Ben Lowe is the author of Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation (IVP 2009) and a co-coordinator for Renewal, a grassroots network committed to equipping students in the compassionate stewardship of all of God’s creation. Off the Agenda’s Rachel Willoughby spoke with Ben about his work with the creation care movement and ways that churches can be involved. For more creation care ideas, check out this week’s new resource, Growing a Green Church.
What advice do you have for pastors who want to lead their congregations to take better care of the earth?
I would say, “Be encouraged.” I just came back from Flourish, a first-of-its-kind conference for church leaders on creation care. It was an inspiring and challenging few days. The pastors who attended are really trying to make a difference, but they’re all at different stages of the journey with their churches. So, if you’re trying to lead a congregation to care for the environment, you should know that there are others out there trying, too. You’re not alone.
But more practically, I would recommend two things from my unique perspective as a young person. The first is preaching. I’m a missionary kid. I grew up as a Christian in a conservative family, but it wasn’t until my freshman year of college that I first heard a sermon on why we should care for creation. Pastors can take a huge first step by studying what the Bible has to say about creation care and presenting it to their congregations, similar to what Tri Robinson did at his church, Vineyard Boise in Idaho.
The second thing is young people. From a young person’s standpoint, we do a lot of teaching in Sunday school, trying to keep them quiet enough not to disturb the adult Sunday school class next door. What if instead of always teaching young people, we found ways that they could learn about God by doing things outdoors? This is a generation we’re struggling to keep in the church, and it’s also a generation that’s increasingly living in front of a screen and not in creation itself. Let’s get them out into creation to experience God there, to experience what he’s doing and the beauty that reflects him. Let’s teach young people to work to bring more beauty out of creation and to care for people by taking care of the land that they depend on. In fact, I think that they can become the tipping point for the whole church to move from awareness to action. That’s where the energy and passion is, and young people are less afraid to fail. Once they get out there, that will encourage others to get out there as well.
Do you find that many churches are partnering with community organizations to take care of their communities?
We have seen churches partnering with local community organizations that may or may not profess a Christian faith themselves. Again, Tri Robinson’s church comes to mind. They’ve been working with several groups to clear trails and do other really neat activities.
And as you’re working alongside unbelievers who also care about the earth, there are probably chances for friendships to grow.
Absolutely. One of the distinctives that we bring to caring for the environment is a difference in attitude and outlook. What we’ve found is that there’s a lot of anger and frustration and despair among people outside of the church who care for the environment. If you look at environmental problems from a scientific perspective or a political perspective or from whatever perspective apart from Christianity, there isn’t a whole lot of hope. We bring a different perspective. We do this out of love, and we have a hope that’s grounded in the ultimate reality that God is in control and in light of what we read in Revelation 22 about what God will achieve. So we work joyfully, and that’s a difference that catches people’s attention. I’ve gotten great questions like “Why do you care about the environment and how can you be so hopeful?” that really do open up doors for conversations with people who otherwise wouldn’t think about stepping into a church.
Your book lists some pretty grim statistics about the state of the environment. How do you motivate individuals to change when it seems like such an unchangeable problem?
When we talk about caring for creation and what’s going on in the world today, we’re talking about one piece in the big problem of the fallenness of humanity and what Christ is doing to reconcile all things to himself. This gives us an opportunity, as part of creation, to take a step back and realize that we’re small compared to God. He’s the one that will ultimately be successful and bring his kingdom, and it’s not all of our striving that’s going to do it. We’re called to be faithful, not necessarily successful.
Matthew Sleeth puts it well in the afterword of the book. He says that if you look in the mirror, you see the person who, in many ways, is to blame for what’s going wrong. But at the same time, you also see the hero, the person who can make a difference and can bring some good change. We need to see the ways that we, in our own lives, can contribute to being less of the problem and more of the solution.
That doesn’t mean we don’t often get overwhelmed by the magnitude of what needs to be done or even the magnitude of what we think we might be able to do if we try our hardest. But it’s a journey, this life of faith, and we’re all called to be moving in the right direction and taking the next step. So that’s what I’d really encourage people to do–to look at their lives and ask, “What is the next step that I can take to become a) less of the problem and b) more of the solution?” And then when you take that step, ask yourself the question again and keep asking it until the next step leads you to be standing before God himself. And that’s when we hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, now enter into my rest.”
To hear Ben talk more about his book, The Green Revolution, check out the video below.
