Last night we hosted our first Theology Pub, Views and Brews. My anxieties over attendance and dialogue were ill-founded – it turned out that we had a good turnout of around twenty people, and our discussion was lively.

With the 40th anniversary of Earth Day just last week and hot topics in the news, nationally with the oil spill in Louisiana, and locally with the proposed Mega-Dump landfill expansion I decided that a conversation on the human responsibility with the environment would be profitable for drawing a crowd, hearing multiple perspectives on the topic, and being stretched by the Biblical perspective, which I believe many Christians are foreign too.

After discussing our relationship with the environment, whether the issues are merely practical or moral, how we’re failing in some regards to our responsibilities – and how being made aware of environmental care we’re more active in our responsibility, how the issue of the environment is more than, “reduce, reuse, recycle” but is complicated by political and economic motivation, and finally why Christians have the stereotype of being “unconcerned” with the environment, I, with the help of Francis Schaeffer and Joe Thorn, laid out a Biblical perspective on the issue of our relationship with the environment, which is what I wanted to carry over to the blog for those who couldn’t be at Views and Brews last night. (Wow that was a long sentence – almost Puritanical!)

While some lay the blame for the ecological crisis on Christianity, that even in a post-Christian world we have a “Cultural-Christian mentality” which seems to think, “why take care of the environment, it’s all gonna burn” the crisis of our ecology is also to be shared by pantheism. Pantheism holds that we are all of the same “essence,” therefore we ought to take care of the earth because, simply, it’s a part of us. This worldview has been pervasive since the 1960′s.

The first part of the Biblical perspective is, unlike what pantheism believes, (that we’ll all take care of each other and the earth because we’re all a part of it) that, honestly, we don’t really give a rip about our neighbor. We’re selfish. As Jonathan Edwards said, if our family is first we neglect other families, if our nation is first we neglect other nations. This is why racism, sexism, and lack of care for other and the environment exist.

The second part of the Biblical perspective Frances Schaeffer explains beautifully in his book Pollution and the Death of Man. Schaeffer says, “If I love the Lover, I love what the Lover has made. Perhaps this is the reason why so many Christians feel an un-reality in their Christian lives. If I don’t love what the Lover has made – in the area of man, in the area of nature – and really love it because he made it, do I really love the Lover?”

If we love the Creator, we ought to love the creation.

The final aspect of the Bible perspective is that since God is the creator, the world and all that is in the world belongs to Him. It is His – it’s not our own. God has given us the responsibility of caring for creation and using it wisely. This is why, especially for Christians, we should care for and be good stewards of the environment. That we don’t reflects our sin problem and need for redemption. The crisis of ecology is ended when the crisis of the human soul is ended. Of course, Jesus is the only One through whom redemption is made. The sin of man and the corruption of creation is healed in Him. (These are nearly 98% the words of Joe Thorn. I maintain that he is the smart one, and I am the “simpler” one, though with the better mustache).

Simply, then, bad ecology is bad theology.

Put it on a biodegradable bumper sticker and stick it on your bicycle!

Taken by Joe Thorn

It’s good to back in DeKalb following this weeks Together For The Gospel Pastor’s Conference. I always come back from conferences charged up, excited about getting back to my family, my church, and my city and anxious to see the Gospel continue to build in these three facets of home. I think the main reasons for this is time spent being encouraged by godly teachers through the general sessions, time spent with godly brothers who are as passionate about the Gospel as I am, and time spent with Jesus, away from the busyness of work and home.

Time spent with godly teachers:

All of the general sessions were excellent, though the two that stuck out to me – that encouraged me most deeply – were John Piper (who always does) and C.J. Mahaney.

Piper’s teaching Wednesday evening focused on Justification – that we are justified by and through the Gospel and nothing else, that the fruit that we bare (or better said, the fruit that Jesus produces in us, Galatians 5.5), our works, our deeds, our lifestyles, is not the assurance of our justification, that only the Cross is the assurance of our justification. Piper’s teaching was encouraging not because it was something that I learned, but it seemed to be a confirmation for me, as we’re preaching through Galatians, that I’m on the right track. A lot of what Piper said were things that I’ve been (and will be) trying to draw out of our Galatians series.

C.J.’s teaching yesterday morning hit me in a different way – it was what I needed to hear – it was encouragement to my heart (while all the other sessions were encouragement to my mind). C.J. preached from 2 Timothy 4.1-5 in a message he called The Ordinary Pastor. C.J. hit on many of the anxieties that I have being an ordinary pastor: My tendency to compare myself to other pastors and ministries, the tendency of visitors and people in TcD to compare me to other pastors and ministries (sorry, it’s true, I’m not John MacArthur or Paul Washer), and my anxiousness of people in our church and in our city to “hurry up and get the Gospel so we can build this church.” Mahaney reminded us that “it’s not about gifting, or ability, or fruit…it’s about faithfulness.” I’m glad to confess that I am an ordinary pastor, and happy to be ordinary, but the Gospel we are committed to and faithful to preach is extraordinary!

Time spent with godly brothers:

It’s not just that you’re in an enormous room with 7,000 Christians who are mostly like-minded, and mostly other ordinary pastors. It was the time spent with our Worship Pastor, Aaron. The time spent with brothers from our Mother Church, Redeemer Fellowship. And the brief time spent with other brothers who I only otherwise know in the world or Twitter and Facebook. My time spent with Aaron was refreshing and a deepening of our relationship. He’s the Robin to my Batman, the Tonto to my Lone Ranger (though he’s probably never seen The Lone Ranger), the Timothy to my Paul. He’s a good dude – so thankful to God for him and his wife and his baby – and prayerful for God to develop and bring me other relationships like his and mine.

Time spent with Jesus:

I look forward to opportunities to get away, with our without my family. Getting away for me creates a time to change my habits and the habit that always needs changing the most is how I spend my time with Jesus. So, I looked forward to this past week and during the last three days took advantage of worship, prayer, reading, reflecting, and talking with God – good stuff. In fact you can see a video of my deep spiritualness taken by our wonderful friend, Joe Thorn, here.

So, I’m back. Refreshed. Encouraged. Renewed. Excited.

Thankful for all the speakers at T4G, and thankful for our church, TcD, that is together for the Gospel here in our city.