In The Beginning: Creation Appreciation #12

This is the final post in this series, as we finished up our class last Sunday. If you're joining the conversation late, or if you'd like a thorough review, check out all 12 posts.

We began this class session with a review of the first 6 weeks of the course, in which we laid the theological foundation to argue for Christians' concern for the environment. I'll skip most of that review since you can find it at the link for all 12 posts above.

In short, the end of Genesis 1 describes our relationship with the rest of creation. In this text the Creator tells man to "guard" the earth. If we accept this charge, then we must live in ways that guard or preserve the earth.

Our discussion then turned to some practices which we have employed in our lives that give us signs of hope. Class members offered instances of recycling, proper disposal of waste, water and energy conservation, and a greater awareness of sharing resources.

There was some concern that these life changes are too small to positively affect the enormity of the environmental problem. On the contrary, I submit that these are the habits in which we see signs of hope. It is by conserving water that we make a statement that we have love for our neighbors who may not have clean water. It is by turning off light switches in our homes that make the statement that we want to reduce pollution from our energy companies. Then on a larger scale, it is with our votes, our petitions of government, and our dollars that we sway public and private organizations to live gently and use resources fairly.

In these ways Christians can be responsible stewards of Creation and have an active voice in the ongoing conversation about environmental issues. As we wait for God's New Creation, we must work to preserve this Creation out of love for the Creator and out of love for one another.

I used several resources for this class. Here are the three primary books I used in addition to many journal articles and internet research.

Tony Campolo's "How To Rescue the Earth Without Worshiping Nature"


Steven Bouma-Prediger's "For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care"


Greg Johnson's "The World According to God: A Biblical View of Culture, Work, Science, Sex & Everything Else"