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Creation Care: A Compassion and Social Justice Question

Christianity Today recently published an article about Flourish 09 - a conference centered on Evangelical Christianity's response to Creation Care, or in simple terms, environmental responsibility.  The key point that I appreciated was the shift of the focus from one of political agenda and rhetoric to one that is (or should be) much more realistic and critical for the church to understand:  human interest.  Flourish posed the issue of care for God's creation as one that holds both compassion and social justice issues for Christians.  Kinda brings it home a bit more doesn't it?  (Read the full article here)

Couple great excerpts from the article:

• What emerged from Pritchard's keynote talk was not a passion for the environment so much as a passion for people, their health and well-being, and particularly for social justice. "If our abuse of the environment raises, for example, the rate of debilitating asthma attacks, then it is a compassion issue for the church." (Rusty Pritchard, Co-Founder of Flourish)

• South Atlanta pastor Leroy Barber spoke of how his church worked to "green my 'hood." His parishioners live with all the unsightly and unsanitary things other Atlanta neighborhoods avoid: chemical plants, an auto impound lot from another municipality, a landfill, poor public transportation. He described his church's efforts to improve the lives of their neighbors through economic development, health and nutrition programs, and even pedestrian safety campaigns. "That's good news for the poor," he said.

• The dominant spiritual message was the need for neighbor love and the social justice activity neighbor love entails.

• A number of social justice ministries were represented at the conference. The most popular booth belonged to Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee, (a Share5 Partner ministry!) with its slogan--"Drink Coffee. Do Good."--and its endless urns of really good joe. The ministry helps Rwandan genocide survivors to form coffee-growing co-ops, then helps them speed their best beans to market where they command top prices. These co-op farmers typically increase their revenues by a factor of 4.5, exceeding the prices paid in fair-trade programs. Land of a Thousand Hills markets their product to and through churches.

            (all excerpts pulled directly from the Christianity Today article...)

It is great to hear that there is a movement of compassion finding its way into all corners of Chrisitanity today.  If not compassionate, what are we when it comes to our daily lives?  If we lack compassion, can we really call ourselves Christ-like?

At the Heart of a Movement...

Tonight as I caught up on some blog reading two of the people I follow posted something that while great each in their own right were like peanut butter and chocolate... better together.  As such, I present them to you here in combined form.  First, Carlos Whittaker posted a great video on 7 Tips to Starting a Movement.  Using this great video as an illustration, Carlos points out the following:

1. One man can start a movement.
2. A movement need not be started by the most skilled member of the movement.
3. When beginning your movement and you look around and no one else is joining the dance, just keep dancing.
4. When the one guy who joins your movement slowly fades away, keep going.
5. Before you know it, the people joining your movement won’t even know you started it.
6. When your movement takes a life of it’s own, just let go. There will be no stopping it.
7. The very people who are staring at you like your nuts as you movement alone, will be the very same people dancing the hardest in the end.

The very next blog I read was from my friend, photographer Daley Hake.  Daley's blog entries are typically photos with an artistic eye.  Today was different.  Today he opted instead for a thousand words.  Today he gave his heart in narrative form about something he is passionate about... seeing justice happen for 12 teenage girls entrapped is sexual exploitation in Honduras.  He implored his readers to take up the cause, to begin a movement.  (Read the full article here) 

He asked people to stop sitting on the grass on the sideline watching the dance and to begin dancing.

Way to go Daley.  We're in.  Thanks for showing us how to dance. 

What will your response be?

Compassion, Sacrifice, Passion, Teamwork, Leadership - they are the things movements are made of.  Start one or join one, but don't just stand around and watch everyone else dance!