal or one of these fringe people who is actually hugging trees. They become wary, even adversarial, when we talk about other things, although I’m probably on the same page as them on every other issue.
When did creation-care become important to you?
Josh: When I moved to California in 2006, it was such a huge issue here that I began exploring it theologically, to figure out what God was saying through Scripture. I found that it’s not about worshipping creation; it’s about worshipping our Creator—then, treating His gift respectfully.
How can church leaders begin to address this?
Josh: It’s a hard topic because of the stigma attached to it. But it’s an easy topic because you see God’s creation everywhere.
Start by searching Scripture yourself. Look up God’s view of creation (Psalms 65 and 104); study how He has chosen His creation to reveal Himself to mankind (Romans 1:19-21, Psalms 19, Isaiah 40-42); ask God what your individual responsibility is in light of His Word (Genesis 1:27-30, Hebrews 11:3). We respond in faith to what God has revealed in Scripture, and Scripture shows God’s love for His creation.
Likewise for your church, the first practical step is awareness. Ask your people to stop and ponder God’s creation rather than breezing by it, jumping in the car and turning on their air conditioner. Challenge them to meditate on the passages listed above. Then encourage them to act on what God reveals to them, and watch as the Holy Spirit takes over!
What resources might you recommend for the next steps?
Josh: Find out what other churches are doing to “go green” by googling news articles. There are even organizations that combine missions and environmental issues [see careofcreation.net].
People fear what they don’t understand. But when you give people practical steps, they’ll say, “This is not hard,” and it’s not scary because the Holy Spirit is in it. Basically, people who love God are going to want to take part in the things of God.
Admittedly, there’s a lot of fringe stuff out there too. I used to be the conservative, Bible Belt evangelical who believed, If anything’s different, draw in the fences and throw rocks at it. Now I say, “Take a look at it, and discern what God is telling you. The more liberal stuff that doesn’t put God first and that falls outside the boundaries of Scripture, toss it aside.”
Any last words for us?
Josh: Creation-care is for everybody—not just liberals in California. 
Read Josh’s blog and contact him at www.pastorcoolguy.wordpress.com.
Please share your favorite resources—books, magazines, Web sites, conferences—on the topic of caring for God’s creation.
Visitor
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 23:06
How does the “Green” movement jibe with these verses?
“Behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind. Isaiah 65:17
The mountains will melt under Him
And the valleys will be split,
Like wax before the fire,
Like water poured down a steep place. Micah 1:4
By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 2 Peter 3:7
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 2 Peter 3:10
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Revelation 21:1
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I am a Christian and I believe that Mankind is commanded to: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” I am a hunter and I believe in conservation and preserving wildlife habitats for the use of Mankind. I am a parent and I want my kids to grow up without poisons in their air and water.
However, the whole world now seems mad with Gaia worship. I do not plan to follow. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Which part of the Great Commission charges the Church with this new “Creation-Care” mission? Which of the Apostles taught this new thing? Where is it written? [Eisogesis does not count.]
Visitor
Tue, 12/02/2008 - 02:05
A reply to Visitor’s comment:
I applaud your care for God’s earth through your conservation efforts and as a parent I heartily agree with your desire to have a clean earth for your children to grow up in. I also appreciate your ability to copy and paste scripture that is important to you.
It takes someone very strong in their convictions to defend what is important to them and record it for all the world to see. I can tell that you are passionate about this subject because you took the time to communicate it to us and the effort to chose you words carefully. You even used a medium that will be around for generations to come. Your children can now discover your stance towards “Creation-Care” even if you choose never again to speak on the subject. You sound like a person who is firm in his/her convictions and I admire that. I don’t expect you to change these convictions but who knows, somewhere along the line you may. I hope you will agree with me that you are not like God: Unchangeable, Unshakable, Immutable.
That is why we can trust God; when He shares His heart on a matter; when He inspires the words of a psalm; when preserves these words for all generations to see; you can be sure He has done so for a specific reason.
In Gen 1:28-31 God gives man the jaw dropping pre-fall responsibility of stewardship of His “good” earth. Sadly, after the fall of man, we are now locked into constant struggle with the “cursed” ground (Gen. 3:17) to yield food that is eatable. Is our stewardship revoked because of the fall? I don’t believe so. Yet there is a change in how we must cultivate the earth so that it yields these eatable plants. Now it is hard work and anyone who has grown any kind of garden knows that in order to succeed you must proactively roll up your sleeves and struggle to produce the desired result.
In a perfect pre-fallen world with no sin, no death, no poisons in the air or water we could afford the attitude of looking at this stewardship as a passive thing. We could use natural resources and God’s perfectly designed ecosystem could automatically replenish. We could rule with the authority given to us but the power would still be His. We could honestly subdue/rule/dominate the earth without the self-centered motives that we inherent from the fall. But yet here we are, in our sinful world; in a creation that moans to be redeemed right along with us. I for one could never worship a creation like that, or any at all for that matter.
Only the Creator deserves my worship and as I grow in the experience and understanding of Him I welcome those things that are on His heart. I strive to honor these things that He has shown are important to Him and recorded for all the world to see. I develop a passion according to the things that He took the special effort to communicate in specific words to His people. I explore the medium he has chosen (scripture) to reveal these things to me and discover His stance on things that He is passionate about. Creation Care happens to be part of this stance and so it should also be part of mine, and everyone who claims to be His follower. Whether or not this creation passes away or is refined (a contextual view of the verses you mention) I will live in the here and now and do my best to honor with my attitude and actions God. To do anything less would be hypocritical and involve acute eisogesis.
Visitor
Tue, 12/02/2008 - 22:56
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my post. We most likely have a great deal in common, yet after reading your post and re-reading my post, I think that I gave an unintended impression. When I said, “However, the whole world now seems mad with Gaia worship”, I did not mean to tar you with the same brush stroke. Looking at what I wrote, I think I did give that impression and I apologize.
I have been becoming increasingly frustrated with what appears to me to be near religious fervor in regard to Man Made Global Warming. Facts don’t seem to matter to the true believers in MMGW. The current Global Cooling that is going on gives no pause. Freak snow storms are blamed on MMGW. International meetings have been cancelled because of snow storms and still the mantra of MMGW continues. I have also been concerned by what appears to be the co-opting of religion to push a radical environmentalist agenda. I think that frustration came out in my comments on the article.
Let me be clear; I do not think that you fall into any of those categories. I apologize for allowing my frustrations with the radical environmentalists to boil over into inappropriate or ill written comments on the article.
Gaia worship shrouded in scientific language and neo-paganism are intruding into UN initiatives, international treaties, and domestic legislation. Carbon taxes that attack American commerce yet turn a blind eye to China and India look to be in our future. Our children are constantly bombarded with pseudo scientific dribble about “saving the earth” and indoctrinated by things like “Captain Planet” cartoons.
Well, God bless you. I am sorry for offering more heat than light.
Sources:
Children’s environmentalism indoctrination
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5DF173BF930A35750C0A…
Global Warming myth prompting legislation
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/may/16/global-warming-myth/
Global Warming meetings cancelled because of snow
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15931.html
Visitor
Thu, 12/04/2008 - 20:41
A reply to Visitor:
Thanks for your comments! I agree that in some situations religion is the road that radical environmentalists try to take to push their agenda. I think this is sad! Some “religion” has fallen so far as not to recognize the true biblical motives behind Creation Care and use the cheap substitute of a “feel good cause” to justify their cations or motivate their congregants. This is a symptom that is not just limited to the realm of Creation Care. The OT and the NT are in continuity when they express that any action taken in the process of following God has to be motivated by our love and devotion to God. Not to ourselves or the causes that tickle our fancy.
Josh O. Carroll
Visitor
Fri, 12/05/2008 - 11:51
Dear Visitor and Josh:
I think both of you make some very excellent points. I understand where “visitor” is coming from on the Nature Worship thing. I am in my late 40’s and I grew up with some-hunting; lots of fishing; I was raised in the suburban city-scape but spent much time working on my uncle’s ranch and in rural parts. My parents were very good about taking our family on trips to National Parks and an almost-monthly camping trip. I grew up listening to John Denver (although rock was probably my music of choice.) I liked Denver as a person but, unless he had a side that I don’t know, I don’t think he ever trusted God or the gospel message. He, and his crowd, seemed to worship nature. I know there are a lot more formal groups of nature worshippers but I am just telling you my story.
At my age, I am conservative. I believe God’s Word is His Word and can not be changed. I have been somewhat involved in politics, again, as a conservative.
What has amazed me over the past 20 years is why political conservatives can be so conservative about everything except CONSERVING our environment. Don’t the very words “conservatives” and “CONSERVING” come from the same root word? I love God’s creation and, I realize, we are doing much to destroy it. For many “conservatives” it seems that are only against conservation because most liberals are for it. In the meantime, our National Parks are being destroyed, the South American Rain Forest is being dessimated and, yes, our polar caps are shrinking. My gosh…the Rio Grande no longer runs into the Gulf of Mexico. Conservatives are turning a blind eye to reality…which is not smart at all. Above ALL things, conservatives and, especially, the “Christian Right”, should be interested in the truth…the TRUTH. We should never allow our talking heads to shade the TRUTH.
What Josh is proposing here is a very good compromise and I think very biblical. This is not MY world..OUR world…God is only given us temporary custody of it to cultivate and caretake for the next generation…just has He has only given me temporary custody of my children…my home…my job…I think this situation is very parallel to Christ’s parable about the talents…one day Christ will ask us what we have done with those things for which he has given us custody.
We do not need to WORSHIP nature…we Worship God and we can worship Him through our thankfulness of the beautiful creation he has given us. We Conservatives would do well in doing just that while at the same time moving cautiously through the maze of rhetoric on both sides of the issue.
Jeff Work
Houston, Texas
Visitor
Wed, 12/10/2008 - 10:16
Here are some interesting links that touch on this subject. They are from the U.S. Senate Committee on Envronment and Public Works blog [note the “.gov” in the address] which I would take to be a reasonable source of information.
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UN Blowback: More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims
Study: Half of warming due to Sun! –Sea Levels Fail to Rise? - Warming Fears in ‘Dustbin of History’
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&Content…
Teaser Quote: “I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.
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UN Data shows ‘Warming has Stopped!’ – Climate Fears Called ‘Hogwash’ – ‘Global Carbon Tax’ Urged
Aussie Scientist Says ‘No relationship between CO2 and temperature’
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&Content…
Teaser Quote: “Since Kyoto, a very funny thing has happened to global temperatures: IPCC data clearly show that warming has stopped—even though its computer models said such a thing could not happen. According to the IPCC, the world reached its high-temperature mark in 1998, thanks to a big “El Niño,” which is a temporary warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean that occurs once or twice a decade. […] Even if the earth resumes warming at the pre-1998 rate, we will have nearly a quarter-century without a significant warming trend.”
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I hope folks find these articles informative.
Visitor
Thu, 01/08/2009 - 16:34
Satan must be having a good laugh at the latest distraction for God’s people. We are called to proclaim the Gospel yet we want to proclaim and import politics, self-help, or the latest cultural movement into the church in order to soften the critics of the Gospel and the church. I wonder how concerned the persecuted church is with global warming? It seems to me that they have their focus on God’s mandate to proclaim Christ crucified and be reconciled to God while we try to cozy up to the culture and watch the snowball of Biblical illiteracy grow at an alarming rate while effectiveness of the church to influence our culture continues to shrink.
It’s time for the church in America to return to an emphasis on red, the blood of Christ, instead of how to become green. Our citizenship is not of this world. We need to stop acting as ambassadors of this world and begin acting as ambassadors of the Sovereign and His message of reconciliation to God.
Dave Barr
Madera, CA
Visitor
Sun, 01/11/2009 - 21:49
A response to Dave from Madera, Ca:
To Dave:
You make some excellent points my friend! I believe you are right when you say that Satan is out there to distract the people of God from the real issue. His strategy has not changed since the beginning of time and yet it still proves to be effective in today’s world. I am also saddened by the rampant cases of Biblical illiteracy; that is one of the reasons I took part in the above interview!
I agree that the reconciling blood of Jesus Christ should be central in our theology. It not only cleanses us from our individual sins and brings us back into relationship with God; it also brings us together as Christians into community with each other through the power of the Holy Spirit. The early church was quick to realize this and they made every effort to commune together in remembrance of His blood that was spilt and they keep the blood of Christ central in their theology.
In the same manner (as I am sure that you already know) an essential part of their communion together was to read scripture out loud and soak in the wonders of God’s plan for human kind. Not just bits and pieces of the story but the whole narrative: Creation, Life, the Fall, and God’s covenantal provision in a cursed world that included the prophecies and promises leading to Redemption and Reconciliation. I wish I could have been there to hear the Disciples first person accounts of the life and teaching of our Savior, the passion in their voices as they described the details of His trial, crucifixion and resurrection. I praise God that He has ordained some of these eyewitness accounts to survive the millenniums and be accessible to someone like me.
I also thank God for His calling of the Apostle Paul and the letters of instruction that he authored through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In fact you were probably thinking of some of my favorite verses in Colossians as you shared your passion for the centrality of the blood of Christ in our theological mindset.
In 1:15-20 Paul describes who Jesus is and what He has done. Everything was created through Him and for Him, these things He has created He also sustains. All of these things He reconciles to Himself by His blood. I don’t know about you but that inspires me to worship Him!
So if our earth was created by Him and for Him, can we truly honor what the shedding of His blood accomplished, is accomplishing, and will accomplish if we do not take proactive steps as we care for His creation? If we look at God’s original intent for creation (Gen 1) we discover that it was purposed as a place for man to dwell and thrive. Man screwed that up, yet Christ reconciles and restores its original purpose through His Blood. To not do so would diminish its importance.
My intent on writing this is not to increase awareness about Global Warming, inspire people to recycle, or cause division between Christians. Rather, I want people to have and live out a Biblical understanding about God’s creation. I believe that this includes proactive steps of Creation Care (read above article to find out more about these steps).
It’s easy to blame culture and spout simple statements about profound theological principles, then retreat into our uninviting sanctuaries with the euphoric feeling that we have been a witness for Christ and a defender of the faith. While I am not accusing you (Dave) of this, I would hold that the greater problem lies in the selective and disjointed theological stances of our churches today.
I believe that God brings issues and instances into culture that are answered in scripture. In order to properly act as ambassadors for Christ, we must first know whom we are representing Him to and what issues are on their hearts. I would hope the American Ambassador to the U.K.(if reassigned) would approach the people and issues of Darfur differently than discussing politics over tea and crumpets!
Thank you Dave for you heart and passion to share about the blood of Jesus Christ to this generation. I pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to you the methodology and venue where you can be a most effective Ambassador.
Josh O. Carroll
Visitor
Tue, 01/13/2009 - 21:01
Josh
Thank you for responding to my post. I have responded to similar blogs and posting but you are the first to respond. Perhaps they think I am a simpleton theologian who spouts off to make himself feel good. So I thank you for the disclaimer that you are not accusing me of making simple statements for my own self fulfilling euphoria. I agree that Jesus work on the cross will reconcile all things to our Savior whether things on earth or in heaven. Are you attributing the process of sanctification, in which followers of Christ are being conformed into the image of God, which was damaged as a result of the Fall and will be completed when our glorification is complete, to creation also?
What gets my blood boiling, as you probably detected from my original post,is this new theology of Creation Care or as I affectionattely call it theology of ecology is being pushed at all. The controversy of Creation Care is not a selective and disjointed theological stance. Rather it is a non essential peripheral issue that can be argued implicitly from Scripture but not explicitly. It is like the tongues controversy or rapture controversy which is why I think it is a distraction.
I do believe that mankind is the pinnacle of God’s creation which is why we were given the responsibility to subdue and rule over creation. As such our highest priority is that God be glorified. So yes let’s be good stewards but beware of taking it too far and turning it into a call for becoming green or try to develop a theological position. It could be taken a step farther where we scold Christians for killing ants and flies in the kitchen. After all they also part of God’s creation which He sustains and is reconciling to Himself.
I agree with your exhoration with regard to being an ambassador in different cultures. If I am living in an area where this is a big issue, I will for example become a recycler (which I am doing)in order to create a bridge to share the more important matter of man being reconciled to God. However, I will have no problem leaving a huge carbon footprint of traveling by car, plane, boat, bus and even cutting a path through the rainforest to take the Gospel to an unreached people group.
I appreciate the fact that you have given more thorough attention to this than others whom I have read but I am still not convinced of the necessity of an encompassing theological stance in this area. May God use you in your area of ministry to proclaim the Good News and bless you with the joy of seeing the fruits of your labor as people place their faith in our Savior.
Dave, Madera
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