Missions and the Environment
Confessions of a 'Reluctant Environmentalist' page 1 of 4by Ed Brown, Au Sable Institute
"We in the West, though undoubtedly 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."
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. Beyond experiencing his guidance, I found myself being convinced by a couple of other things. My eyes were opened in ways they had not been before.
I discovered when I went back and looked again at most of the things I believed, and had believed for a long time, that these beliefs were completely consistent with an active concern for the environment. In fact, I discovered that 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, reluctantly admitting that I am an environmentalist. I want to explain these more, but before we go on, I would like to discuss a bit of terminology. I'm sure you understand what I 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.
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