Creation Care Event Billed as Largest for Christians

Hope for Creation, being held on the eve of
the 40th observance of Earth Day, will be simulcast from Northland, A Church Distributed, a Florida congregation
led by the Rev. Joel Hunter. Participants
from as far as India, Thailand and Russia, will join in online, and many
pastors will air the simulcast at their churches.

Photo: Dr. Matthew Sleeth will lead the Hope for Creation simulcast Wednesday.

“This is an effort to recast the environmental movement
into its proper perspective-as a biblical issue that Christians should care
about,” explains Hunter, Northland’s senior pastor. “I believe the church
should be leading the conversation, and this event will give us all the chance
to do just that.”

The event is
spearheaded by Dr. Matthew Sleeth of
Wilmore, Ky., an ER physician who quit medicine to preach on environmental
stewardship. Sleeth, founder of Blessed Earth and author of Serve
God and Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action, will host a live, interactive town hall conversation with
audiences.

“Environmentalism is the only activity we can
carry out where we worship God all the time,” Sleeth said. “When you begin to
live more humbly, or meekly as Christ would put it, you begin to grow as a
spiritual human being.”

The simulcast event
comes as observers say churchgoers’ views about environmental issues are
changing, though the validity of climate change remains controversial.

Today three-quarters of Christians believe churchgoers
should be more active in caring for the environment, according to research by
The Barna Group. Among evangelicals the number is 90 percent. In addition to
reducing electricity use and fossil-fuel consumption, more Christians are
touting the benefits of simple living as a way to combat rampant consumerism.

“Over the last five
years what I’ve seen is that people who are biblically based have actually gone
to the Bible to see what it has to say,” said Sleeth, whose Blessed Earth nonprofit is dedicated to spreading
environmentalism among churches. “It’s
always been important since Genesis 2:15, where God puts Adam and Eve in the
garden and says to tend and protect it. But I think in recent history there’s
been too much politics around taking care of our environment.”

Christians’ evolution on
the environment mirrors a broader change among evangelicals, who today are more
apt to address social justice issues as they advocate for the sanctity of life
and traditional marriage. Charismatic pastor Tri Robinson said seven years ago
when he wrote Saving God’s Green Earth: Rediscovering the Church’s
Responsibility to Environmental Stewardship, churches rarely discussed “creation
care.”

“One of our goals was to
really change the worldview of the evangelical church on the subject,” said
Robinson, senior pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Boise, Idaho.
“It took a while, but it’s really starting to grow now. People are making the
connection between biblical truth and the value of creation care, and they
weren’t making that seven years ago. There was this idea if you were
pro-environment you were probably pro-choice.”

Climate change remains a
volatile issue, though, with only 27 percent of evangelicals convinced global
warming is real, according to Barna. In 2007 the Rev. Jerry Falwell said global
warming is “Satan’s attempt” to distract churches from fighting abortion and
gay marriage. Since his death, leading evangelicals such as James Dobson have
continued to challenge popular claims about climate change.

But unlike with abortion and gay marriage, opinions vary
on the environment. In 2006 a group of religious activists led by Richard
Cizik, then a vice president with the National Association of Evangelicals,
penned a green manifesto calling Christians to action on climate change. The
same year the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution urging better
care of God’s creation.

Even Christians who support creation care prefer to step
away from left-leaning environmentalists. Sleeth emphasizes that unlike Al Gore
he is nonpolitical and says the Hope for Creation event will not address global
warming. His group is partnering on the event with Asbury Theological Seminary
and Zondervan, the evangelical publisher of Sleeth’s book.