Saving God's Green Earth

I was asked to write a book review for the church newsletter to help take up space. Here's what I wrote. I hope I don't get a lot of negative comments about what I wrote at church. I can just hear myself being labeled a liberal tree-hugger...

Growing up I never thought of myself as an environmentalist. Perhaps that was due in part to growing up in a family that didn’t recycle because we were too cheap to pay for garbage pickup. Instead we would dump the trash in my grandparents dumpster or more recently my parents dump the garbage in their church dumpster. (It’s a job perk for my mom because she is the church secretary). Anyway, after I became an “official adult” and got my own place I began to realize the importance of creation care. How could I justify throwing out cardboard boxes that could be recycled? I began keeping everything that was reusable and taking it to the local recycling center, but that was only the beginning of my passion for environmental stewardship. Now I reflect on every action and every purchase – is what I am about to do good for creation or detrimental?

Unfortunately, environmental stewardship has gotten a bad rap recently and is considered something that only tree-hugging people do. Yet, there is a large movement within the evangelical church to bring creation care back to the forefront. This overwhelming desire by churches and individuals to take full responsibility for the world God has given us is the premise of Tri Robinson’s book Saving God’s Green Earth. Robinson is the founding pastor of the Vineyard Boise Church in Idaho and has led his congregation in making creation care an outreach tool.

One of the big projects Robinson’s congregation began was a canvas bag movement in their community. Members of his congregation carried the canvas totes around town to do their shopping in so they wouldn’t have to use plastic or paper bags. The bags generated a lot of talk as people wondered where everyone was getting the cool bags. As Robinson notes in his book, “Before you can say ‘paper or plastic,’ the questions start coming. Suddenly an unsuspecting grocery shopper is arrested by the thought that a church in their city just might actually care about God’s creation as much as the shopper does.” Creation care at became an outreach tool to strike up conversations with the community.

Robinson gives other ideas in his book about ways a church can engage in environmental protection. Establishing recycling stations for cans and paper products at church events is one idea. Another is recycling cell phones and other electronics (an idea our church is already doing). Robinson’s book offers countless suggestions with simple, practical ways to make creation care a part of the church’s life.

Too often today we know next to nothing about the world we live in. Beyond our day-to-day activities our knowledge of how the world functions in minimal. Environmental stewardship is pushed to a dusty corner of our mind or not thought about at all. Instead of forgetting about it, let’s consider it another spiritual discipline we should practice just like we practice prayer, read our Bible and share our faith. Let’s put God’s world first because as Christians we should lead the way in protecting the place He has given us to call home.

For more ideas about how to engage in creation care visit Robinson’s website www.savinggodsgreenearth.com