Environmental Missions

Environmental Missions defines an emerging category in missions, one that takes seriously both the mandate to evangelize the world and the responsibility of caring for God’s good earth. Lowell Bliss was a traditional church planting missionary in India when his best Hindu friend there died of malaria. This was just one of the events that led him to reexamine the politically charged term “environment,” understanding it now as simply “that which surrounds those we love, those for whom Jesus died.” In other words, the church is called to reach not only vulnerable people but the space in which they live and breathe.

Pointing to the narrative of Scripture and the history of missions, Bliss shows us that the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for the whole creation, that we must unite two traditionally separate endeavors to fulfill the entirety of God’s commission, and that the challenge of the environmental crises of our day is also one of our greatest opportunities to reach the least reached with the love of Christ.

It is a privilege to accompany Lowell through the twists and turns of his reflection.... We can all pray that the profound and heartfelt experiences and longings that Lowell shares with us in these pages touch our hearts too. The creation is groaning, but the kingdom of God is coming—it is vital that our proclamation of Jesus should bring hope to all creation, and authentic missional callings should, whatever their nature, extend to the healing of our fractured relationship with the world around us that is God’s handiwork, created for his glory and to witness to his character. The inspiration of those like Lowell and Robynn, his wife, who have poured themselves out in pursuit of such callings is a gift indeed.
— Peter Harris, founder of A Rocha, in the Foreword

Foreword by Peter Harris

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Three Ways Missionaries Clear the Polluted Air
2. What Is Environmental Missions?
3. William Carey, an Environmental Missionary
4. Profile of an Environmental Missions Field
5. Old Testament Basis: A Mandate to Bless
6. New Testament Basis: Jesus the Reconciler
7. Environmental Missions and the Future of Creation
8. Praxis: Bible in One Hand, Shovel in Another
9. Sin as Unfaithful Stewardship
10. The Environmental Missionary’s Gospel: A New Story for a New Man
11. Prayer: Mining for Worship and Wisdom
12. Topics in Environmental Missions

Epilogue: Putting Wheels on the Vehicle

Appendix 1: The Lausanne Global Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel: Call to Action

Appendix 2: Origin of the Terms: A Brief Survey

Appendix 3: Lessons from Four Environmental Mission Leaders

Bibliography

Index

Author

Lowell Bliss

Lowell Bliss
Lowell Bliss is the director of Eden Vigil, an environmental missions organization launched by Christar in 2009. Lowell led the writing team for the Lausanne Global Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel “Call to Action” and is one of the few evangelical Climate Leaders with the Climate Reality Project. He and his wife, Robynn (co-author of Expectations and Burnout), were church planting missionaries for fourteen years in India and Pakistan. They now reside with their three children in the tallgrass prairie ecosystem of Kansas.

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Pages: 348
Publisher: William Carey Publishing
William Carey Publishing
Binding: Paperback
Publish Year: 2013
ISBN: 9780878085385
Vendor: William Carey Library