Creation Care as a Modern Means of Christian Mission

Creation care is a legitimate aspect of the church’s mission. Jesus told us to take the good news to the whole creation — human and non-human. The Lausanne movement has recognised creation care as an integral part of the church’s mission. It resonates with the bigger biblical goal of shalom, and it is a ready-made, highly relevant opportunity for pre-evangelism and evangelism.

What Do We Mean by “Mission”?

Mission is a word often used but rarely defined with precision — let alone a definition everyone agrees on. Decades ago, the Anglican Consultative Council identified five strands to mission that have since gained wide acceptance:

To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
To respond to human need by loving service
To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind, and to pursue peace and reconciliation
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

(Bonds of Affection, 1984 ACC-6:49; Mission in a Broken World, 1990 ACC:10)

The Mission-Shaped Church Report echoes this: “The mission of God as redeemer, through Christ, in the Spirit, is to restore and reconcile the fallen creation (Colossians 1:20). God’s missionary purposes are cosmic in scope… as well as the redemption of fallen humanity and the building of the Church” (2004: 85). Mission, it seems, is too rich a concept to reduce to a simple description. In essence, it is finding out what God is doing and joining in. Mission is, and always has been, in the heart of God.

Jesus’ Commission to the Whole Creation

It was entirely appropriate that this definition of mission was broad in scope, because Jesus signified there is Good News to be proclaimed not only to humans but to the entire created order. In Mark 16:15 he commanded his followers: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (ESV, emphasis added).

The nature of that Good News is fundamentally the same for people and for nature: the hope and assurance that both will remain in existence (material continuity) and be set free from all that currently blights and limits them (redemption, restoration and renewal). Paul unpacks this in Romans 8:18–25, and it finds further expression in Isaiah 65:17–25, Ezekiel 47:1–12, Colossians 1:15–20, and Revelation 21–22.

The Lausanne Movement and Integral Mission

The breadth of this commission has been recognised in recent years by the Lausanne Movement.

The Cape Town Commitment

The Cape Town Commitment (2011) states:

“Integral mission means discerning, proclaiming, and living out, the biblical truth that the gospel is God’s good news, through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for individual persons, and for society, and for creation. All three are broken and suffering because of sin; all three are included in the redeeming love and mission of God; all three must be part of the comprehensive mission of God’s people.”

The Jamaica Consultation

This was followed by the ground-breaking Jamaica Consultation in 2012, where delegates agreed that “environmental issues represent one of the greatest opportunities to demonstrate the love of Christ and plant churches in our generation.” They encouraged the church to promote “environmental missions” as a new category within mission work.

Creation Care and the Bigger Goal of Shalom

According to Edward Brown (2008: 156–160), the biblical goal of shalom is bigger than the truncated view of mission as simply a message of personal salvation. In countries where mission has been carried out for over a century, environmental degradation now threatens much of what has already been accomplished. We are commanded to love our brothers and sisters — and increasingly that means helping them cope with degraded environments. The opportunities for this are both global and local.

A Ready-Made Opportunity for Evangelism

A friend I occasionally used to fish with would climb into his waders and boots, gather his gear, sit on the tailgate of his truck, and scan the river for fifteen minutes or more, looking for rising fish. “No use fishing where they ain’t,” he would say. Sometimes we fish for souls where they ain’t — but they are certainly present when you get involved in environmental projects.

Citizens of the kingdom of God yearn for shalom, but non-Christians often yearn for it too, and sometimes work so tirelessly for it that they put Christians to shame. Creation care furnishes an immediate point of mutual interest, shared vision, identification and commonality. It also provides a context for forging meaningful relationships as a prelude to evangelistic influence. For this reason, Christian environmentalism is currently the fastest-growing missional enterprise in the global church.

In microcosm: if a local church engages in a practical environmental project, it raises the question among neighbouring people — “Why are they doing this?” That question opens the door for people to discover that the church’s ecology is grounded in the gospel, and its gospel is centred on the Lord Jesus Christ. As the life and light of Christ is gradually expressed through us, others are drawn to him.

Priority vs Ultimacy: Chris Wright’s Framework

Chris Wright astutely sums up the link between environmental stewardship and evangelism at the close of a section on holistic mission in The Mission of God:

“The language of the ‘priority of evangelism’ implies that the only proper starting point must always be evangelistic proclamation… But the difficulty with this is that (1) it is not always possible or desirable in the immediate situation, and (2) it does not even reflect the actual practice of Jesus. Rather, almost any starting point can be appropriate, depending possibly on what is the most pressing or obvious need… Mission may not always begin with evangelism. But mission that does not ultimately include declaring the Word and the name of Christ, the call to repentance, and faith and obedience has not completed its task. It is defective mission, not holistic mission” (2018: 318–319).

So let’s affirm it: almost any starting point can be appropriate — we can enter the circle of missional response at any point on the circle of human need. Combating environmental degradation just happens to be one that is extremely timely, relevant and cogent today.

But what do you do about ultimacy? As one belonging to Jesus, how do you know you’ve arrived, not just started? If you tend to be known as a single-issue person — or even if you’re able to hold multiple issues — you may be placing more hope in the changes you long to see than those changes are able to deliver. Unless you move further into the circle and ultimately see the importance of people having a transforming encounter with Jesus Christ, you will never be quite radical enough in your approach.

Where Do We Go From Here?

God’s mission is to reclaim the world — including the created order — and God’s people have a designated role to play in it. We are the product of the missio Dei, called to participate with God and be partners in his mission. This challenges any understanding of mission reduced to “come to church and join us,” and instead calls us to share with God in caring for all in our communities, meeting them on their own terms.

Creation stewardship as a means and mode of mission is a new frontier — wide open for exploration and filled with opportunities as numerous as they are exciting. This is a mission field ripe for the harvest. If every congregation in New Zealand actively engaged in caring for the non-human creation as a witness to, and means of reaching, the human creation — and as a way of increasing the wellbeing of both — the beneficial results would be barely imaginable.

A Major Modern Means of Mission: Why Creation Care Belongs in the Church’s Great Commission