The Creation Care Network seeks to mobilize, inspire, and engage God’s people as individuals, churches, communities and educational institutions to be better caretakers of God’s beautiful and magnificent Creation.  The Creation Care Network raises awareness among God’s people of our Biblical call to action to be good caretakers and stewards of Creation.  We envision a world where our expression of Christian faith has God’s people actively engaged in works of good stewardship of God’s Creation in their homes, churches, communities, and societies.  

God’s World – Creation, made good, yet groaning under the weight of our sin and disobedience

God’s Word – the Scriptures, which tell of Creation, Fall, Jesus Christ’s Redemption, and Return

God’s Work – His mandate to care for Creation that it might flourish and praise him continually

The mission of God is to make himself known to us.  He does this every day in many ways.  His revelation to us is constant and limitless.  He began revealing himself to us through his Creation, which he said was “very good”.  Then he chose a people and a place, Israel, through whom he began to reveal himself to the world.  His Word, the Bible, is his great story of faithfulness and love for his people.  Part of that story is the covenant of salvation which was later revealed in fullness through his son Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the complete picture of God’s love for his Creation, his people, and all of humanity.  We now eagerly await his return for the complete revelation of his love for us.

Paul writes that “all of Creation awaits for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed” again.  And we are now in that time between Christ’s resurrection and his return.  Before leaving his disciples and returning to the Father, Jesus told his disciples to continue this mission of God.  He told them and, by extension as believers in his name, he is telling us to evangelize, make disciples, teach and preach, love and care for people, and care for his Creation. 

Our mission in life is to follow these commands and make God known to others.  Chris Wright in his book, The Mission of God, touches on the Great Commandment and sees that our life in faith as Jesus-followers holds all of these together around our acceptance of Jesus as Lord of our life.  Some of these aspects we see quite clearly as “mission work”.  All of us would agree that the key starting point for anyone to begin a life in Christ is hearing about God’s love for us.  This is sharing the story of Christ through evangelism and is the central starting point for the rest of the Christian life.  New and old believers need to hear the Word to help them in their walk of faith.  This is preaching and teaching.  These three aspects of “mission work” are unchallenged by almost all Christians.  I, likewise, do not challenge them, but see them as the keys that turn the locks that open the doors to the new life in Christ.  I would also say that these are not enough.  To claim these are all that is “mission work” is neither helpful nor Biblical.  The Creation Care network seeks to engage Christians to expand our mission work to embrace more fully the mission work of God.  We must also see that our work of compassion and service to God’s people and the rest of the world, in his name, is also part of the Great Commission. Some of us are gifted at preaching, teaching and evangelism; some of us have dedicated our lives to acts of compassion and service in Christ’s name.  We cannot all do everything.  Instead, we must be moved by the Spirit to act according to our gifts and abilities.  

There is however one aspect of God’s mission where we are all at work: caring for God’s Creation.  And this is part of the Great Commission as well.  Jesus, as the Resurrected Lord, stands before the disciples and tells them that “all things in heaven and earth have been given to me”.  This is the same declaration made by God in the Old Testament.  In this way Jesus is rightfully stating that he is God and is due all the worship and praise as YHWH of the Hebrew scriptures very familiar to the men standing before him.  The phrase, “all things in heaven and earth” is found throughout the Old Testament and means “everything”, all of Creation.  We read in the Old Testament that God made all things and made them very good.  Humans are not the pinnacle of Creation, but neither are they just another piece.  We are the image of God and we have been given charge of caring for Creation.  Whose Creation?  God’s creation.  He is the owner and we are stewards.  The rest of the natural world moves according to instinct and seasons.  Birds, fish and plants are not stewards.  We are stewards.  And because God’s world is part of his revelation of himself to us, he wants to see his world cared for in order that it might constantly be in a state of flourishing, well-being, praise and worship.  All of Creation praises God all the time.  And, even though we can use Creation to sustain our lives, we cannot do so in such a way that destroys Creation’s ability to praise and worship God. 

God reveals himself to us every day through Creation.  God sustains his creation with all the natural processes that make it work.  His Creation is part of his mission to the world.  His commands of stewardship in Genesis and elsewhere in the Bible put us on a mission to ensure that his Creation continues.  This makes us all “missionaries” on mission to follow his commands and care for Creation.  

A simple glance at human history, both within the Church and outside the Church, will show anyone that we’ve not considered this part of God’s mission.  Rather, we’ve often regarded the earth and its creatures as part of our domain, to be used in our service, for our gain.  We are now facing the consequences of our actions.  God made all the biodiversity in the world, we’ve removed thousands of species.  God made the great forests of the world, we’ve been removing them ever since we invented an iron blade.  The Bible says that the land mourns and groans under the weight of our sin.  It also says that Jesus is the one who holds all things together, through whom all things were made and through whom all things will be redeemed.  Jesus came that we might know God in fullness and that he might redeem all things in heaven and earth to him.  Our mission in the Mission of God is complete only when we see that caring for Creation is as much of a mission as evangelism, teaching and preaching, service and compassion. 

We live in a world sustained by God every day.  We live in a world that suffers under the weight of our selfish sinful nature every day as well.  Reclaiming our role as God’s stewards places us squarely within the whole mission of God as he continues to reveal himself to us and others as well. 

By Steve Michmerhuizen, Co-Lead of the EEA Hope for Europe Creation Care Network