All done!

Three months of planning, writing, praying and creativity and now, a bit of rest before we get into 2010.

The first day of the new year of 2010, was spent driving back to Madison, WI from St. Louis, MO where we had spent the previous week with about 13,000 students and 3,000 other attendees both experiencing — and in some ways helping to shape — the future of missions in the US.
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No one comes to Urbana for fun. This is not a “winter break” vacation. Not by a long shot.

There are a couple of common threads that we have heard from each of the over 100 students we have talked to at our Urbana09 booth and the countless others that we have sat next to in the morning worship service, met in the lunch line or ridden with in the hotel elevator.

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From Urbana09 in St. Louis, Missouri, the question is raised … What are the challenges that students face (and we face) with this thing we call Environmental Missions or creation care?

We had the first of the “Environmental Track” seminars today and the students, through their questions and extremely outgoing personalities told us a lot about what they think, what they fear and what they expect.

Here’s the story in a nutshell.

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My recent experience of presenting the Our Father’s World seminar material in Manila, Philippines, triggered the following thoughts…

There is a story – a parable, really – that I use at the end of my Our Father’s World seminar presentations.  It goes something like this:

Let’s pretend that we’re on a refugee ship of some kind.  We’re part of a Christian ministry, and we’re taking a ship load of refugees to a new land, where they can start their lives over again.  The ship is crowded, and we have a lot of work to do to care for the passengers and to keep things running smoothly during the three week voyage. Read more »

We occasionally receive comments through the Care of Creation website ‘contact us’ form wondering exactly what it is we’re talking about.  Some of these comments come from, um, cranks – but others are thoughtful and sincerely questioning.  Environmental stewardship as a central part of Christian ministry is new for a lot of people, and a comment that come through today was in that vein.

A couple of the things our inquirer said:

I have to ask just what is “environmental sin”? If Jesus had wanted this to be our “ministry” wouldn’t He have stated it?  …Do you believe that we can do nothing to stop the “groaning” of creation which is under the curse of sin? …I can definitely see the need to couple the gospel with compassion but to couple it with saving a planet that God says will eventually be destroyed by Him seems…er impractical at best.

I responded as below.  Those of you who have read my book or heard me speak will recognize that this is essentially what I’ve been writing and preaching for at least the last 10 years or so… Read more »

So I’m sitting in a motel room in Missouri, preparing for an Our Father’s World Seminar in Manhattan, Kansas.  Everything is ready.  A lot of people have been doing a lot of work for many months to make this event happen.  Tomorrow I’ll pull into town, check out the venue, work with my friends and local coordinators Robynn and Lowell Bliss to set up tables, and wait for people to come…

Um, maybe.  A late spring snow storm has blizzard (that’s right, BLIZZARD) warnings being posted throughout the central plains, apparently including Manhattan.  So what’s a poor seminar speaker to do? Read more »