• Archive of "stewardship" Category

    Tending to Eden: An Interview with Author, Scott Sabin

    March 3, 2010 // 1 Comment »

    About a month ago I offered a book review of Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People by Scott Sabin.  Scott is the Executive director of Plant with Purpose.

    Plant With Purpose is an international environmental organization that transforms lives in rural areas where poverty is caused by deforestation. For over 25 years, Plant With Purpose has provided lasting solutions to heal the relationship between people and their environment by planting trees, revitalizing farms, and offering loans to create economic opportunity.

    Yesterday, I had the chance to actually interview Scott and ask him a few questions about the book.  Besides providing an overview of Plant with Purpose and the book, Tending to Eden, we spend some talking about the devastation in Haiti, one of the places where they serve, the vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation, and the relationship between creation care and the gospel.  The whole interview (~ 22 mins.) is worth the selection of the book that Scott reads toward the end.

     Interview w/ Scott Sabin: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

    If you’re reading this in a feed reader and don’t see the audio player, click through to see it.

    Use THIS LINK to see others who wil be participating in the blog tour today, to find out more about Plant with Purpose, and to purchase the book.  If you buy the book through the Amazon link on this page, a portion of the proceeds will directly benefit the rural poor.

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    Posted in books, creation, environment, interview, justice, stewardship

    Book Review – Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People

    February 6, 2010 // 3 Comments »

    I was fortunate enough to receive a pre-release copy of Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People by Scott C. Sabin from Judson Press.

    Sabin is the Executive Director of Plant with Purpose, a Christian relief and development agency.

    Christians have a responsibility to love and care for our environment as part of God’s creation and Sabin gets that for sure, but that’s not the genius of the book.  The real beauty of this book comes in the author’s ability to explain to readers, with remarkable insight and simplicity, the inherent connection between caring for the environment and caring for the poor and oppressed. He does so by providing a relational framework for understanding the issues throughout the book.  Through first-hand stories and lessons learned from years of experience, Sabin unmasks the naivete and ignorance of the brand of evangelicals for whom creation care is auxiliary to (their version of) the gospel.  He suggests – at times more implicitly than explicitly, that all the challenges we face, as well as the solutions to those problems, are relational in nature

    Throughout the book, the author tackles issues such as deforestation, sustainable agriculture, sanitation, grassroots enterprise, and climate change.  In each case, his aim is to point out how our engagement with these issues has everything to do with out concern for those who are most globally at-risk.

    For Sabin,

    …without God, all the development and environmental restoration in the world will not bring transformation.

    At the same time, he is able to articulate that transformation is not something other than God-infused labors of development and environmental restoration.

    As someone who believes that one of the hallmarks of the missional church is listening to voices from the margins, I was struck by this comment from the author.

    The idea that stewardship and conservation are part of a liberal agenda seems ludicrous in much of the developing world.  I remember the shock on the face of our Dominican director when I tried to explain the suspicion with which many U.S. churches regarded the environmental aspects of our work.  It was a horrifying thought to him that American Christians would be less than enthusiastic about caring for the earth.  Many of our brothers and sisters in the developing world are way ahead of us in their understanding of stewardship, and there is much that we can learn from them.

    For anyone wishing they could find a book that offers a global view of some of the most pressing environmental challenges without getting lost and confused in technical jargon, this book is an excellent resource. The book even features a discussion guide at the end for each chapter making it an excellent choice for groups interested in studying and talking about these issues together.  Through raising our awareness and offering practical suggestions, Sabin offers readers a hope for the future that is rooted not in our ability to affect change, but in God’s invitation to join him in his mission of the reconciliation of all things.

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    Posted in books, environment, missional, stewardship

    The Power & Promise of Regional Gatherings for the Equipping of Missional Churches

    October 20, 2009 // 11 Comments »

    A bit of background to this post…

    I used to want to be the next Rick Warren or Bill Hybels.  What student pastor in the late 90′s didn’t?  As I look back, my misaligned, youthful arrogance was fueled in large part by the national conferences I was attending.  Predicated on the modern notion that bigger is always better, these conferences communicated and celebrated the paradoxical and lamentable reality of “Christian celebrity.”

    These conferences sprang up from and in turn sought to facilitate the modern megachurch phenomenon.  And, in my opinion, did/do more harm than good.  In the Christian world, when it comes to conferences, the national variety tends to capitalize on the “cool factor,” something that seems grossly out of place to me now for those who follow a crucified Savior.

    At national conferences there are typically big name speakers, higher attendance and more bells and whistles.  (Maybe even a dude jumping into a foot of water from 35 feet up?)  National conferences, at least the better ones, can have value for inspiring people I suppose, but I would venture to say that regional gatherings possess far more power and value in terms of their ability to help shape and equip the church and her leaders.  Here’s just a few reasons why I say that.

    • Relationships are more easily cultivated and sustained
    • With greater ease and interest, topics of conversation move from the theoretical to the practical
    • Traveling costs are much lower
    • Conference costs are much lower (if not free like Verge LA which my friend JR Woodward (@dreamawakener) is helping to put together
    • Conversations regarding context and culture gain more immediate traction
    • The loss of the “cool factor” translates into a higher caliber of fellow attenders
    • Virtually everyone gets to participate in meaningful ways
    • There is greater access to gifted people who would probably never get invited to present at a national gathering because they are w/o book deals and cult followings
    • There is no hype to distract from the more important issues being addressed
    • Young and impressionable leaders aren’t made to feel inadequate or handed delusions of grandeur

    For these reasons and still others, I am hopeful that we will see more and more groups who exist to strengthen the missional church and her leaders investing in regional gatherings.  And where and when national gatherings continue, my hope is that they will focus on supporting regional networks, leaving the hype behind.

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    Posted in church, conference, leadership, missional, modernity, networking, preaching/teaching, stewardship, sustainability, western culture

    Make the World Better – One Link at a Time

    October 14, 2009 // 1 Comment »

    Every now and then I do a little shoutout for Better World Books.

    bwb.orgI love books, and I get excited whenever someone recommends a book they think I’d be interested in.  But I have to be honest, every time I see a book referenced with a link to Amazon, Google, or some other corporate giant that isn’t doing anything unique and creative for the good of others, I get a little sad.  So here’s my pitch for you to make Better World Books your Go-To place for shopping, referencing, selling, and checking out books.

    They’re into recycling.

    They buy books back from you.

    They work for global literacy.

    They are committed to social awareness and sustainability.

    They never charge you shipping!

    —————————————-

    You can subscribe to their blog.

    Follow them on twitter.

    Connect on Facebook.

    Check out their stuff on YouTube.

    Grab a gift certificate for someone.

    And if you get really inspired, you can get me something off my wishlist ;)

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    Posted in books, stewardship, sustainability

    Bi-Vocational Ministry & the Missional Church

    October 11, 2009 // 1 Comment »

    I’ve appreciated the conversation that has taken place on my previous post on bi-vocational ministry.

    I’ve got a few ideas for follow up posts on the subject – thinking about how and where this practice intersects with theological education, community/spiritual formation, support raising, stewardship & sustainability, etc.  However, I think it might be most helpful to clarify how I understand the relationship between bi-vocational ministry and missional ecclesiology.

    As I have said numerous times before, being missional is no mere add-on to current church practice.  Nor is it a shift any particular church community might make without rethinking those things which are most fundamental.  A truly missional ecclesiology arises out of a particular way of doing theology and the understandings of things like the gospel and salvation that emerge as a result.

    While I can see why people from various ecclesial backgrounds might resonate with bi-vocational ministry as a model for church leadership, I think it makes most sense within a truly missional framework.  Here’s a few reasons why.

    Missional churches gain their identity from the Missio Dei.  Their understandings of the gospel and salvation are defined by the very notion of participation in the life and mission of God in the world.  Appropriately, they would happily embrace a model of church leadership which creates a participatory context.

    Since missional churches see Christendom as a cultural condition which distorts rather than enhances Christian discipleship and witness, it is no wonder that they would shy away from models of church leadership predicated on its very existence. As Christendom continues to crumble, the viability of multiple full-time church staff will continue to crumble with it.

    Because missional churches seek to shape a people who are passionate about God’s redemption of the whole world, it would be second nature for them to embrace a kind of ministry in which the leaders of the community model the practice of vibrant Christian witness in the marketplace.

    For me anyway, it’s the theological connection and not the pragmatic rationale of bi-vocational church leadership that is most motivating.

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    Posted in bi-vocational, church, community, leadership, missional, spiritual formation, stewardship, sustainability, theology

    Theology of Ecology

    August 20, 2007 // 1 Comment »

    Here’s a great short paper by Matt Krick on the relationship between how we understand God and how we understand creation. I’m inclined to side with Matt in asserting that our salvation is inexorably linked with our stewardship of all of creation.

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    Posted in creation, salvation, stewardship, theology

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