Evangelical Education and Care for God's Creation

For evangelicals, caring for creation is part of the discipleship to which all Christians are called. To be good caretakers of creation requires knowledge of both God’s Word and God’s World. Awareness, appreciation and understanding, along with Bible study and a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ, form the basis for evangelical environmental stewardship:

• Awareness that cuts through the fog and clutter of our busy lives, bringing our minds and senses into contact with what God has made;
• Appreciation for the natural world as God’s creation, tasting and seeing God’s goodness in the earth and sky, and loving the creatures that live in them as God loves them; and
• Understanding of the ecological principles by which creation operates and how our own actions can work with the creation or against it.

Environmental education that honors the Creator and fosters a vocation of Christian stewardship is the mission of evangelical educational organizations such as:

• Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies, which offers programs in for schoolchildren, college students, and graduate students that integrate biblical stewardship principles with solid environmental science;
• Creation Care Study Program provides study abroad programs for Christian college students in Central America and the South Pacific;
  
  

• Marah International trains youth to be “Earth Healers” through environmental education, cross-cultural activities, and peacebuilding activities at its Creation Care Camp; and
• Target Earth has internships and study programs for college students at Jaguar Creek, its environmental center in the jungle of Belize.

But there are a variety of other evangelical educational settings in which faith in the Creator and love for the creation are nurtured in fruitful harmony:

• In church camp settings, such as Spruce Lake Outdoor School in Pennsylvania and Timber-lee Christian Center in Wisconsin, campers learn to know and enjoy God’s world first hand, from the lakes and woods and fields and the creatures that live in them; and
• In Bible study classes and Sunday school, adults and children learn what Scripture teaches about creation and how Christ overcomes our broken relationship with the earth.

College students can integrate their environmental concerns with their Christian faith through environmental programs and activities on college and university campuses:

• In Christian colleges and universities, students pursue studies in the natural sciences and the environment within the context of a Christian worldview.
  

A Christian environmental institute reaches out to help teach creation care to teachers and students half a world away.