This is an INTEREST GROUP PRESENTATION ABSTRACT; the paper will be presented at the Jamaica Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel in October, 2012.  Comments are welcomed!  View all abstracts.

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Evangelism, Integral Mission and Creation Care: A biblical approach to the theology of mission, putting both evangelism and creation care in the context of the Missio Dei and God’s call to humanity to participate in that mission. The presentation is a challenge to evangelicals to make a fundamental shift away from an unbiblically individualistic and dualistic understanding of mission, and to adopt a fully biblical paradigm where there is no separation between ‘spiritual’ and ‘material’, or between evangelism, social activism, and environmental concern but rather an integration of the creation and cultural mandate (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:15), the great commandment (Matthew 22:36-40), and the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15). This presentation will be developed from my essay Christian Mission and Environmental Issues: An Evangelical Reflection [Mission Studies 25 (2008) 1-16] where I take Bebbington’s definition of evangelicalism (Biblicism, Crucicentrism, Conversionism, Activism) and N. T. Wright’s summary of the great themes of scripture (creation, fall, Israel, Jesus, the present and future age) and argue that creation care is fundamental to the Gospel and to the mission of the Church. Use will also be made of two other pieces I have written on this subject: A Famine of Hope: Christian Mission & the search for a Sustainable Future, in Mission Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow [ed. Paul Mohan Raj, Theological Book Trust, Bangalore, India, 2009], and The Fifth Mark of Mission:  Ecological Concern from a Praxis Perspective in Mission in the Twenty-first Century [eds. Prof. Andrew Walls & Dr. Cathy Ross, Darton Longman & Todd, London, 2008].