by Emiko Corey, Farm Manager of Santa Barbara A Rocha Five Loaves Farm

Rebecca Laughton writes “agriculture is sustainable when it is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, humane and adaptable, and is a dynamic concept which allows for the changing needs of an increasing global population.”[i] Sustainable agriculture is the alternative philosophy of farming that considers each member of the food system as well as the environment. The food system is characterized not just by the farmer, but also “researchers, input suppliers, farm workers, unions, farm advisors, processors, retailers, consumers and policymakers.”[ii] Sustainable agriculture is defined beyond methods of farming and looks at the big picture of justice within agriculture, including: consumer food security and safety, environmental health, economic viability of farms and social equity issues surrounding farm labor and processing conditions. As a farmer of the Santa Barbara A Rocha Five Loaves Farm, I seek sustainability because I believe this is how God calls me to be a good steward of the land and resources in which I farm.

The concept of sustainable agriculture has developed out of disappointments in modern industrial agriculture characterized by a centralization of power, control, and wealth, a value of competition and capitalism and an attitude of domination of nature to meet production goals.[iii] This has led to corporations instead of families running farmers, many consumer misunderstandings around the health and safety of food, exploitation of marginalized laborers and environmental degradation. Sustainable agriculture seeks to respond to these changes, bringing back some of the “old farm values” while being innovative it its call to make changes for the future generations of farmers.

Sustainable agriculture seeks to bring justice to the consumer.

Sustainable agriculture is committed to environmental justice.

At Five Loaves Farm we do not use pesticides, fungicides or synthetic fertilizers. These chemicals create a biological imbalance on the farm and contaminate ecological processes in the local watershed and surrounding wildlife areas. Our agricultural lands are understood as an ecosystem. I plant flowers that increase the amount of beneficial insects and pollinators. I add compost and plant cover crops to increase the microbiological activity and organic matter in the soil which increases soil overall health and fertility. I am careful with the amount of irrigation used so that excess nitrogen does not runoff and enter into local streams and eventually the ocean. We are in the process of planting a native hedgerow that will increase the amount of native pollinators on our site. In the future we would like to also build owl boxes and raptor perches to increase the amount of natural rodent predators we have on the farm. All of these practices are also in accordance with USDA organic farming standards.

Sustainable agriculture emphasizes the need to have economically viable farms.

Economic viability has three sources. First, it comes simply from making sufficient profits from the sale of produce. Next, it comes from a diversified farm that creates resiliency if there is crop loss. And lastly, it comes from the consumer holding a higher value for the work of the grower and the product produced. Many small farmers have begun selling at local Farmer’s Markets or through Community Supported Agriculture programs. The middleman is removed to increase profits and the consumer’s direct connection with the farmer increases the value people place in the profession. Those who are farming should be valued by the wages they are paid and appropriate respect for the job performed.

Sustainable agriculture engages in social justice.

In conventional agriculture, laborers are often treated as second-class citizens; given brutal working conditions with minimal pay. Sustainable agriculture seeks to address the needs of those employed on the farm, through fair wages, higher safety standards, adequate housing and year-round employment. For Five Loaves Farm, the primary way we take part in social justice is through community building. Our farm laborers, those who volunteer and intern at the farm are not simply completing a task, they are participating in the community built around the farm. Weekly we host volunteers and interns who participate in all aspects of the farm, planting, weeding and harvesting. Each volunteer is given a full experience of what farm labor is like. The challenge of the work instills a sense of respect for those who do these tasks all day.

The motivation behind sustainable agriculture is to “find a way to feed ourselves more in keeping with the logic of nature, to build a food system that looked more like an ecosystem that would draw its fertility and energy from the sun. To feed ourselves otherwise was ‘unsustainable,’ a word that’s been so abused that we’re apt to forget that what it very specifically means: Sooner of later it must collapse.”[v] As a sustainable agriculture farmer I seek sustainability for the consumer and those who receive our produce, for the environment, the soil I grow in and the surrounding ecologies, for the longevity of the farm and for all those who come to work on the farm. I believe that as farmers we can feed to world through sustainable farming practices and I ask that you join in the process of seeking sustainability within our food system.

By Dave Timmer, Stewardship Director, NW Washington A Rocha

We’re bombarded with tradition at this time of the year.  As I get older, I think back on the advent traditions of my church.  There was a time that I didn’t think my church really dealt with advent.  That mostly came out of familiarity - traditions often become so second nature that we don’t realize they are traditions.  It also came out of spiritual immaturity.  Christmas was about presents under the tree and the church rituals were just a sideshow.  Furthermore, and this still happens, my postmodern mind tends to get frustrated by the tradition battles that take place every year.  The fights over which decorations are appropriate in the sanctuary, or the ridiculous “War on Christmas” that a certain cable news station likes to invent.  Now, I see greed creep into my five year-old’s mind as he looks through a Christmas Lego magazine.  This is frustrating.  So, rather than enjoy this time of year, my jaded mind would rather just skip it. 

Because of this, I need to remind myself that there are some advent traditions that are good to remember.

Every year, four Sundays before Christmas, the music changed in church.   The kids jockeyed for position to be Mary or Joseph in the upcoming play, not just a stoic shepherd or, even worse, a sheep.  And each week, a church family was responsible for lighting one more candle in the Advent wreath.  Of course, adding a candle each week dramatically increased the odds of lighter malfunctions. 

This is probably my biggest advent memory – big brother (who is just old enough to be responsible with fire) is desperately clicking the unresponsive lighter and with an increasing amount of panic, he gives it a bit of a shake before finally making eye contact with dad.  Dad is nervously watching, mulling over his options of how to help.  Then just as dad is about to move, the lighter miraculously ignites and a soft chuckle rises from the congregation.  Big brother redeems himself by getting all the candles lit without also igniting his sleeve.  Dad smiles…disaster averted. 

This year, though, I’ve been more aware of an advent emphasis on “waiting”.  It is an attempt to empathize with the young couple at the center of the Christmas story.  This couple wonders what awaits them in Bethlehem – with a new baby set to arrive soon, very soon.  No hospital arrangements are ready for them.  They don’t even have an open couch arranged.  Furthermore, this baby isn’t even Joseph’s.   

But God’s people rebel and Babylon creeps nearer.  The situation is as bad as it can get.  The prophets describe the scene.  Their sieged capitol city is in ruins.  People are so hungry.  There are stories circulating of mothers eating their own starved children.  The king, cowardly, fled the city.  But he was quickly captured, his sons were murdered, his eyes were cut out, his hands were bound and he was dragged into exile.  The temple is a smoldering pile of rocks.  God is gone and his people are scattered.  They are forced to leave their homes and their farms.  The symbol of God’s promise - the “promised” land - is no longer theirs; the prophets long for restoration. 

Throughout this longing, though, there weaves a beautiful thread of hope.  There are promises of peace and justice (often quite violent justice…but justice).  There are promises of deliverance and re-membering the scattered people.  There is the promise of a Messiah and rest.  There is hope, even, for the land.  The “promised” land experiences a Sabbath.

After these promises, however, there is silence…for a few centuries.  This is the time to wait. 

Finally, the silence breaks.  Remember those promises.  There is now a new conqueror with a Roman name.  Remember that royal line.  The people have come back to that same land.  Remember that the land rested.  There is a new temple and new traditions.  Remember the pictures of justice that those prophets painted.  The new conqueror wants to keep track of all those people with all those traditions.  Remember how God uses nations to write his story.  And a poor, pregnant, unmarried couple travels across the country to have a baby in a barn.  Remember the Messiah that they wrote about. 

The waiting is over.  This is what they’ve been waiting for.  The rest is history, right?  We’ve even made this moment our fulcrum of time.  Everything has changed.

Jesus’ kingdom has been established.  In it, the hard work of redemption is occurring.  This isn’t happening in some far-off place or some future kingdom.   God’s redemptive work is happening today.  His story continues. 

So what are we waiting for? 

The Christmas story has happened – remember it, yes.  Empathize with that young desperate couple – definitely.  But the time for waiting is over.  

It’s time to join in.

By Ginny Vroblesky, founding Director of A Rocha USA

 I had often seen the tree on my morning walks.  It was striking in its own way.  I had glanced at it with pity, seeing it as an example of the abuse of man – specifically the gas and electric company.  It bore the scars of missing branches.  Its trunk had been repeatedly cut to below the level of the power lines. Here was the tallest tree of the eastern forest, a tulip tree, stunted, gnarled and misshapen.

 This week I stopped to truly consider the tree for the first time. I was surprised to turn around and discover a German shepherd dog laying a stick at my feet.  “Does he want me to pick it up,” I asked his master who was coming up close behind him.  “He wouldn’t let you,” he replied.  “He is just taking a rest. Are you looking at the damaged house”, he asked.”

“No”, “I have been wondering what that tree across the street would say to us.” 

“Look at me.  I live in spite of the gas and electric company,” the man proclaimed.  “What about the one over here that fell on the house,” I asked.  “He grew too big for his own good,” he quipped.

 I laughed as the man and his dog walked on and then it seemed as though the tree began to speak to my spirit.  “How old are you,” I asked.  “Our heart wood flows at a different rhythm than yours,” he responded (at least it seemed to be a he). “We tulip trees can live long – you would say 600 years, but we think in terms of maturity and fruitfulness rather than age. We know that our lives will continue to be fruitful long after we, ourselves are gone.”  I had been wondering how young the tree had been when it had first encountered the power lines, but the tree’s response turned my thoughts to myself, my own struggle with growing older and questions of my life’s value. “What do you mean,” I asked.  

 “Have you never seen a tree that has fallen in the forest? When we leave our place we create a gap in the woods, letting in light to a previously dark spot.  New, young trees have the opportunity to grow.  All parts of our bodies are valuable.  When we fall, tiny organisms come and release the energy that has been trapped in our cells.  It goes back into the soil to nourish a new life. Remember, too, that we have been on earth much longer than man. We see things differently.”

 “That’s true”, I said.  I had read the story of Genesis and also knew the fossil record.  This reminded me of other verses in the Bible. “I have heard it said,” I began, that “all the trees of the field clap their hands.” “Ah, yes,” he replied.  We trees set our faces towards our Creator.  We rejoice when we see his work, whether it is in the provision of the sun or rain or when he keeps his word.  We share the earth with you.  We face challenges all the time, many that we cannot control, such as leaf borers, disease, just as you do.  But we deal with the challenges as they come- we do not add to them by concern for our future or fretting over the past.  We know we have value.  Of course right now that pesky English Ivy growing up my trunk annoys me.  There is nothing I can do about it and if it grows too dense it will smother my light, Oh well.”

 “What about the horrible things the gas and electric company did to you,” I demanded.  “Look at me,” the tree whispered.  “Look at my branches.”  And I did.  They looked like huge muscular arms.  They sprang horizontally from the trunk below the power lines, bent at the elbow and then sent leaders soaring to the sky.  The tips of the braches reached as high as any neighboring tree.  Their leaves waved in the sun up with those of the Willow Oak across the street.  No near by tulip tree was taller than this one.

 “I have noticed that the furrows in your bark seem deeper that the other tulip trees your same size.” I observed. “That’s true”, he replied.  My life has been challenged in ways theirs has not. “My brothers have had a more delightful place to grow. I might not be as handsome as my peers, but I have fulfilled my task on earth just as well.”

 “What task,” I questioned.  “Why to reach for the sun and to give life.  Don’t you know that I eat light?  I gather light particles and from them make food for everyone else. Why, my branches and leaves feed insects, aphids and caterpillars.  Some make honeydew from the life I give them.  They in turn provide food for other creatures.  Without my brethren, and me there would be no life on earth.  This is a task worth striving for, wouldn’t you agree?”

 I certainly would, I thought, to give life must be a wonderful thing.  But he went on.

“I have been challenged repeatedly, but – look – my flowers are just as lovely and smell as sweet as anyone else’s.

 I wondered at him.  I had expected bitterness and regret.  But he actually seemed to be grateful for the difficulties in his life, for here he stood while some of his peers were gone, toppled by strong winds.  His branches had had to spread wide and low.  He encircled the power lines.  His neighbors had fallen on them. He was confident of his future.  He knew that even though he died his value would go on. “What about you?” he asked. “Thank you,” I murmured as I turned thoughtfully away.  But there was lightness in my heart that lasted almost the whole day.

By Robert Campbell*, Pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church

I find myself listening to this interview with Peter Harris again and again. I sat in the room while it took place, but still I go back to it often. Those moments as a fly on the wall set something free in me and I make mental pilgrimages to them often. On one of those recent mental trips, while mowing my lawn, Peter Harris asked me a question (not literally, but you know what I mean):  “What does an A Rocha-shaped church look like?”. I waited and waited for the gloriously details of a church in the ditches of creation care, but he didn’t answer his own question. He left it up to others to live out and discover. Therefore, as a deliberate and dedicated lover of the local church, on that pilgrimage with a community of local people, I feel compelled to try and answer: What does an A Rocha shaped church look like?

An A Rocha-shaped church starts with a people in a particular place who are willing to do the hard stuff. They do it out of their holistic theology of Christ’s lordship over all of life, and with the leadership of a pastor who is also a real person living in that real place. I realize I am saying nothing new. New is not the point. Believing and acting are the point. Any definition of a local church must begin, with real people. People with actual names like Matt, Su, Ben and Serenity, who are not only fellow parishioners but also neighbors. When an A Rocha-shaped church prays, “Our Father,” these are the faces that come to mind. Those faces have stories to tell. The stories involve joys like marriages, babies being born and relationships being restored. They also include many human sorrows caused from death, brokenness and simple sin between people in their circles. That’s the way it is with real people in an A Rocha-shaped church. The actual people matter more than theoretical people who might attend one day if we run the right advertisement or offer the right program.

The real people are also dirt people. Maybe “dust” people is a better description. Whenever I use the word “dirt” in a sermon I am reminded by my geologist friend, Bonnie, that dirt is what you find on the floor. I am referring to “soil,” she says. I get it, and A Rocha friend Mark McReynolds tells me it’s not a “bird,” it’s a male Western Tanager. I am learning, slowly. The book of Genesis uses the word “dust” to describe the creation of mankind; we are dust and breath, body and Spirit. An A Rocha-shaped church will be made up of dust people. Dust people are not fake people living in a fake world, but a desperately practical people working it all out in the dirt of daily life. They are concerned with every step and every act for the good of the people they live with in the place where they live together. A dust person builds a fence around the yard and puts the unfinished side facing inward so their neighbors see the clean part. A dust person hears about A Rocha’s kestrel program in NW Washington and asks how it might benefit their grape-growing neighbors in California. My people are dust people and they are the real thing. They are Christian all the way down to the dirt.

What we believe comes out of our fingertips. This is always true. An A Rocha-shaped church is formed out of an A Rocha-shaped theology, a theology that includes the dirt. We believe that God is the owner of all things. Creation is His and His will is going to be accomplished in it. We believe that God has given us the responsibility to steward His creation towards His ends, which includes both people and place since it is impossible to separate them. We believe all of our daily actions on this planet we call home are acts of worship towards Jesus. We believe all this because Jesus Christ is the Lord of all of life, not just the so-called “spiritual” parts. Our working, playing and loving are all spiritual acts when done by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. While our culture relegates religion to the private sphere, the God of the Scriptures does no such thing. As believers, we know what we go about our daily lives under the smile of God because God is happy with Jesus and we belong to Jesus. Because that is firm and settled, we are free to just try the hard stuff to see if it makes a difference, and it will make a difference.

When questioned about what A Rocha should look like in particular place, Peter Harris is known to answer, “I don’t know, I don’t live there”. He is right, only the people living in place really know how people concerns and place concerns come together. In my place they come together between ranchers and environmentalists, both who love the land, but speak a very different language.

What is it in your place? An A Rocha-shaped church will explore the needs of their own place and be willing to just do the hard stuff because it needs to get done. Don’t know where to begin? Come and see what Marty and Emiko have going at the Santa Barbara A Rocha project site. Go see the great work Dave is doing with the watershed in NW Washington.You will be inspired, challenged, taught and encouraged. Then you can go home and try something.

Me? I’m that Pastor. I live here. I am effecting and affected by my people and my place. Their stories become part of my story and their circles become my circles. It is my responsibility to lead my congregation in learning to value each other and the place where we live. It is the charge of God to me to bless my people with a truly human spirituality that affirms the redemptive power of their daily lives outside of the church gathering. Today, I offer that blessing to you. If you are an ecologically oriented believer trying to find your way to bring people and place together, but not feeling the affirmation of your local church: you are doing a good work, the Lord bless you and keep you. If you are ecological worker, daily striving to do good without the ordination that the church gives to ministers or medical doctors: you are loving your neighbor well, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

*Robert Campbell is Pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church, an Evangelical Free Church on the Central Coast of California.

By John Humphreys

I subscribe to the BRILLIANT “Parasite of the Day” web page.

As the organizers put it – “The United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. In celebration of the enormous diversity of parasites and to highlight their importance, we created this blog, which showcased a species of parasite every day. Now that 2010 is over, we will continue to add more parasites from time to time.”

All the way through 2010, all of us subscribers were entertained, educated and disgusted in equal measure by the extraordinary variety of organisms which make their living off other creatures.
Some are more-or-less tolerable for the host: the mistletoe, which all of us love to kiss under, is not often lethal to the tree it grows on and the ubiquitous head louse is merely an irritation to us, although has school districts and parents up in arms when they see it.

Some are genuinely spectacular – like the largest flower in the world, sported by the rainforest parasite Rafflesia arnoldii. Others are actually parasitoids rather than parasites because, simply, they always kill their host – the newly discovered and very worrying “white nose syndrome”, a fungus that chokes hibernating bats, is a case in point.

Then there are the plutocrats of the parasite world – the hyperparasites, who parasitize parasites themselves. An example is the tiny wasp Caenacis inflexa, which attacks other wasps like Eurytoma rosae and Glyphomerus stigma…which themselves are parasitic on  the “gall wasp” Diplolepis rosae…the ecology of plant galls is endlessly fascinating.

Of course, there are some genuinely terrifying creatures like the nightmare-inducing tongue-eating louse and the ghastly crab-controlling barnacle.

Now, many of these beasts…and plants…and fungi…have exquisitely exacting tastes. They may only target one single organism to live off. While this type of deal must have some advantages for the parasite, there is one enormous downside: your host dies out, you die out.

Which leads me to the tick, Ixodes neuquensis. It is only found on a gorgeous little opossum-like creature, the (confusingly named) ‘mountain monkey’ Dromiciops gliroides. This charming little thing lives in South America and its forest home is being torn down.
When it goes, when it is gone forever, and two things will happen.

Firstly, we will never see it alive again. Films don’t do the same for me, sorry. It will be gone, and nothing this side of the Second Coming can bring it back.

Secondly, a variety of living creatures dependent on it will join it in oblivion. Not just the tick and other parasites; this marsupial mammal is the only known way that a unique plant –Tristerix corymbosus, a type of mistletoe - can spread its seeds (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromiciops_gliroides and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristerix).

Ironically this mistletoe only parasitizes two cacti. So the whole ecosystem is teetering on the edge of oblivion. As I say ad nauseam, the only way for you and I to do anything about this is to help preserve the forest. And spread the word. Thanks for reading.

Cute, almost gone.

As Boomers (and Hulu fans) will remember, the Dragnet detective was famous for his deadpan, cut-to-the-chase approach: “Just the facts, ma’am.” Good for police work; not so much for prompting change—environmental or any other kind. To do that, we have to aim for the heart, not just the head.

Consider any number of modern maladies: obesity, HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, etc. All are “treatable” with facts: “A leads to B. Avoid A, you avoid B.” All are still rampant.

Or ponder the health of planet Earth. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’ Red List:

• Thirty-eight percent of known species are currently threatened with extinction.
• The current extinction rate is approximately 1,000 times faster than the “background” or natural rate.
• One species goes extinct every 20 minutes.

Care only about people? Consider these sobering statistics:

• Sixty percent of Earth’s “ecosystem services,” which process our wastes and provide us with air, water and food, are seriously degraded and cannot be maintained at this pace. (United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.)
• Some forty percent of deaths worldwide are caused by pollution of various types. (Cornell University)

If facts alone were enough to convince us--and by extension our institutions and societies--to change, surely these would do the trick. They haven’t.

Nor, I must add, has a clear understanding of what the Bible says on the subject. We now have countless books, sermons and seminars on creation care. The facts are in. The theology is settled. God really does care about God’s creation and told humankind to take care of it. And still we Christians argue, waffle and ignore.

Despite the failure of both science and theology to affect change, those of us in the conservation arena—both secular and faith-based—continue to act as if they will: “All we need is for people to understand!” At best, we are like rubes speaking louder and slower to force English on a Frenchman. At worst, we’re poster children for Einstein’s definition of insanity.  We keep talking at the head, when we should be speaking to the heart.

How do we do that? In a word: relationship.

Marketers, of course, know how to tug at our heartstrings. Photos of the starving child or the polar bear cub have their place, I suppose. But a true change of heart—one accompanied by lasting changes in attitude and behavior—requires more. It requires relationship. By inviting people into relationship--with those of us who care about the creation, with the creation itself, and especially with the Creator—we begin to speak to the heart (as opposed to merely pulling its strings). And the heart begins to listen. Someone may be uninterested in environmental protection, but an afternoon weeding and watering the community garden with a person who is both loving and passionate about growing things changes the conversation. I may know nothing of the mercury poisoning our rivers, but time on the water with a winsome and knowledgeable guide can't help but enlighten and inspire me to care. Relationships —more than facts, theology or anything else—change our hearts and then change our actions.

To Christians, this should come as no surprise. It is, after all, how God does it.

By Robert Campbell*, Pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church

I tend to think of my garden as an ecological anti-depressant. With absolutely no substantiation other than my own anecdotal experience, I find that nearly every day soil and growing things save me from hopelessness. As a pastor, I work with people--often people with long ingrained habitual problems. This feels so tremendously large on some days that counseling requires an immediate retreat to the garden just outside my study. In the garden, I find that vegetables grow among the weeds and realize there can be good fruit in human hearts where I have found only weeds. I also find that a little nurture does wonders for plants and the same is true for people. Basically, my garden helps remind me of why I refuse to be a fatalist--either human or ecological. I refuse to live in that kind of despair.

Both Christians and non-Christians suffer from an undiagnosed melancholy in regards to issues of the earth, our ecological home. Some find themselves despairing over the grand and overwhelming task of reversing the direction of the earth. The destruction has gone so far, how could we ever bring it back? Others remain unmoved, either affectionately or persuasively by the goodness of what our world is, has been or could be in the future. But when we take God's story as a starting point (and finishing point) of our ecological involvement, it gives us hope that always leads to action in both small and great ways for the good of the world.

Creation as an act of God calls me to hope in the reality of the planet’s goodness
Our world is good because God is good and He created it. This simple theological reasoning provides the opening scene of God’s story;The creation is “good” because the Creator is good. In fact, He is the only consistent standard of good. The present badness that we experience is because of human choice to disregard God as that standard of goodness. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We continue with those choices today and the ecological fruit becomes more apparent every day. Once we exercised dominion on behalf of God for the continuing goodness of the world, now brokenness and weeds dominate us. Be hopeful, because it was good once, it can be again.

The Exodus as an act of God affirms my hope in the possibility of a better future
In the story of the Exodus, God delivers his people from human-caused slavery and He can deliver us again. The way it is today does not have to be the way it will be tomorrow.  As living proof, believing men and women are daily transformed from the inside out. Countless millions over the ages have been renewed and redeemed. God removed their cold heart of stone and gave them a compassionate heart of flesh. He made them live again as His very own children. Obedient children of God act in simple, daily ways consistent with that new self and this brings about a better future.

The new creation as a future act of God makes my hope in a better future certain
The story of God ends with the renewal of all things. Not their destruction, but their renewal. The Bible describes it as a new heaven and a new earth, always mentioned together. This will be a place where all the original goodness will be restored. We will walk with God, each other and our ecological world as God originally intended. We will properly relate and will properly dominate so that more goodness is seen when we leave a place than when we arrived. This hope is as sure as God Himself.

But, what about...
I see two potential obstacles to this hope: A God obstacle and a scientific obstacle.

Perhaps you simply do not want to bow to God’s story as a starting point. Giving that authority away sounds entirely anathema to you. God forbid, so to speak. Fine. But do realize a few things. First, hope is consistent with God’s story and I dare say it is not consistent with any other. This would explain why hope is largely absent in most ecological movements, perhaps even your own. Secondly, see that this refusal to bow and insist rather on starting with yourself instead of with God mirrors the devil’s trick on Adam and Eve in the original garden--which has resulted in the present despair. It hasn’t worked so far and perhaps it is time for a change.

Say you do believe in God, but this is not the way you were taught to think of creation. You don't believe in its necessity or necessarily even care about what happens to it. After all, there is plenty of other good, God-ordained work to do. In that case, I remind you to look again at the end of the biblical story with a new heaven and a new earth. The two are always found together in the Bible. All things will one day be made right and for now all of creation groans for the children of God to become mature. I encourage you to return to the garden and find hope for the despair of your poor theological training.

Another obstacle to finding hope in God’s story is science, either an over-belief in the ability of science or an under-belief in the reliability of science. Is your hopelessness supported by the scientific data that shows the problem as insurmountable? Be careful here with making science say more than it could possibly say. Science gives us good and useful data, but it says only what is, not what could be. Hope (and despair) goes far beyond the data. Let the good scientific data motivate you, but do not let it take your hope, it is not that kind of information. That would be an over-belief in science. On the other hand, you may doubt the science that says our environment is in trouble. After all, you may feel, science has led to questioning of the biblical account of life’s origins and other values you hold dear. That may be so; however, whether you trust the science or not, you can certainly see with your own eyes the damage that is growing. You can witness the particular effects of your deliberate choices both in your backyard and around the world. Do not let a an under-belief in science’s ability to reliably explain the way things are steal your energy for hopeful action in the world.

Whichever obstacle may stand in your way, God’s story gives hope in the possibility of change--starting with you and me. Just go out in the garden or sprawl on the lawn and let nature preach to you the story of God who created all things, delivers us from our own rightly deserved consequences and will Himself bring about a new, redeemed creation one day. Allow your new-found hope to change your daily experience. Allow it to motivate your daily action. Allow it to become contagious. Something will happen. Tomorrow will be different, tomorrow will be better than today.

 *Robert Campbell is Pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church, an Evangelical Free Church on the Central Coast of California.

By Robert Campbell*, Pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church

I hope you hear the irony intended in the title. I certainly do care about what is happening to our world. But, climate change is merely a symptom. The cause: a lack of care. To address the symptom, we must address its cause. We must begin again to care.

Gaining a distinctly Christian ecology will enable us to care. It will free us to live more consistently in our world...and it will be good both for us and for our world. And the effects of climate change will be reduced  as you and I are radically transformed in heart, mind and actions.

Beginning with your heart...As you believe that God is distinct from all of creation, bowing to His ownership of all things, you will actually honor the tree as a fellow creature, just for being a tree. As you honor the tree you will honor God whose goodness is reflected in a tree much more than in a cathedral, you will find your place in the world…and you will begin to reduce the effects of climate change (more on this in Part I).

Considering your mind...As you understand your role as a steward of God’s world, your actions will begin to bring good to the Earth…and we will reduce the effects of climate change (more on this in Part II).

Now, considering what kind of actions flow naturally from that heart and mind, the Scriptures teach,

The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed…Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Gen. 2:8, 15

God, who our story begins with, had a purpose for us in creation. He intended for us to cultivate and keep the garden that He called “good.”  Our role is to take care of it and bring its good fruit on His behalf. God planned for us to act as He would act toward His world. If we believe that God owns all things and we are His stewards then we will use His world toward His ends. What is His end? That His world would reflect His goodness and that you and I would see that reflection and worship Him.

These beliefs enable a new kind of living that is built one brick at a time. But what kind of life is consistent with belief in God and is working towards God's end? Here are a few thoughts on living in God's world with both people and place for God's end.

Live like you are free

The heart that believes in God's ownership and that takes stewardship seriously is free to live in joy. God created the world out of the overflow of His happiness. Therefore our life in this world can be good and joyous because the Earth is good and joyous. You are free to live for the purpose of God within the boundaries of God in a world He created, in part, for your joy. You can now arrange the details positively without fear.

Starting anywhere other than with God will just leave us with the false religion of guilt and fear: "The world will end if you drive another mile!" As A Rocha's Dave Timmer has written so beautifully, "Environmental legalism is still legalism." He goes on to say,

Creation care is so much more than taking the reusable tote to the grocery store, changing light bulbs, or eating organic produce. It is so much more than even giving everything we own to the poor. It is following Jesus. Creation care is reaching to grasp what God is doing in the places where we live.

Beyond the “Green” Commandments

Worship results when we live in light of God's joyous freedom in our world rather than from the fear and despair that comes from the preaching of imminent doom. Believe God, not the doomsday prophets. The first thing we must do is to relax; we have the right starting point.

Live like this is home

Our community has an annual clean-up day every May. Just after the storms end, we head out to serve our older neighbors, paint the downtown benches and pull weeds in the Santa Margarita Demonstration Forest. As my family I and freed the magnificent native plants from the encroachment of invading grasses, I remembered something true and important. Since the fall of mankind in the original garden, the natural tendency of all things earthly is toward weeds and thorns. If we just let it go, the world would end up covered in Star Thistle and Kudzu. No, we have a part in these things! Humans are not unnatural. You belong here. The word "ecology" simply means the study of home. God's world is our home. Worship results when we live like we belong here, like this is home. First, relax because you have started with God and then commit to the place where you actually live.

Live like you have hope

I am not suggesting that the current state of the environment is not dire and in need of our attention. It is! I am suggesting that the pagan religious action of much of the secular environmental movement is not needed and probably not adequate for solving the problem. All environmental action is religious action. Every action happens within a story, defines a problem, banks its hope on some form of redemption and then establishes a set of actions consistent with that religious belief. A distinctly Christian ecology does so most adequately because it is true to the way things actually are.

When God created all things good, He also put into it a created purpose to bring about good and He intends that it will one day achieve that end in spite of the brokenness that we inflict on our world everyday. Right now, our world is not as it should be!

The manner of that redemption is what Christians call the “good news.” God Himself has entered into His created world in order to take the brokenness and wrong seriously and to put the pieces back together. I am suggesting that Jesus is the only true ecologist. He lived in light of God's story and assessed the problem rightly as being rooted in the heart of mankind. He sacrificed Himself in order to set things right by forgiving our true guilt, carrying away our real shame and removing the need for blame. In calling us to “follow Him,” we not only enable our people to find forgiveness, but live all of life under the Lordship of King Jesus, doing His will in our place.

Worship results when (1) we enjoy the freedom that comes from starting with God, (2) commit to the place we call home and (3) live in the hope that God's redemption in Jesus has restored us and then join Him in restoring the world, its people and its places. I call that a redemptive dominion, ruling as God would rule if He were here doing it Himself.

A call to act as distinctly Christian ecologists

These truths force us to act. We cannot wash our hands of it. We must act in light of God's redemption in Jesus. That is the role of the local church and A Rocha serves as a support in the Church's call to action.

As a local church Pastor, I believe that the local church should care about conservation because it (the church) is God's way of getting his people in the right place for the job of redemptive dominion. The church is a local gathering of believers. It's a gathering of people defined by their faith in Jesus and the dirt they walk on. We are a people that always have a place. We are concerned with the real people and places that we are sent to. Local is always personal. When we act locally, we put ourselves in a position to suffer from our decisions. When we act locally, we act freely and with hope in the place we call home. When we act locally, we love our neighbors.

My local church lives in a place called Santa Margarita, California. Our ecology works out there, with the people that live there with us. We buy breakfast from Carrie. We buy tea from Carol, wine from the Arnold Family, a fine dinner from Jeff and Lindsay Jackson (whose daughter went to school with my son), gas from Chris, Chris and Brandon, and beer from Chris over at Dunbar Brewing. These are particular people in a particular place. This is the kind of impact that a local church can have that no one else can have because God has placed us. (I have developed these thoughts further on another A Rocha USA blog post) My main point here is that, for the average person, to act as a distinctly Christian ecologist involves simply making our daily decisions in a way that results in worship.

A Rocha serves the local church in a unique way by guiding us to remember that people are always placed and to bring those called to the vocation of science, agriculture etc. to serve the rest of us in the local church for the purpose of worship. And just like the local church, the work of A Rocha is placed.

•  A Rocha is working to restore and protect a watershed in northwest Washington.
  
•  A Rocha is working with food distribution programs in Santa Barbara, CA to give food grown at the Five Loaves Farm to low-income families.
•  A Rocha is restoring and protecting headwaters of the Frio river in the hill country of Texas.
•  A Rocha is partnering with the local church and Land Conservancy in San Luis Obispo, California to educate children about the place where they live.

In all of these places, A Rocha is just a gathering of believers like you, who belong to local churches. Those believers have developed a distinctly Christian ecology and are living in the light of God's story in a particular place with a particular people...and that daily, immediate action is limiting the symptoms of climate change.

 *Robert Campbell is Pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church, an Evangelical Free Church on the Central Coast of California. Part I, II and III of this series of essays comes from remarks delivered in the SLO A Rocha "Christian Ecology Series", March, April and May 2011 (TBA).

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going… and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives is today expressed in consumptive terms…we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.