Creation Care: A Journey of Discovery

“In the darkness, something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing … There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it.” So begins the creation account of Narnia in C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew. 

In this beloved fantasy series, Lewis evokes the wonder of creation that reflects the biblical narrative in Genesis. It resonates with my experience of God’s creation, and I suspect, yours as well. Perhaps you marveled at the stars as a child with an unfettered imagination. Or maybe in a moment of spiritual or emotional exhaustion, you walked in the woods, breathed air damp with life, and discovered that, in turn, the Spirit of God breathed hope into you. Such is the beauty of creation that generates the biblical refrain, “And God saw that it was good.”

Instead of belittling those who question climate change or policy solutions, I want to offer an intellectual hospitality that invites others on a journey of mutual discovery.

Yet, tragically, for many around the world, creation is not an unbearable beauty. It is simply unbearable. While the changing environment impacts all of us, a disproportionate devastation falls upon the most defenseless. The beach is not about sunscreen and bodysurfing but is a daily reminder that climate change is imminent and existential. As noted in a recently updated report on climate change from the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), coastal homes are threatened by rising tides in Alaska; increased patterns of flooding are becoming cyclical catastrophes in Vietnam; in so many other regions of the world, deforestation and warming trends are undermining biodiversity with alarming consequences for food supplies.[1]

A Longer Hunger Season

During a recent trip to Malawi—a country on a tenuous journey of development—I was told by a farmer that “the hunger season is longer, and we are deeply concerned.” He explained that a decade-long change in the rainy season has diminished the quality of crops and extended the time between harvests. This situation is not a personal inconvenience or an economic disappointment; it is a threat to health and subsistence in a nation of 22 million. Increasingly scarce natural resources fuel conflicts, exacerbating a massive displacement crisis in Africa and endangering precious human lives.

Getting Past Impasse

Addressing the impacts of climate change demands not just a public response, but a uniquely Christian one as well. In 1970, the NAE passed a resolution that stated, “Beyond the scientific, biological and political ramifications of our environment problem is a basically theological and religious issue.” As a call to action, the resolution included a pledge “to support every legitimate effort to maintain balance in ecology, preservation of our resources, and avoidance of the cluttering of our natural beauty with the waste of our society.”[2]

For most evangelical Christians who reside or serve in Africa, Latin America, or Asia, these ecological efforts are neither new nor controversial. Many Christian organizations addressing global poverty include creation care as a part of their work: distributing solar-powered stoves, planting drought-tolerant crops, or reforesting land to stabilize soil and purify air quality.

Bunkers of Ideology

Christians here in the USA have much to learn from our global brothers and sisters. Skepticism about climate change within some American faith communities and our country’s lack of a shared and sustained vision have contributed to an impasse. How can church leaders respond to this critical moment?

It is tempting to respond with outrage or to take refuge in the bunkers of our ideological kin. As a faith leader seeking to build bridges and to persuade, not bludgeon, others, I eschew the rhetoric of reproach. Instead of belittling those who question climate change or policy solutions, I want to offer an intellectual hospitality that invites others on a journey of mutual discovery. This is not a straight road with just one on-ramp. The changing climate, as a multifaceted, complex phenomenon, has many entry points of access.

What does that journey entail?

In his epistle, the apostle James has a lot of stern things to say about justice. But before he confronts the issues, he provides a framework of conversation: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (James 1:19). As we listen carefully to others and refrain from blurting out a finely crafted rebuttal, we often discover some common ground for common good around which we can display an uncommon grace. For example, evangelicals share with others a profound concern for children. One point of access for them would be the reduction of air pollution, which creates health problems for the developing lungs of children (both born and unborn), even accounting for nearly 20 percent of newborn deaths worldwide.[3] Climate change is a pro-life matter that viscerally resonates with the hearts of the evangelical community.

The Biblical Case

It is also a matter for robust reflection on what it truly means to respect the message of Scripture. If creation care is fundamentally a theological and religious issue, then serious thought must be given to the biblical case for why our worship of God must include a profound respect for God’s handiwork. Before the psalmist exhorts the worshiper to have “clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:4), he begins with the premise that “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). We are not the owners of creation; we are its stewards, summoned by God to “work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). 

Indeed, God’s redemptive purposes are so grand that even “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Human salvation and the renewal of creation are inextricably linked in a manner that challenges the ancient gnostic separation of body and soul and the modern separation between the spiritual and secular. 

Careful Cultivation

Lastly, the journey of discovery must engage heart, head, and hands. Most of us learn by experience. Long before we can read Augustine on love or debate Aristotle on civic virtue, we learn to love by being loved in our family, and we learn civility by navigating the politics of playgrounds. Experiences form our empathies, and those empathies become tools by which we construct our approach to the world.

Moral formation integrates theology and ethics into practical activities. So, in Deuteronomy, a daily walk provides a useful lesson on ecology: “If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young” (Deuteronomy 22:6, NIV). This ready-made roadside meal became a teachable moment. Allowing the mother to live ensures the possibility of the species to reproduce and survive, thereby fulfilling the responsibility to be stewards of creation. 

An evangelical church in Ohio—Vineyard Columbus—provides a modern case study of Deuteronomy’s approach of teaching theological and ethical lessons in the classroom of life. The church hosts small-group book readings on creation care and connects those reflections to purchasing energy- and water-efficient goods. Church property includes a sustainable community garden, which in turn helps to supply the church’s food pantry to serve their neighbors.

Examples like Vineyard Columbus remind us that faithful care of creation involves both conviction and cultivation. Yet such practical expressions raise an important question about how we speak into our cultural moment. Is there a role for prophetic denunciations regarding the treatment of the planet? Of course. But we live in a time of algorithmically assisted social media cultural warriors. Denunciations abound. The stewardship of creation requires careful cultivation. So do the people who occupy this good earth.

Walter Kim is president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He previously served as a pastor at Boston’s historic Park Street Church and at churches in Vancouver and in Charlottesville, Va., as well as a campus chaplain at Yale University. He preaches, writes, and collaborates to connect the Bible to the intellectual and cultural issues of the day. He serves on the boards of Christianity Today and World Relief. He earned a B.A. from Northwestern University, an M.Div. from Regent College in Vancouver, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.