An Evangelical Church Discovers Creation Care

Fellowship Church
Knoxville, TN
Evangelical Free Church of America

Lyndsay Moseley wasn’t sure what lay in her future when she returned home to Knoxville, Tennessee, after graduating from college with a major in public policy. Like many recent graduates, she had no immediate job or position awaiting her and was uncertain about her next step. Within a few short months though, a series of opportunities arose that not only directed her attention, but launched her upon a personal and spiritual path that would effect much more than her own career.

In the same week that Moseley enrolled in a Master’s program in Public Administration at the University of Tennessee, she applied and was hired for a research position documenting religious environmental activism in Appalachia under the direction of Dr. David Feldman. Though a long-time Christian, Moseley hadn’t previously considered the relation of her faith to environmental issues, and was further unfamiliar with what those issues were. Undaunted, she dived into her research with a hunger for theological study, and soon became acquainted with the works of diverse scholars of ecology, theology and environmental policy. She studied and interviewed local groups of religious activists and slowly came to see a transformation in her own faith, leading to a deep passion for creation care as a core part of her Christian identity, not an “extra” that churches could choose whether or not to pursue. Convincing the members of Moseley’s own large evangelical church, though, proved to be a tougher task.

When Moseley first approached her fellow congregants, most were unenthusiastic or skeptical, unsure that the environment was a fitting issue for Christians. There was a dearth of sermons or literature on the topic, and a general uneasiness or hostility towards environmentalism. Moseley did find some kindred spirits however, in a couple at the church who’d worked in science and environmental education, and a church elder receptive to creation-care ideas who incorporated them into his Sunday classes.

After eight months of these quiet efforts to raise awareness on the issue, the church pastor delivered a Palm Sunday sermon that cautiously broached the topic of stewardship as a Christian duty: a moment that struck Moseley as the convergence of her academic work and her spiritual community.

Following the sermon, two more church members were inspired to join Moseley and her fellows in their efforts to promote a faith-based environmental movement, and together the group decided to teach a class on Christianity and the environment: a first for the congregation. (An additional first for the church -- traditionally conservative in its conception of gender roles, women had never led mixed-gender groups or served in any position of spiritual leadership over men -- was the inclusion of Moseley in the teaching team.)