The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Autor: David Boston Kamchacha
Data: 05.03.2010
Category: Meio Ambiente
I usually marvel at what God did after the whole creation and after He said it was good. He entrusted the whole creation to man and He said “Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”, (this include micro organisms that we do not see and plants). The church is supposed to champion environmental and creation care as it can be able to appreciate the goodness of the Lord much better than those outside the church. The creation declares his glory and gives us an endless list to say God thank you.
Does the creation declares the glory of God?
Through the creation and the environment around us, we see the glory of God; God speaks to us through the wonders of the universe. Psalm 19:1-4: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." Psalm 96:1, 11-12: "Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth . . . Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy."
The Psalmist had the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of God and understood how the universe declares His glory and had a lot to express in his praise and thankfulness to the Lord. Unfortunately today we even run out of issues to thank God for because we do not appreciate the environment and creation.
Paul wrote to the Romans, and made reference to the fact that the creation has made clear the wonders of God to man. Rom. 1: 20-23: "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." And in Rev. 4:11 it records "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Just by the verses quoted above, what are your thoughts on the question “should the church be concerned about the environment and Natural resources?”
Palavras-chave: environment, creation, care, Gods glory, revelation, concern
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Estados Unidos
How do we get the church to see that this is an issue? I have been trying to get my church to start recycling for a while, but they do not see that we are not being good stewards of our resources. To most church people they think money when it comes to being a good steward. How can we change that?
21.10.2010
Reino Unido
This is a great conversation to have - and right at the moment I have a number of concerns and it would be wonderful to get people’s views.
The first is that I suspect very little concerted Christian action will happen until we realise that by not caring for creation as we are commanded in Genesis - we are sinning. We are not demonstrating our love for our God or our neighbour.
Secondly, not a great deal will happen until we realise that the main cause of all our global ecological problems is that we are disobeying this command - and also that we are all- to a greater or lesser extent, falling into the trap the Rich Young Ruler of Luke 12 fell into - our consumerist greed. We, esepecially in the rich west have deluded oursleves into thinking that our lifestyles are what God wants for us, and until we get rid of that delusion we shall be stuck!
The third issue is to have a distinctive Christian approach to how to behave towards God’s creation. Currently most of seem to think that it’s ok to over consume and over polute as long as we clean it up afterwards and dotn harm anyone in the processs. I beleive that God has a much greater vision for his creation. I have been improess by the growing body of non Christian thinking on structuring our economy and society on ecosystem principles. Hopefully I can write more about this later but here are a few immediate thoughts. Our current society accepts waste. We dont challenge it often. God created nature to work differently. There is no waste at all in an ecosystem - or if it is waste then it is really food for another part of the system. This would really honour God, if we could create a society with no waste! This would be my first principle of Christian ecological care - no waste - ever - at all.
04.07.2010
Estados Unidos
Apologies, David - I did not realize that my organization account would not give my name! I wrote the comment just below this one... !
Ed Brown, Madison WI USA (Director of Care of Creation)
26.03.2010
Malawi
@ Ed_Brown:
The headlines today is investment in climate change adaptation, mitigation
Issues relating to climate change, biodiversity destruction, natural resource extraction, gender, conflicts, social and environmental justice have caught up with us and become too important to be ignored. Its negative impact on people’s livelihood cannot be ignored. Billions of dollars are being spent on conferences and workshops to find solution to this problem. The high temperatures and phenomenal weather changes, frequent flash flooding around the globe that we are experiencing have turned what was previously regarded as abstract global issues into real life experiences. In Malawi, 30 to 40 years ago one would predict when the rains would start prepare the field plant and we would know that by 15 October we have the first rains. We had only two districts out of the 28 districts that were labelled disaster prone districts. But today 15 out of the 28 are disaster prone district. When one takes stocks and look at what has happened, you would see conspicuously the environmental degradation, deforestation, and the beautiful river banks that have been vandalised causing the rivers to floods.
Whose problem is it then? Whose responsibility is it then? Should I care for it? Why not concentrate on the preaching of the gospel for people to focus on heaven bond. But wait a minute, God reminds us in Leviticus 25:23-24- that “The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession you must provide for the redemption of the land”. Also remember the parable of the vine yard? The tenant needed to take care of the vineyard. The holistic ministry of our Lord Jesus clearly demonstrate God’s relationship with the creation, Gods relationship with Man and Mans relationship with the creation. We see how David in Psalms has given God all the praise for the creation and how he would see God in it. The first command God gave to Man was to take care of the creation.
I am convinced that the church has the answer to the problem which the world is facing and spending time and conferences to search for solution. Can we stand up and proclaim and demonstrate that responsibility?
The Lord Jesus Christ’s examples demonstrate the need to use the gospel to meet the spiritual and material needs of humanity. The Holistic Ministry does not distinguish between spirituality which draws Christians to the saving relationship with Christ and the “Social Ministry” which involves social actions by Christians to give practical meaning to the love and care for God’s creation. I would like to believe and agree that the Holistic Ministry is the belief in one gospel which brings salvation in its fullest sense including salvation from sin, hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, human rights abuses etc. Remember that the whole creation is groaning waiting for its salvation. The grave social, economic and environmental problems facing the world show that human beings have violated the laws of nature with impunity and woefully failed to protect God’s creation. Greedy consumption patterns have goaded us to abuse nature. We have not exercised responsible management of God’s creation. My pastor once said we are now struggling to find honey because we have destroyed the forest where bees will produce honey and he went to say no wonder we have all these diseases and sickness. Unfortunately, we seem not to be learning any useful lessons that the problems confronting the world had resulted from the mistake in not considering the environment as the basis for the survival of humanity but had placed economic and financial considerations above environment issues. We are destroying the basis of our lives for a pittance and not taking counsel from the Biblical statement that it is unprofitable to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul. The misplaced priorities have been exacerbated by the fact that politicians have been voted to power not on the basis of how they would protect our already destroyed environment but by their development programmes whether these so-called development programmes would worsen environmental destruction or not. In the end, we have not had development in its true sense but for certain, we have ended up exacerbating environmental destruction. How much money has been spent in developing world in the name of environmental management and development? What is the impact? Unless we address the underlying causes we can not in any case reverse the trend.
In Luke 13 Jesus said except you repent you shall likewise perish. I have attended 4 COPs at the UNFCCC but what is discussed are the same things over and over again. Things are getting worse by the day, can the church stand up?
11.06.2010
Estados Unidos
David, thank you for starting this conversation. This is quite possibly one of the most important conversations that could take place within the context of Lausanne and within the church at large.
It is important for us to realize that *outside the church* the future of creation (the environment) is perhaps the greatest concern for the human race. So many problems the world faces (poverty, health, justice, political turmoil) arise from and contribute to the environmental crisis. But inside the church we are lucky to find anyone even discussing this, and then we do so with great hesitation, as if to be sure that no one accuses us of worshiping the creation. How many Christians do you think fail to wash their cars because they are afraid they will be accused of worshiping them? (though many probably do! - but that is another topic!)
To your verses quoted above I would add Colossians 1:15-20 where Paul tells us very clearly that a)Jesus is the agent of creation - the One who made it; b)Jesus is the sustainer of creation - he holds it together; c)Jesus is the purpose of creation - "all things were made by him and for him"; and d)Jesus is the REDEEMER of ALL CREATION - God was "pleased...to reconcile to himself all things, whether things in heaven or things on earth, by making peace through is blood shed on the cross."
This is why I began this note by saying this is possibly the most important conversation to take place within Lausanne and within the church - the Colossians passage (added to Romans 8 and others) strongly suggests that God’s aim in redemption is far greater than simply human salvation - he intends, through saving us by the gospel of Jesus Christ, to redeem all of non-human creation as well.
If this is God’s purpose, might it be ours as well?
I have written much on this topic - "Our Father’s World" - IVP 2008 - available on my organization’s website - and a number of articles on the web, including this one from the last Urbana:
http://www.urbana.org/articles/green-mission
and an older article here
http://www.urbana.org/articles/missions-and-creation-care
Looking forward to the conversation!
26.03.2010
Malawi
@ Care_of_Creation:
Thank you so much fo ryour comments I am thrilled and give God all the Glory. the church need to stand up and Look back to its responsibility. I want to add to the converstaion with todays most taked agenda and millions are being spent on workshops and conferences looking for solution.
The headlines today is investment in climate change adaptation, mitigation
Issues relating to climate change, biodiversity destruction, natural resource extraction, gender, conflicts, social and environmental justice have caught up with us and become too important to be ignored. Its negative impact on people’s livelihood cannot be ignored. Billions of dollars are being spent on conferences and workshops to find solution to this problem. The high temperatures and phenomenal weather changes, frequent flash flooding around the globe that we are experiencing have turned what was previously regarded as abstract global issues into real life experiences. In Malawi, 30 to 40 years ago one would predict when the rains would start prepare the field plant and we would know that by 15 October we have the first rains. We had only two districts out of the 28 districts that were labelled disaster prone districts. But today 15 out of the 28 are disaster prone district. When one takes stocks and look at what has happened, you would see conspicuously the environmental degradation, deforestation, and the beautiful river banks that have been vandalised causing the rivers to floods.
Whose problem is it then? Whose responsibility is it then? Should I care for it? Why not concentrate on the preaching of the gospel for people to focus on heaven bond. But wait a minute, God reminds us in Leviticus 25:23-24- that “The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession you must provide for the redemption of the land”. Also remember the parable of the vine yard? The tenant needed to take care of the vineyard. The holistic ministry of our Lord Jesus clearly demonstrate God’s relationship with the creation, Gods relationship with Man and Mans relationship with the creation. We see how David in Psalms has given God all the praise for the creation and how he would see God in it. The first command God gave to Man was to take care of the creation.
I am convinced that the church has the answer to the problem which the world is facing and spending time and conferences to search for solution. Can we stand up and proclaim and demonstrate that responsibility?
The Lord Jesus Christ’s examples demonstrate the need to use the gospel to meet the spiritual and material needs of humanity. The Holistic Ministry does not distinguish between spirituality which draws Christians to the saving relationship with Christ and the “Social Ministry” which involves social actions by Christians to give practical meaning to the love and care for God’s creation. I would like to believe and agree that the Holistic Ministry is the belief in one gospel which brings salvation in its fullest sense including salvation from sin, hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, human rights abuses etc. Remember that the whole creation is groaning waiting for its salvation. The grave social, economic and environmental problems facing the world show that human beings have violated the laws of nature with impunity and woefully failed to protect God’s creation. Greedy consumption patterns have goaded us to abuse nature. We have not exercised responsible management of God’s creation. My pastor once said we are now struggling to find honey because we have destroyed the forest where bees will produce honey and he went to say no wonder we have all these diseases and sickness. Unfortunately, we seem not to be learning any useful lessons that the problems confronting the world had resulted from the mistake in not considering the environment as the basis for the survival of humanity but had placed economic and financial considerations above environment issues. We are destroying the basis of our lives for a pittance and not taking counsel from the Biblical statement that it is unprofitable to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul. The misplaced priorities have been exacerbated by the fact that politicians have been voted to power not on the basis of how they would protect our already destroyed environment but by their development programmes whether these so-called development programmes would worsen environmental destruction or not. In the end, we have not had development in its true sense but for certain, we have ended up exacerbating environmental destruction. How much money has been spent in developing world in the name of environmental management and development? What is the impact? Unless we address the underlying causes we can not in any case reverse the trend.
In Luke 13 Jesus said except you repent you shall likewise perish. I have attended 4 COPs at the UNFCCC but what is discussed are the same things over and over again. Things are getting worse by the day, can the church stand up?
11.06.2010
Estados Unidos
The church should be concerned and actively involved in discovering a Biblical theology of creation and the environment. This theology doesn’t need to be created, it’s already there in the pages of Scripture. From God’s original charge to man and woman before the fall to cultivate and keep the garden to His promise of "reconciling all things to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven" (Col 1:20).
I think we shy away from this topic because we don’t want to be accused of worshiping the creation rather than the creator. To truly love the creator, it should follow that we truly love what He has created.
This is a good conversation that needs to happen.
17.03.2010
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