The Apologetic and Evangelistic Opportunities in Christian Environmentalism (“Creation Care”)
The suspicion that deception and hidden agendas prompt environmentalists to forecast ecological doomsday scenarios is a huge stumbling block for many Christians, and a major reason they are reluctant to endorse many environmental issues. Climate change in particular has become such a polarizing political hot potato that it often short-circuits potential dialogue between Christians and environmentalists even before it can begin. This is a shame, and for two reasons.
First, as previous blog articles have demonstrated, God is very much concerned about the welfare of nature and instructed the entire human race to be His stewards. This being the case, Christians should be at the forefront of legitimate environmental activities. The second reason Christian should overcome their reluctance to support and be involved in Christian environmentalism is because there is great evangelistic potential in creation care ministries.
Ecological Apologetics
When it comes to sharing the Gospel with non-Christians—environmentalists or otherwise—apologetics is often a necessary ingredient in evangelism. Apologetics is a study in the defense of Christianity. It marshals rational, objective, testable evidences that demonstrate Christian truth claims are true. The Bible is historically reliable. Jesus is who He claims to be: fully God and fully man. The resurrection is a fact of history. Creation occurred by divine decree. And so on. This entire series of twenty-three blog articles is essentially an apologetics for Christian environmentalism. It not only provides a well-defined theology of nature and guidelines for environmental stewardship, but also refutes secular and religious claims that challenge it.
The purpose of apologetics, them, is to identify and remove obstacles that prevent non-Christians from accepting Christ and recognizing Christianity as a valid world-and-life view. In the case of non-Christian environmentalists, their mistaken belief that the Bible justifies ecological abuse and harmful exploitation can be that obstacle. The apologetic challenge is how to explain to non-Christian environmentalists the true biblical teachings on environmental ethics and stewardship, and to do so in a way that gets a fair hearing.
Targeting Youth
The ecological potential embraced in Christian environmentalism is especially effective with college-aged young people. Statistically, most people who become Christians do so between childhood and college. When young people leave home and begin living independently, they are more likely to adopt the world’s values and viewpoints and less likely to become Christians. Sadly, this is also true of professing Christians. Depending on the study, up to 80 percent of young people raised in Christian homes walk away from their faith during their college years. I believe Christian environmental activism could play a pivotal role in curtailing this trend as well as attracting non-Christian young people to the faith. Demographically, young people today are more likely to be unchurched than in past generations. Thus, ecological evangelism can be particularly effective with non-Christian college age people—and the millennial generation in general.
Stephen Rand, former director of The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund (Tearfund), writes: “The enthusiasm of the young people [for God’s calling to care for creation] was encouraging, but not surprising: every survey showed that the environment was top of the list of their concerns for the future.” The church, however, must capitalize on this. Rand continues:
What quickly became clear was that, while these young people were deeply concerned about the environment, they had never heard anything about it in their churches. . . .
The church is called to a holistic witness that includes both the proclamation and demonstration of the good news that offers eternal life, life in all its fullness. Yet in failing to teach young people the relevant biblical truths that could build a truly Christian approach to the environment, the church has been closing the door on a vital route for the gospel. Its silence was—and is—a tragic missed opportunity of culturally relevant evangelism (The Care of Creation: Focusing Concern and Action, 145).
Next week, in the final article in this series, I’ll give examples of how ecological evangelism can be an apologetic and evangelistic point of contact for reaching out to young people—as well as anyone with a love for nature. ©
The blog articles in this series are adapted from my book Should Christians Be Environmentalists? published by Kregel Publications in 2012. The blog articles do not contain all the chapters, data, quotes, references, or my personal experiences, which the book includes. So for “the rest of the story,” you will need to purchase the book, which is available in both paperback and Kindle. This and the following articles are copyrighted material and may not be reproduced in book or article form. But feel free to send links to these articles to your personal email list, Facebook friends and groups, Twitter followers, or other people who may enjoy them.