Podcasts about creation care

DateNovember 9, 2025SynopsisIn this sermon, the second in our In Good Company series, we dive deep into the extraordinary life of Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Her childhood lessons about the sacredness of the wild fig tree rooted a life of radical faithfulness. We explore how her seemingly small act—planting seven trees—grew wild and untamed, like the kingdom of heaven itself, becoming a powerful movement for environmental justice, women's empowerment, and political liberation. Our small efforts matter, reminding us that we are called to root healing and hope wherever we are.About The Local ChurchFor more information about The Local Church, visit our website. Feedback? Questions? Comments? We'd love to hear it. Email Brent at brent@thelocalchurchpbo.org.To invest in what God's doing through The Local Church and help support these podcasting efforts and this movement of God's love, give online here.

Spiritual Pathways for Environmental Restoration Guest Rev. Rachel Field, Program Manager, An Episcopal Path Spending time in nature, one sees God's creativity all around us, and so develops an appreciation for the divine intelligence behind the beauty, functionality and mystery of Nature. The Creation Story in the Book of Genesis tells of God creating the heavens, the earth, the fish, the birds, all the other creatures and, finally, man and woman. Children of the Cherokee Nation hear the story of Grandmother Spider, who, they are told, embodies the creative force of the universe, having woven the network that interconnects all living beings and symbolizes the importance of ecosystems, community and relationships. There is something to be learned from these and other creation stories. Reverend Rachel Field joins us to talk about our role in Creation Care. She is the Program Manager for An Episcopal Path to Creation Justice, an initiative equipping church communities to grow in knowledge and skills as they progress along the four-fold path: Prayer, Learning, Action, and Advocacy. Rachel explains these four pillars in detail and draws on diverse approaches for diverse contexts. Those walking an Episcopal Path commit to form and restore a loving, liberating, life-giving relationship with all of Creation, and they collaborate with other faith organizations. Rachel shares her deep wisdom and shines a light by framing our environmental degradation as a “spiritual crisis” and showing us the power of spiritually enlightened engagement. Rachel has more than 15 years of experience leading creation-centered retreats in the Episcopal Church. She is also Owner/Director of Heartberry Hollow Farm & Forest, which is a regenerative farm and retreat center in central Vermont. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a certificate in Contemplative Leadership from the Shalem Institute. She is a member of the Clergy at Parish of St. Mary in Northfield, VT. INFORMATION RESOURCES View my fabulous spider web photos https://substack.com/home/post/p-174923967 Learn more about “An Episcopal Path to Creation Justice” https://www.episcopalcreationpath.org/ Engage with the BTS Center - Cultivating and Nourishing Spiritual Leadership for a Climate-Changed World https://thebtscenter.org/ Read about the Creation Care curriculum: Love God, Love God's World https://www.episcopalchurch.org/ministries/creation-care/love-god-love-gods-world-curriculum/ Join Rachel on a Walking Meditation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hHCViU1YFo Visit Heartberry Hollow Farm and Forest heartberryhollowfarmandforest@gmail.com Purchase Wendy's book, The Angel Heart - https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Heart-Wendy-Nadherny-Fachon/dp/1967270279/ref=sr_1_1 Read about DIPG: Eternal Hope Versus Terminal Corruption by Dean Fachon begin to uncover the truth about cancer - https://dipgbook.com/ Learn more at https://netwalkri.com email storywalkerwendy@gmail.com or call 401 529-6830. Connect with Wendy to order copies of Fiddlesticks, The Angel Heart or Storywalker Wild Plant Magic Cards. Subscribe to Wendy's blog Writing with Wendy at www.wendyfachon.blog. Join Wendy on facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/StoryWalkingRadio

Christina Bagaglio Slentz is Associate Director for Creation Care for the Catholic Diocese of San Diego. Learn about how her diocese prioritizes climate action here.In this episode, we often refer to Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato si' and the ways that faith communities are living out its stated goals. We also discuss the theme “seeds of peace and hope,” the official theme for the 2025 ecumenical Season of Creation.Many thanks to Christina for sharing her wisdom in this conversation!Christina SlentzTRANSCRIPTChristina Slentz I think this really can help us understand the way that the cry of the Earth, these environmental climate extremes, or the variability that we're experiencing, leads to greater exposure—but how one community can face that exposure and adapt or bounce back fairly quickly and another may not really have that capacity.Debra Rienstra Welcome to the Refugia Podcast. I'm your host, Professor Debra Rienstra. Refugia are habitats in nature where life endures in times of crisis. We're exploring the concept of refugia as a metaphor, discovering how people of faith can become people of refugia: nurturing life-giving spaces in the earth, in our human cultural systems, and in our spiritual communities, even in this time of severe disturbance. This season, we're paying special attention to churches and Christian communities who have figured out how to address the climate crisis together as an essential aspect of their discipleship.Today, I'm talking with Dr. Christina Bagaglio Slentz, Associate Director for Creation Care at the Catholic Diocese of San Diego. Christina has a background in sociology, with a PhD in international studies and global affairs. She's also a Navy veteran. Today, she serves a diocese of 97 parishes, helping to guide and empower people in their creation care work. The Diocese of San Diego is a microcosm of diverse biomes and diverse people, and it's a fascinating example of refugia, because as a diocese, they are doing all the things. Christina and I talk about Laudato si', solar energy, economics, eco spirituality, environmental justice advocacy, the centrality of the Eucharist, and the mutuality between caring for neighbor and caring for the Earth. Let's get to it.Debra Rienstra Christina, thank you so much for being with me today. I really appreciate talking to you.Christina Slentz Thank you, Debra, for having me. I'm really excited to be here.Debra Rienstra So I am eager to hear more about the Diocese of San Diego, because it seems that you have been very intentional and thoughtful and ambitious about your creation care agenda, and we're going to get into the details of that in just a minute, but I want to start with you. So tell us your hero origin story. How did you get into faith-based environmental work and into your current position?Christina Slentz Well, to be honest, I never saw it coming in many ways. I was working in the global affairs area, looking at sources of conflict and cooperation and how political economy intersects with those dynamics, and that was my academic area of focus. And at the same time, I've always been a catechist in the Catholic church since the 90s, and my church life was pretty comfortable, I would say, and active. But I didn't really see those two things coming together until Laudato si', the encyclical written by Pope Francis on the care of our common home, was released in 2015, and this really started to bring more overlap between these two areas in my life. And I would say, increasingly, then there was a lot of interplay between those focus areas for me. And eventually this position became available in the Diocese of San Diego, and a friend mentioned it to me, and I thought that is actually the perfect vocation for me. And I really feel like I understood it to be a vocation, not just a job.Debra Rienstra Yeah, I think I can relate to everything you just said. I think we came to this work from different areas of specialty, but yeah, like you, I feel like we've had these mid-career shifts where suddenly our area of specialty—in my case, literature and creative writing—has become energized by—in your case, Laudato si', in my case, other documents as well as Laudato si',—and we've sort of taken this fascinating and yeah, I would agree, vocational, turn. So let's talk a little bit more about Laudato si'. I imagine our listeners know at least a little bit about it. It's been so enormously influential. It's such an amazing landmark document. Could you talk a little bit about how you've seen Laudato si' diffuse through the Catholic Church, especially the American Catholic Church?Christina Slentz Yes, I think, to be honest, it has had a complicated journey with the Catholic community here in the United States. Very much like the issue of climate change in the global community, the United States has struggled with these dynamics—I think the way that they involve our economics and some of our very strong ideology about economic freedom and what that means to people. And so I think it's fair to say that while Laudato si' was very warmly received around the world, it has struggled in the United States as a whole, and that includes the American Catholic community. That said, there have been—like your description of refugia suggests——there have been these pockets, though, where I think that particular dynamics existed, and there was fertile ground for seeds to be planted. And the Diocese of San Diego is one of them. The Diocese of—the Archdiocese of Atlanta was another. There are a couple around the country, and I do think some footholds were created. In addition, one of the things that is particularly interesting about the encyclical Laudato si'—and an encyclical is just a document that a pope writes and then circulates, right, this is where the word encyclical comes from—circulates around until everyone's had a chance to read it. We can imagine in medieval times, you know, how this must have been a challenge. And I think that, you know, this challenge exists, but Father Emmett Farrell is the founder of this ministry in my diocese, and Father Emmett just celebrated his 60th anniversary of his ordination, and Father Emmett will say he has never seen an encyclical translate to action the way that Laudato si' has. And in particular, there is a Vatican online platform called the Laudato si' Action Platform, where Catholics—either parishes, schools, orders of sisters or religious—can get on this platform and learn about the dynamics that we face. They can see how our values are distilled into seven goals, and then they can reflect on their behavior, using this tool to sort of measure where they are, and then write a plan of action and upload it and share it with each other. And Father Emmett really celebrates how amazing it is that, you know, that we're going to lean into technology and use it for the good.Debra Rienstra Oh, awesome. There's so many things I want to follow up on in that answer. And I want to begin by just thanking you for being honest about pushback to Laudato si' in the US. And I want to go back to that in just a second, if it's okay. And then I want to thank you for the way you've thought about, you know, some of these dioceses like the mighty San Diego and the mighty Atlanta as sort of refugia spaces. And we'll come back to that again too, I really hope, and I want to hear some more details about your particular diocese. Why do you think there has been pushback in the American Catholic Church? You mentioned economic reasons, and you know, Pope Francis and Pope Leo now have both been very pointed in their critique of climate denial, of greed, of exploitation, injustice, war, economic systems that many Americans have sort of held as almost sacrosanct. So what are you noticing in Catholic conversations about that critique? Why are people resisting the critique and why are people saying, “No, that's right”—what are the motivations behind each of those responses?Christina Slentz So, you know, we could probably talk about this all day.Debra Rienstra Probably, yeah.Christina Slentz Because economic peace, I think, is really difficult to think about. You know, if we take the United Kingdom, for example, it's a country very much like the United States. So many of our you know, American culture and tradition and customs come out of that early launching that we experienced from, you know, Great Britain. And yet, as the topic of climate change came forward, Margaret Thatcher, who was, you know, a real compatriot of President Ronald Reagan at the time, she really took the scientific approach in thinking about climate change, and this set them on a path that's really different from the path that we experienced. And certainly, oil is a big factor in our economy. And I think it can be a real challenge for people to weigh the goods, you know, because we have to be honest, there are goods in both sides of these dynamics. When we understand the gravity, though, of climate change, if we're allowed to really get into those dynamics without the noise that has been kind of confronting that potential, then I think we can see that the good outweighs, you know, those alternative goods associated with continuing in the fossil fuel realm. But this is why we talk about a just transition, right? I think that many people who are hearing this noise, right, they don't understand that Pope Francis and others, you know, is really arguing for a just transition, and that would seek to care for the people that are going to be affected by whatever change in economic policy might make.Debra Rienstra Yeah, and more and more, those economic changes are actually positive in favor of transition in ways that they weren't even 5-10 years ago.Christina Slentz Yeah, I think it's amazing. We actually had some good momentum going until recently.Debra Rienstra Yeah, you know, I would love to get us all talking about a just and joyful transition, because it's more and more possible. And maybe we'll come back to that a little bit later too, when we talk about ecological spirituality. But let's go back to these places within the American Catholic Church, even, that are saying, “Oh yes, Laudato si', yes, let's go.” And San Diego diocese is one of those places. You had an action plan already in 2019. I think it's impressive that a diocese could get a plan together in four years. So good job. Knowing how long everything takes in church settings. So just give us a list of your accomplishments. What have you been up to since 2019? What are the kinds of things you've dipped your toes into?Christina Slentz Sure, and to be fair, I want to give some good credit to some others. You know, the Archdiocese of Atlanta had created their creation care action plan. This gave us some really good kind of framework to think about when we created ours. And there was a team that preceded me. They were all volunteers, very multidisciplinary in their backgrounds, everything from theologians to medical doctors who had worked with indigenous communities, you know, theologians, missionaries, energy engineers, and they really pulled this together early on. And this plan I now recognize as what climate action planners might refer to as an aspirational plan. It's all the things you could do in our area, and it serves as a really good resource for our parishes and schools as they think about what they might do in their Laudato si' action platform plans, and those are yearly plans that are really targeted on what we're going to do. So, you know, one of the things that they did early on was really push to solarize. And you know, we do have the great fortune of, one: climate here in San Diego, right? You know, we're sort of famous for that. And then you know, two: the other thing is that, you know, it was very normative to be shifting to solar, and continues to be an economic choice that is not really as politicized here as much as it might be elsewhere. And then the third thing was this is, you know, the magic number three is to have a bishop that is supportive. And so Cardinal McElroy—now Cardinal McElroy, then Bishop McElroy—really promoted this solarization. And at this point we have about 54% of our parishes solarized. And when I think now, you know, the Paris Climate Agreement says we want to have about half of our carbon emissions reduced by 2030 then you know, we're sitting at about half. Our building where I'm located is called our pastoral center. Some Catholic communities call it their chancery. And our solar array here provides over 80% of our electricity to the building. Our local utility is about half renewable energy, a little bit more. So with that in mind, you know, our electricity here to our building is a little over 90% coming from renewable energy, and this lets us have seven electric vehicle charging stations in the parking lot so I can go to work and charge my car at the same time.Debra Rienstra Lovely.Christina Slentz So that was one big thing. I would say our other really big kind of landmark action that also was largely driven by Cardinal McElroy, was to divest of fossil fuels. And, you know, this is a real challenging thing to accomplish. We set a goal of no more than 5% of, you know, the earnings of both direct and indirect investment to be coming from fossil fuel. And after a year, we evaluated how we were doing, and we were actually hitting—not we, you know, the financial folks doing this—were hitting less than 3%. So, you know, we said, “Okay, I think we can say that this was successful, and we're still here.” So that was really exciting, and we didn't do it to be virtue signaling. Just, you know, for some of your listeners may not know, but the USCCB, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has a document that directs socially responsible investment for all areas. And so this is just one more area of socially responsible investment that the Diocese of San Diego has embraced.Debra Rienstra Yeah, yeah. So we've got money, we've got energy. How many parishes would you say are on board with this, doing yearly goals, selecting from the menu of fun ideas—what percentage of your parishes would you say are involved?Christina Slentz So I gotta, Debra, that's a little bit of a good question. I think, you know, we did just describe two very top-down approaches. And one of the things that our group, you know, when I came on board in 2022, we decided is, you know, we really wanted to push that grassroots. And so we see parishes demonstrating a range of behaviors, and I was initially surprised, but they actually behave a lot like countries around the world. And so, you know, you think, oh, that's going to be different. But, you know, you can also have three children, and they all behave differently, and you know, sometimes that's surprising as well, when they have the same parents. And so one of the things that I have really tried to do was offer more events that are here at the diocesan level. We have 97 parishes, and then we have—so sometimes we'll see individuals that are really on board, and they come from a parish where, at the parish level, not a lot is happening. Sometimes we have individuals that are participating, and they are doing a ton at their parish and succeeding. And then we have parishes where the pastor is leading the charge. And then on top of that, I would say there are parishes where they have solar and they have drought-resistant landscaping, and they have LEED silver certified buildings that, you know, are very environmentally friendly. And yet, you know, at the parishioner level, you know, not as much activity happening. So it is an array of activities. I would say probably half have had some kind of interaction with us, or have had parishioners or students participate in our programs. But you know, we reflect the American Catholic community, which reflects the broader American society as well. So there are places where we struggle, and then there are places where we see a lot of action and shining.Debra Rienstra Yeah, sure. And I really appreciate that. And I think listeners can relate to that range of involvement too. Maybe they are in any one of those categories or some other category themselves. And you know, as you say, it's the modeling of— even if it's a minority, it's the modeling and the enthusiasm and the even implicit sort of educating of others that can make this work spread too. So I want to list the seven goals of the Laudato si' action platform, because I think they're really, really great and helpful to people who are not in the Catholic Church, but in other aspects of the church, you might find these goals useful too. So here are the goals: response to the cry of the Earth, response to the cry of the poor, ecological economics, adoption of sustainable lifestyles, ecological education, ecological spirituality, community resilience and empowerment. So I want to start with the first three. We've talked a little bit about economics and how dicey that can be, but I wonder if you could describe how you see the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor as basically the same cry, as Pope Francis said in Laudato si'. How do you see that, especially in your region?Christina Slentz Yeah, so thank you. I think these two are kind of the crown jewels, right? And they sum up what we see happening very well. I think that the other goals are valuable because they sort of pull out the dynamics that we really understand as informing those two big—response to the cry of the Earth and cry of the poor. So as someone who was looking at this through the lens of being a social scientist, I found these two goals to really sum it up well, because it is not just the exposure to the environment that causes our concern for these dynamics. It's the exposure as well as the sensitivity of that population. And then this helps us understand also, maybe some vulnerability that that population might have. So for example, we had significant flooding about a year and a half ago in January, the month of January, and the same rain fell on a parish in the southern part of the Diocese, close to our Mexican border, in an area that is, you know, less wealthy, probably demonstrates some socio economic features that we would associate with marginalized communities. And then it also fell on a parish in Coronado, California. And some people might recognize the Hotel Del Coronado as an iconic location. It's a beautiful community. There's a lot of wealth. There's a lot of human capital as well. You know, very highly educated group, and so the buildings at two of two parishes in each of these locations were completely flooded. But, you know, the parish in Coronado was up on its feet within a week. And of course, they had repairs that had to be done, but they were able to get a hold of those folks, get them in, pay the bills, get it all done. And the parish on the south side had catastrophic flooding to its school, and the school was a total loss.Debra Rienstra Oh, wow.Christina Slentz So I think this really can help us understand the way that the cry of the Earth, these environmental climate extremes, or the variability that we're experiencing, leads to greater exposure, but how one community can face that exposure and adapt or bounce back fairly quickly, and another may not really have that capacity. And so you can't really pull them apart, because just measuring precipitation doesn't always give you the whole story.Debra Rienstra That's a very, very helpful answer to that. And I sometimes hear in religious circles, you know, “Well, we have to worry about other people, why should we worry about owls or whatever?” And the answer is: well, because what happens in nature affects people. So this is about loving your neighbor. Even if you're not convinced by the idea that we love the Earth for its own sake because it's beloved of God, we still have to love our neighbor. And this is a neighbor issue as well. So thank you. That was very helpful as an explanation.Christina Slentz One of my favorite kind of messages is, you know, having been a student of globalization, you know, I think that we live in a globalized world. You can't put that toothpaste back in the tube, right? Maybe there are some things we can do and that can be helpful, but the bottom line is, our actions have ripple effects, and so no matter what we do, we are going to have these impacts on people far beyond those we know and love on a day to day basis. And when we care for the Earth, we mitigate those effects on people all around the world, and so our caring for creation really is just love of neighbor at global scale.Debra Rienstra Ah, lovely. Yeah, so it works both ways. If you love neighbor, you love the Earth. If you love the Earth, you love your neighbor.Christina Slentz That's right.Debra RienstraHi, it's me, Debra. If you are enjoying this podcast episode, go ahead and subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. If you have a minute, leave a review. Good reviews help more listeners discover this podcast. To keep up with all the Refugia news, I invite you to subscribe to the Refugia newsletter on Substack. This is my fortnightly newsletter for people of faith who care about the climate crisis and want to go deeper. Every two weeks, I feature climate news, deeper dives, refugia sightings and much more. Join our community at refugianewsletter.substack.com. For even more goodies, including transcripts and show notes for this podcast, check out my website at debrarienstra.com. D-E-B-R-A-R-I-E-N-S-T-R-A dot com. Thanks so much for listening. We're glad you're part of this community. And now back to the interview.Debra Rienstra Let's think about some of those more personal goals. I don't know, maybe they're not just personal, because everything is systemic too. But I want to talk about that sustainable lifestyle goal, adoption of sustainable lifestyle. So what does that mean, and how are people doing that in San Diego?Christina Slentz So I have a really amazing parish, St. Thomas More, and they have created a community garden that not only functions as a place for their parish to gather and work together, it also is open to the public, so it has an evangelical capacity as well. And they also collect recyclable cans and bottles and then take those to a facility where they can be paid for that recycling work, and then they take the money, and then they put it into this garden that allows them to gather and have a mission and have evangelical outreach. So I think of this as such a wonderful circular kind of example that is, you know, feeding them in many ways. You know, they have this sense of community. They have this sense of common, shared mission. They have a good relationship with the neighborhood around them, people that may be of different faiths or of no faith at all. And then they're also in good relationship with Mother Earth, and doing what they can to, you know, practice this sort of sustainability, or also a little bit like circular economics, I guess I would say as well. And I think one of the things that the Catholic Church is emphasizing is synodality, and our synodality really calls us to be community, to have a shared mission and really inviting participatory action. So in my building here, where we sort of have the headquarters, you know, we also have gone to compostables for all of our events, and we try to minimize any kind of single use plastics. But, you know, there's that dreaded moment at the end where everybody has to go to the three, you know, receptacles. Everyone panics, especially if I'm near them, and I feel terribly, you know, like, should I step away? Should I give them a moment to give them help? Is that overreach? And so, you know, but we all fumble through together, and that's where I've kind of said, like, “Look, it's not easy for me either. Like, God forbid I put the wrong thing in the wrong can, right?” So I think that there's this way where we all are coming together to sort of take on this work. And, you know, we're not going to be perfect, but, you know, I think that it does foster community when we take this on, and then also recognizing how, you know, now we are living with greater simplicity, and we are impacting the Earth, you know, to a lesser extent.Debra Rienstra Yeah, nothing bonds people like pulling weeds together, or standing over the recycle bins going, “Hmm.” It's okay. We don't have to indulge in recycling guilt, you know, just do your best. So I want to move on to ecological spirituality. I love that phrase. It's not one you hear everywhere. And I wanted to remind listeners that San Diego Diocese is the most biodiverse diocese in the US. Maybe we wouldn't have expected that, but you've kind of got everything there. So I want to talk about ecological spirituality in the context of that actual place. I love the sentiment you quoted from Laudato si' in an article you wrote recently. It was an idea from Pope Francis that in the beauties and wonders of the Earth, we experience God's friendship with us. And so I wanted to ask you how you're helping people in your parishes reconnect to the Earth where you are, and thus, and this is how you put it, “revive something of our true selves.”Christina Slentz Yeah, one of my favorite pieces in Laudato si': Pope Francis alludes to having a place in childhood where we felt a sense of awe and wonder. And I think that that awe and wonder allows us to get back to childhood in some ways, before there was a lot of noise before there was all the different distractions. And I think that that true self is also a little freer to connect to God. I think sometimes about little children and baby Jesus, you know, and that sort of immediate connection that's not really complicated, you know, it's just comfortable. Or feeling the love of God like being a child sitting on the lap of your mom or your dad. And so encouraging people, or providing opportunities for this return to that place of awe and wonder, I think is really important. I think that at the heart of our inability to care for creation is this estrangement from our Creator. So we won't care for something if we don't love it. And in this way, ecological spirituality may be step one in all of this, right? So I think we are really lucky, being here. As I mentioned, our climate is beautiful. It is a beautiful place. We have everything from the ocean to mountains to desert, and many people who live here do really connect with the geography and the beauty of where we are, and so inviting them to take a moment to just pause and think about those places. Think about their senses as they move through the memory of that space, I think is really important before we start any of the other conversations. And so I try to do that, and then we share about it. And I have yet to find somebody that says, “Oh, I just didn't have a place.” Everybody has a place. And many people will say, “I really struggled, because I love this place, and I love that place,” you know. And so it is really great to hear. And I think people really come out of an exercise like that with this new sense of common ground as well. And I think that is so important, right? Because if you ask people like, “Raise your hand, who hates trees?” No one's gonna do it, right? Don't even think anyone does. Or “Raise your hand if you like to litter.” No one's going to say, like, “Oh yeah, I really love throwing things out my window.” And so there is a lot more common ground. And I think that eco spirituality invites us to find out how much we have in common, and actually how much we all yearn for that place of connectedness.Debra Rienstra Oh, yeah. I've noticed, you know, people have so many different feelings that motivate what they might do in a faith and climate space, and there's anger, there's fear, a lot of anxiety. But the trick, I think, is to get to the center, which is love. And the quickest way to do that, maybe, is to find that early love, or a love that's developed over many, even generations, in a particular place, if you're lucky, and you're rooted in some way. I feel like we also, as people of faith, haven't made enough of a case that being closer to the creation is, in fact, a pathway to God. And I see that in a lot of the writings that you have too. It's a way of understanding God better. It's a way of allowing God to speak to us that we sometimes underestimate, I think. There's other ways, of course, but it's one that we tend to underestimate. It is a way to deeper spirituality. So getting people to be in touch with that, it sounds like you've you've worked on that a little bit.Christina Slentz We're very lucky. The Franciscan tradition is pretty rich and present here. The Franciscan School of Theology is located here at the University of San Diego.Debra Rienstra There we go.Christina Slentz I have several secular Franciscans on my team, and a few Franciscan friars. And you know, that's very much at the heart of St. Francis and St. Claire's tradition. St. Bonaventure, who is a Franciscan, actually calls nature, or the environment, the created world, like another book. It's another gospel that tells us something about God's plan.Debra Rienstra Yeah, yeah. So I wanted to quote from Pope Leo's message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which was September one. And I found his message so encouraging, and especially this particular paragraph, it's along the line of seeds here. He writes, “In Christ, we too are seeds, and indeed seeds of peace and hope. The prophet Isaiah tells us that the Spirit of God can make an arid and parched desert into a garden, a place of rest and serenity. In his words, a spirit from on high will be poured out on us, and the wilderness will become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the work of righteousness quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places.” So we have this beautiful vision and the sense of vocation of who we are and who our communities are as seeds of peace and hope. So it seems like you experience that in the San Diego Diocese. Are there some particular examples that have been really meaningful and important to you, where you see that “seeds of hope” metaphor being played out?Christina Slentz Yeah, I would point to two areas that I would offer up as good examples. One is a parish that is located in what's called Barrio Logan. It is an ecologically marginalized community. The highways literally forced the school to be moved when they put the highway in right down the middle of the community. And that's the I-5. So it runs all the way from Canada to Mexico. Big highway. In addition, the Coronado Bridge connects to the highway right there. The Navy base is there, and the Port of San Diego all intersects there. So their air quality is really degraded, and it's a socio-economically poor area. It is also a predominantly Hispanic community there. But the Jesuit pastor there, Father Scott Santa Rosa, is a very good community organizer. He led the parish when they were confronted by another warehouse that was going to be added at the port. And the proposal by the company violated the Port Authority's standards, but they were seeking a waiver, and Father Scott brought in the Environmental Health Coalition. He brought in a theologian from University of San Diego. He invited the youth to present on Laudato si' to the adults and really empowered the community, which is that seventh goal of Laudato si', it's very connected to environmental justice. And then they learned, they grew, they came to an understanding that this was not acceptable, and that they wanted to be a voice for their community. They—we traveled. I was very fortunate to kind of engage with them in this process.And we traveled to the Port Authority building the night before the Port Authority was going to make their decision on this, whether or not to grant this waiver. And we said a rosary, which consists of five sets of 10 Hail Marys, roughly. And between each set, somebody spoke and gave their witness. And one of the women stood up and said, “I never thought I would speak publicly in my whole life. I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe I'm speaking, but I found my voice because of this issue.” And I thought, even if we lose, that's such an amazing win that people felt connected to their environment. They understood that they have a voice. They understood their own dignity and the dignity of their community, and felt that it was worth standing up for. And the next day we went, there was demonstration and public witnessing and praying, and then they went in and spoke at the actual hearing. And the first thing that the chairman of the board said, in response to everyone's comments was, “Well, I'm a Catholic, and we have three priests that were here today.” And you know, how many times does a public official make a statement of faith? You know, I thought, “Okay, win number two!” And you know, I'll just go ahead and cut to the chase. And they turned down the company that wanted to put the warehouse in and said, “You know, we just don't think that you've convinced the local community that the benefits of this would be worth it.” And it was amazing.And so that place, they continue to also tend to the care of migrants. They have begun the work of accompanying migrants that are going for their court appointed hearings for their asylum process. And you know, those are not outcomes that are generally favorable, but they are just going and being present with them and, you know, we are on the border. We understand how some of these environmental impacts do entangle with human mobility. And so, you know, there's a lot that this community, that is really one of our poorest communities in San Diego, has brought to the wider San Diego Diocese as more parishes and local Catholics are now mimicking what they have done and joining in this mission, and so they've been an incredible source—this tiny little parish in a poor part of the Diocese with terrible environmental impacts, has actually been a place where things have blossomed and grown, and they actually do have an amazing garden as well.Debra Rienstra Wow, that's an incredible story, and exactly a story of empowerment and resilience, as you suggested, and a story of how low-resource people are not necessarily low-resource people. They have other kinds of resources that may not be visible to the outside, but that can be very powerful, and especially when one of those is faith. It was such a great example of people motivated not only by their, you know, sort of survival, but their faith to do this work. Yeah, wonderful.Christina Slentz I think they understand the impact, right? So if you can shut your windows and turn on your air conditioning, maybe you don't get it.Debra Rienstra Yeah, right. So what would you say are your biggest obstacles and your biggest joys in your work right now?Christina Slentz I think the biggest obstacle is coming up against Catholics and/or Christians, or really any person of faith. But I think this may be especially true to Catholics and Christians who think that our social actions have to be an “either/or” choice, and they resist a “yes/and” mentality, and so they put different issues in competition with each other, right? And, you know, sometimes they think about Cain and Abel, right? This sort of jealousy or comparison can be a real problem. Instead of saying, “Okay, maybe we don't fit in a neat box, but as Catholics, you know, we have to do all the things.” And that kind of privileging one issue or another issue makes us vulnerable to those who would seek division and competition. And I think that when we look at God, you know, God loves all of it, right? God is love, and so there isn't that discrimination in the example of our Creator, and I would, of course, we aren't perfect, you know, but we should aspire to that same kind of comprehensive love.Debra Rienstra Yeah, and we do it together. We don't all have to do every last one of the things. We do it together. What about joys? What are your greatest joys right now in your work?Christina Slentz I think that coming together is really a joy. When I first started this work, I felt like a unicorn. I could either be the only person of faith in an environmental group, or I could be the only environmentalist in a faith group. And so it just was a feeling of being awkward all the time. And I do think that just in the three years that I've been in this position, I am seeing momentum build. I think ecumenicalism is super helpful in this regard. And I think that increasingly people are finding each other, and they are starting to get a little bit of a wake up call. I think it is unfortunate that people in the United States have had to experience some significant catastrophes and human loss and impact before they start to awaken to the issue of climate change or environmental degradation. I think plastics are really a pretty significant issue as well, but I think that more and more, people seem to be coming around to it, and whenever we celebrate together, that gives me joy.Debra Rienstra Yeah, I agree. I'm seeing it happening too, and it keeps me going. It keeps me going to connect with people like you, and every door I open, there's more people of faith doing amazing work, and we are building that mycelial network. And it's pretty great. So what is your favorite gift of the Catholic Church, a gift of wisdom on creation care that you wish everyone would receive?Christina Slentz I am not sure I would say that this is my favorite. But maybe I think that it is very important, is that, you know, in the Catholic community, communion, Eucharist, is really, you know, the summit for Catholics, that each week, at a minimum, we are going to celebrate this liturgy. We break open the Word, and then we celebrate the Eucharist. And one of the things I, you know, find very compelling is the fact that Jesus celebrates at the Last Supper with bread and wine. Jesus didn't get grapes and, you know, a piece of meat, to celebrate that these were both chosen items that were not just created by God, but they involved, as we say, in our celebration, the work of human hands. And so this really represents this call to co-creation, I think. And if that is something that you know, is really at the heart of Catholicism, this, you know, summit of our faith to celebrate the Eucharist—in that, we are called to co-create. And so this tells us something about how we are meant to exist in relationship with the Creator. You know, God reveals God's self to us in the beauty of this creation or in the gift of the Eucharist, and then, in turn, we are called to respond to that love. Otherwise the revelation isn't complete, so our response is to care for creation or to receive the Eucharist, and then go and serve as God has called us to serve. So maybe, maybe this is something that we can offer up.Debra Rienstra So beautifully said, and the intimacy of eating, you know, taking the material, the fruit of the earth and the work of human hands, into ourselves, responding by the Spirit, that intimacy, that physicality, there's a reason that that is the central ritual.Christina Slentz And you know, if I could give you one last image connected to that—because then we become the tabernacle, right? And we think about Noah and the ark, right? And how, you know, creation is destroyed, but the ark holds this refugia right and until it's time for this moment of reconciliation and forgiveness and then renewed flourishing. And you may or may not have heard this story, but when the LA fires raged in Pacific Palisades in January of 2025 the fires swept across the parish and school called Corpus Christi Parish, and it is the home parish of brother James Lockman, one of my dear, dear volunteers. And there was a firefighter who went back to look at the ruins that evening, and he was Catholic, and he came across the tabernacle from the church, and it was the only thing that survived. And when they opened it up, it was pristine on the inside and undamaged. And that Sunday, they took it to St. Monica's Parish, which is one of the very animated creation care parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and they celebrated Mass there because Corpus Christi did not have a parish right to celebrate in that weekend. And I think about that tabernacle as being, you know—it's to reflect that Ark of the Covenant, right, Ark of Noah, the Ark of the Covenant. And then we have the tabernacle now, and that space of refuge that was preserved, you know. And then, of course, when we take the Eucharist into ourselves, we become that tabernacle. We're walking tabernacles, right? So we are also, then, places of refuge and where we know that God is with us and we can go and serve.Debra Rienstra Christina, it has been such a joy to talk to you. Thank you for your wisdom, for your inspiration, for the way that you deploy your expertise in such compassionate and far reaching ways. It's just been a pleasure. Thank you.Christina Slentz Oh, thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed talking today with you, Debra.Debra Rienstra Thanks for joining us. For show notes and full transcripts, please visit debrarienstra.com and click on the Refugia Podcast tab. This season of the Refugia Podcast is produced with generous funding from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. Colin Hoogerwerf is our awesome audio producer. Thanks to Ron Rienstra for content consultation as well as technical and travel support. Till next time, be well. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit refugianewsletter.substack.com

This is the talk from our 10:45 service on 2 November. The reading was Colossians 1:15-20 and Matthew 6:25-34. Our visiting speaker, Mike Perry, from A Rocha explored why creation care is central to Christian faith, not merely an optional extra. Drawing on biblical texts, he explained how caring for God's earth connects to our first commandment in Genesis, Christ's role in holding creation together, and our call to love our neighbours. The talk highlighted how the natural world teaches us about God and worships Him, whilst emphasising the urgent need for environmental action. The speaker outlined A Rocha UK's work, including their EcoChurch programme, nature reserves, and resources for individuals and churches seeking to engage with creation care as part of their discipleship and mission.

In this conversation, introduced by James Amadon, Forrest Inslee is a guest on the Holy Wild podcast, where he discusses his journey of transitioning from a traditional evangelical perspective to a more inclusive understanding of creation care. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing the interconnectedness of all creation and the need for a shift in the church's approach to environmental issues. The dialogue explores themes of ecological discipleship, the significance of listening to the land, and the role of spirituality in fostering a deeper connection with nature.Forrest and Victoria share their personal reflections on their experiences, and on the transformative power of community engagement in environmental stewardship. TakeawaysForrest's transition reflects a broader shift in understanding creation care.The church's focus has historically been on human needs, neglecting the environment.Listening to the land is crucial for effective ecological restoration.Copowerment emphasizes mutual reliance rather than top-down empowerment.Spirituality plays a significant role in fostering a connection with nature.The journey of ecological discipleship involves leaving behind outdated beliefs.Community engagement is essential for meaningful environmental action.Personal experiences with nature can lead to deeper spiritual insights.The interconnectedness of all beings is foundational to ecological care.Transformation requires patience and a willingness to embrace the unknown.Keywords spirituality, creation care, ecological discipleship, community development, environmental justice, church transformation, interdependence, listening to the land, co-powerment, nature connection Find us on our website: Earthkeepers Support the Earthkeepers podcast Check out the Ecological Disciple

Jim Longhurst preaches from Psalm 8 and Creation Care

Send us a textSusan and her friend, Dr. Jamie McNally, explore what it means to see all of creation as a sacred trust and how the well-being of humans and animals overlaps. Together, they reflect on the biblical call to steward the earth with care. With both theological and psychological insight, this conversation invites us to consider how loving God also means tending His creation.ABOUT JAMIE: Dr. Jamie McNally is a Licensed Professional Counselor, trauma specialist, moral injury researcher, and founder of Sycamore Counseling Services, a Michigan-based group practice, and Fortifyu, a wellness and coaching platform for animal care workers. With a background in mental health, military service, animal sheltering, and higher education, Jamie integrates her clinical training in EMDR and Compassion Fatigue with certifications in Veterinary Social Work and Somatic Breathwork. Her work centers on the mind-body connection and values-based and somatic healing to help those in animal care navigate moral injury, loss, and burnout by reconnecting with their values, bodies, and the healing power of the human-animal bond.Thanks for listening to the Embodied Holiness Podcast. We invite you to join the community on Facebook and Instagram @embodiedholiness. Embodied Holiness is a ministry of Parkway Heights United Methodist Church in Hattiesburg, MS. If you're in the Hattiesburg area and are looking for a church home, we'd love to meet you and welcome you to the family. You can find out more about Parkway Heights at our website.

Chuck Welden doesn't just talk real estate — he lives it.He's a landlord, developer, and manager who still picks up trash on his own properties. In this episode, Chuck brings the heat (and the humor), breaking down:

Sam shares All Things New, exploring how God's renewal includes the whole of creation. He highlights the Eco Church movement within New Zealand and invites us to take part in caring for God's world in practical, hope-filled ways.

September 29, 2025 | Dr. Sandra Richter Dr. Sandra Richter—the Robert H. Gundry Chair of Biblical Studies at Westmont College—explores the foundations...

Ben Notley preaching on Leviticus 25:8-17 on the 28th of September at our 10:45 am Service.

How Evangelical Communities in Indiana Are Leading Christian Climate Action In Indiana, evangelical churches are finding new ways to live out their faith through environmental action. With support from the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), congregations are installing solar panels, planting native gardens, creating nature play areas for preschoolers, and even adding electric vehicle charging stations. This initiative, often referred to by Christians as “creation care,” positions environmental stewardship and climate action as a biblical responsibility.What is the Evangelical Environmental Network?EEN is a biblically-based ministry and the environmental arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, dedicated to mobilizing Christians around climate action. By collaborating with churches, universities, and seminaries, the organization offers education on how creation care is a collective mission among evangelicals. In Central Indiana, this has meant congregations and Christian universities working together on eco-friendly infrastructure and community events such as Indy Creation Fest, an Earth Day-like celebration that joyfully highlights humanity's duty to conserve and steward the beauty God bestowed on us.Creation Care as Protecting the PoorA central theme of EEN's work is showing Christians that defending the poor and vulnerable also means addressing pollution — including from plastic, methane, and mercury — and climate change. Low-income communities often face the harshest impacts of extreme climate disasters, poor air quality, and contaminated water. By making this connection clear, EEN reframes environmentalism as an act of justice and compassion for humanity, aligning climate action with evangelical priorities. Their programs highlight not only environmental threats but also human health risks, from asthma linked to air pollution to the dangers of unsafe drinking water.The Building of a MovementCreation care is still a growing movement and remains a minority position within American evangelicalism. Some believers continue to prioritize human welfare over environmental stewardship without recognizing that the two are inseparable. Historically, evangelicals have been among the groups least likely to regard climate change as urgent and express wariness about climate science. While the visible progress in Indiana is promising, it remains only a small step in the broader effort to normalize creation care across the evangelical community. Nonetheless, by centering their approach on shared religious values, EEN helps evangelical Christians see climate action not as a burden, but as a natural extension of their mission to honor God and all of creation.About Our GuestRev. Dr. Jeremy Summers, the Director of Church and Community Engagement at EEN, emphasizes that caring for the environment and caring for people are one in the same. He works with churches, universities, and local communities to connect biblical principles with climate action, advancing the creation care movement within evangelical circles. Within these spaces, he urges Christians to understand that protecting ecosystems is necessary to protect the people who live in them, especially those from marginalized groups who suffer most from pollution, climate change, and environmental injustice. ResourcesEEN, The Evangelical Environmental NetworkNAE, National Association of EvangelicalsFurther ReadingThe New York Times, In Indiana, Putting Up Solar Panels Is Doing God's WorkAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, Evangelical Environmental Network: Mobilizing Religious Groups for Climate ActionThe Chronicle of Philanthropy, The ‘Eco-Right' Is Growing. Will Bipartisanship Follow?University of Arizona News, Researchers explore how to protect the environment while helping those living in povertyFor a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/evangelical-christians-taking-environmental-action-with-rev-dr-jeremy-summers/.

“On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.” ~Ezekiel 47:12 We conclude our summer worship series this week, Creation Care, with a passage from the book of the prophet Ezekiel. Around 586 BCE, the Babylonian army breached the walls of the city of Jerusalem and destroyed its most sacred site, the temple that King Solomon built. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, sent many of Jerusalem's residents into exile in Babylon. The people felt like all was lost. Nothing would ever be the same. Ezekiel was a prophet during the exile, and God gave him a vision of a re-created world, where fresh waters flowing from the temple will restore the earth and its people. As we complete our summer exploration of creation care, we will consider how, today, as God's people, we can be like water that heals and restores God's creation.

In this replay from Summer 2024, BibleWorm concludes our summer series on creation care with Ezekiel's vision of a river of life flowing from the temple as told in Ezekiel 47:1 –12. The prophet Ezekiel, writing from the devastation of the Babylonian exile, envisions a radical re-creation of the world that takes place when God's glory returns to the Jerusalem temple. What begins as a tiny trickle of water emerging from under the altar becomes a mighty river that turns even the Dead Sea into a thriving ecosystem teeming with fish. Along the river's banks grow fruit-bearing trees with healing leaves, transforming the desolate land of exilic Israel into a new Eden where both humans and the environment can thrive. What would happen, we wonder, if our communities of faith also became sources of God's life-giving water for the world? How might our desolate lands be transformed if we boldly proclaimed the glory of God in relationship with creation? It doesn't seem like much, we think. But even Ezekiel's raging river of life began as a tiny trickle. What if our efforts could do the same?

“If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” ~Leviticus 26:3-4 Throughout the summer we have had a series of different voices in the pulpit and this Sunday is our final summer guest preacher, Teddi Therkildsen. It is fitting that Teddi is preaching for us during this series on Creation Care because one of her passions in ministry has been Silver Lake Camp and Retreat Center. There are so many beautiful places to enjoy God's creation here in our beautiful state of Connecticut!

Zach Garcia, Indiana Outreach Director for Faith in Place, joins Kara and Matt to talk about creation care. Zach believes that congregations can be a powerful force in caring for the world we've been entrusted with. Resources Faith in Place (organization) "Helping Your Church Make Green Choices" by Maureen Wise (article) Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home (web resource) Biologos' Creation Care (web resource) Care of Creation (organization)

In this replay from Summer 2024, BibleWorm continues our series on Creation Care, with Leviticus 26:3-22, 34-35, and 40-45.  It's a text that presses the question – what happens when we lose track of the fact that we are part of magnificently interconnected system, and begin to imagine that we can – or even that we must -- function on our own? How does the anxious productivity of humans impact the rest of creation? And once we realize the harm we have caused, how do we move toward healing? We wish this text didn't feel as close to home as it does, but we are glad it's here. 

“May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works— who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.” - Psalm 104:31-33 (NRSVUE) We continue our Creation Care series with more poetry from the Psalms, turning to Psalm 104, a hymn of praise that celebrates the wonder and order of God's creation. The psalmist paints a breathtaking picture of a world teeming with life—mountains rising, springs flowing, trees sheltering birds, and seas alive with creatures beyond number. Psalm 104 reminds us that creation is not just background scenery; it is an active participant in God's ongoing work. Let's explore what it means to see the earth as God's dwelling place and our home—a sacred trust rather than a resource to exploit. How does this vision shape our relationship with the natural world? How do we join God in renewing the face of the earth? Together we'll reflect on gratitude, awe and praise as essential practices of faith. Come and discover how caring for creation is an act of worship, deeply rooted in the praise of God who gives life to all.

Caring for God's Creation: How Evangelical Christians Are Reframing Climate ActionAcross the United States, evangelical Christians are increasingly forging a connection between faith and climate action by redefining environmental work as a sacred duty to care for God's creation. By understanding sustainability through the lens of biblically mandated stewardship, more and more Christians are discovering renewed hope and purpose in addressing climate change.What Is Creation Care?To many evangelical environmentalists, caring for the Earth is not a political act. Rather, it is a spiritual duty. They believe that how we treat the planet should reflect how God treats us: with compassion, responsibility, and reverence. That means resisting the exploitation of natural resources and instead treating the Earth as a divine gift entrusted to humanity. Historically, however, environmentalism and climate science have been viewed as controversial in conservative Christian circles, seen as secular or partisan issues. But that perception is beginning to shift, thanks in part to young leaders and faith-based environmental advocates who are reframing climate action as a moral and theological imperative.Faith in ActionOne of those young leaders is Becca Boyd, a student at Indiana Wesleyan University studying Environmental Science. Raised in a Christian home, Becca often felt her environmental concerns were dismissed and even challenged. Feeling unhead, she began to experience a crisis of faith, questioning both her faith and her place in the church. Everything changed when she was introduced to the concept of creation care in college by her professors. For the first time, she saw how her love for the environment and desire to protect it could be an act of faith rather than in conflict with it.A Theology of HopeLike many young people in the climate action space, Becca has felt overwhelmed by the constant sense of “doom and gloom.” The narrative that it's too late to fix the damage can leave people in despair and feeling helpless. But creation care offers her a more hopeful, spiritually grounded mindset. Rather than dwelling on what's broken, Becca focuses her energy on healing what's still possible. For Becca, environmental stewardship is now a form of worship: small acts like conserving energy, recycling, or planting a pollinator garden at her school are ways of honoring God.  And by inviting others to do the same, she's helping grow a climate movement rooted not in fear but in faith and hope for the future.Choosing Words That Open DoorsThrough her advocacy, Becca has learned that the language you use to talk about climate issues matters, especially in Christian spaces. The word “climate” itself can be politically charged and can trigger defensiveness, while terms like “creation care” and “eco-theology” feel more rooted in faith and shared values. She is also intentional about her tone, making a point to avoid “you” statements. Rather than telling people what they should do, Becca shares what she does and why. This approach opens the door to conversation rather than closing it. According to Becca, it's about meeting people where they are and establishing a common ground — inviting them in, not calling them out. The Challenges AheadCreation care is still a growing movement, and while it's gained traction in places like Indiana, there's still a long way to go. Climate science skepticism and misinformation continue to circulate in many conservative communities. But Becca and other young Christians are starting vital conversations in churches and on campuses, emphasizing climate change as a humanitarian issue: one that affects food security, public health, and the lives of future generations.  She also shares resources like Cowboy & Preacher, a documentary tracing the history of Christian environmentalism, to show that this movement isn't new, and that faith and climate action have long been intertwined. About Our GuestBecca Boyd is a rising senior at Indiana Wesleyan University studying Environmental Science. She is a Climate Advocate for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA) and previously served as a College Fellow. On campus, she launched a student sustainability club and helped lead campus-wide conversations about the intersection of faith and environmental responsibility. She was recently featured in The New York Times for her work advancing Indiana's growing creation care movement.ResourcesYECA, Young Evangelicals for Climate ActionCowboy & Preacher, Cowboy & PreacherFurther ReadingThe New York Times, In Indiana, Putting Up Solar Panels Is Doing God's WorkNBC News, Evangelical environmentalists push for climate votes as election nears: 'Care for God's creation'American Conservation Coalition, An Environmental Education: What a Christian Environmental Ethic Looks LikeFor a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/creation-care-with-becca-boyd/.

In this replay from Summer 2024, BibleWorm continues our summer series on creation care with Psalm 104, a profound text celebrating the magnificence of creation, which brings joy not only to the human heart but also to all creatures, from the birds in the trees to Leviathan in the deeps of the sea. We even see the celebratory nature of God, who whisks about on the clouds, wearing a fabulous cloak made of light and rejoicing in all that God has created. The psalm also reminds us of the harmonious relationship God intends for humans and animals, with humans working during the day and animals prowling at night so we can each live our lives fully, without being a danger to one another. All of this, the psalmist reminds us, should make us sing throughout our lives at the incomparable glory of creation. Bless the LORD, O my soul!

“You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.” - Psalm 65:10 (NRSVUE) God's gift of water sustains life, nurturing the earth and all who dwell in it. Yet water also holds great power—capable of shaping landscapes and, at times, causing harm. How do we live in this tension, caring for creation while respecting its force? Join us as we explore how God calls us to faithful stewardship of this precious, life-giving world. We continue our Summer Series, “Creation Care,” turning to Psalm 65.

As we are all aware, so many of the issues that seem to dominate the headlines these days have to do with either racism or the climate crisis. On the face of it, these two major areas of strife and struggle don't always seem to have a lot to do with one another, but in fact, they are fundamentally connected, sharing the very same root causes that drive them. In his book Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice, David Swanson makes the case that we really can't fully understand these two seemingly disparate issues apart from one another, and that both are inextricably linked by issues of culture, geography, history, and even theology. In this conversation, David and Forrest discuss the book, as well as his experiences living in a predominantly African American neighborhood in Chicago and how his journey has shaped his understanding of racial and environmental justice. He emphasizes the importance of community, belonging, and the interconnectedness of social and environmental issues. Swanson also explores the role of Jesus in creation and redemption, advocating for a broader understanding of hope that transcends wishful thinking and engages with the realities of the world.TakeawaysDavid Swanson emphasizes the importance of staying in one place to truly understand and connect with the community.The interconnectedness of racial and environmental justice is a central theme in Swanson's work.Swanson's experience as a white pastor in a predominantly Black neighborhood highlights the complexities of racial dynamics in church leadership.The concept of belonging to a place is essential for addressing systemic issues.Swanson argues that the church must engage with both individual transformation and systemic change.Hope should be rooted in reality and not just wishful thinking, according to Swanson.The role of Jesus in creation is pivotal to understanding redemption and hope.Communities of caretakers are essential for nurturing relationships with the land and each other.Swanson advocates for a vision of hope that is active and engaged with the present world.The importance of storytelling and sharing experiences within communities is highlighted as a means of fostering connection. Keywords: David Swanson, racial justice, environmental justice, community, belonging, church leadership, hope, creation care, indigenous, social justiceFind us on our website: Earthkeepers Support the Earthkeepers podcast Check out the Ecological Disciple

Conservationist and environmental advocate Ben Lowe discusses our ecological crisis, the role of Christian faith and spirituality, and how churches can respond with hope, action, and theological depth. He joins Mark Labberton for a grounded conversation on the intersection of faith, climate change, and the church's role in ecological justice. As Executive Director of A Rocha USA, Lowe brings over two decades of experience in environmental biology, ethics, and faith-based conservation to explore how Christians can engage meaningfully with environmental crises. They moves from scientific clarity about climate urgency to the theological blind spots that have hindered the Christian response. Together, they explore how churches across the U.S. and beyond are reclaiming creation care—not as a political issue, but as a form of discipleship and worship. With stories ranging from urban stream cleanups to coral reef restoration, Lowe emphasizes small, local, relational efforts that respond to God's ongoing work in the world. At the heart of the conversation lies a call to moral will, theological clarity, and faithfulness in the face of ecological grief. Episode Highlights “The world is good—but it's groaning.” “Small does not mean insignificant… We have the solutions. The problem is not our technical ability—it's our moral and political will.” Learn More about A Rocha Visit arocha.us for more information. About Ben Lowe Rev. Dr. Ben Lowe is Executive Director of A Rocha USA, a Christian conservation organization engaged in ecological discipleship, community-based restoration, and climate advocacy across the U.S. and globally. He holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary ecology from the University of Florida and a B.S. in Environmental Biology from Wheaton College. Ben has spent over two decades working at the intersection of faith, science, and environmental justice, and is passionate about equipping churches to participate in God's restoration of creation. Since his first encounter with A Rocha as a Wheaton student in 2003, Ben has served on A Rocha staff teams and boards, nationally and internationally, most recently as Deputy Executive Director of A Rocha International. Ben's training as a scientist and a minister inform his leadership and development of A Rocha USA's national strategy and team. Originally from Singapore, Ben was the founding national organizer of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action and has served on the boards of A Rocha USA, A Rocha International, the Au Sable Institute, and Christians for Social Action. He is the author of multiple books and his work has been featured in media outlets including Audubon Magazine, Christianity Today, and The New York Times. He has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology from Wheaton and a PhD from the University of Florida focused on the human, religious, and ethical dimensions of environmental change and conservation. Ben is based in the warm and watery state of Florida, USA, where he can often be found kayaking on the Indian River Lagoon. Show Notes Earth Day began in 1970, a pivotal moment for environmental awareness—“That means that I was a junior in high school when the world embraced this name as a way of trying to bring attention to the whole world about environmental issues.” Mark Labberton opens with concern for “the political moment that we're in… in the United States and in other places around the world.” Ben Lowe introduces the biblical framing: “This world is good, but it's also groaning.” Why Climate Action Still Matters “We don't know where we would be, were it not for Earth Day 50 years ago.” “The question is not whether we know what to do, but whether we're doing the right thing and we're doing enough of it.” “It's never too late to take action and to get engaged.” Scientific Consensus and Urgency “The science has gotten a lot more sophisticated and a lot clearer.” “We're not talking about hypothetical issues anymore. We're talking about issues that many, if not all of us, are tangibly experiencing now.” “Things are moving faster, further and at a greater scale and magnitude than we were hoping to be experiencing right now.” Oceans, Heat, and the Limits of Natural Buffers “The oceans are a huge gift to human society and they have been buffering and absorbing a lot of the heat and the carbon that we've been emitting.” “The oceans are not limitless… We are seeing signs that the oceans are warming more than they can sustain.” “Every year now we have these hurricanes that are huge in terms of their scale and the amount of water that they can suck up from these overheated oceans.” Practical Impact of Climate Change “My homeowner's insurance rates more than doubled in the last few years.” “We're just getting all these signs coming from all of our systems that are warning us that we are on a completely unsustainable path.” “The silver lining to us being the driver of so many of these problems is that we can also choose to be part of the solution.” Role of the Church in Ecological Transformation “The church can really shine a light of hope, of love of the good news that God promises for this world in the midst of all that.” “Small does not mean insignificant.” “We have the solutions we need… The problem is not our technical ability, it's our moral and political will that has been lacking.” Global Clean Energy Transition “We are in a great transition, but that transition is happening and it's sort of unstoppable.” “The question is how quickly will it happen and will we be able to move it forward quickly enough?” “Christians have a particular contribution… we can bring the moral will to help shape the decisions.” A Rocha's Global and Local Work “A Rocha is a network of Christian conservation organizations in about 25 countries around the world.” In Florida, “we're helping to work with local partners, universities, high schools, churches, to conserve the lagoon.” “In Austin, Texas… we have a lot of Spanish language programming… to help connect recent immigrants with the communities that they're living in.” Partnering with Churches for Creation Care “The cutting edge of what we're moving into now though is our work with churches.” “Research… are showing that there is a shift happening with more and more Christians in churches becoming aware of the problems in God's world.” “Now we have more and more people coming to us, so much that we're growing, but we're not growing fast enough and we have to turn some people away.” Localized Action and Practical Partnerships “We launched a cohort of Vineyard USA churches… to support Vineyard congregations that want to get more involved.” “We walk them through a process of discerning… the ways that God might be inviting them to participate in what God's already doing.” “We're working with a church on Oahu in Hawaii that bought a defunct golf course… we're working together to help restore the native habitat.” Creation Care as Worship and Witness “We see this as being in God's hands… and us as playing a faithful role in responding to what God is doing.” “What would a follower of Jesus do in this situation?” “Everything that we do to care for creation… the offering itself is one that we direct to God as the creator.” Theological Reformation, Not Innovation “It's not theological change so much as it's theological reformation. This is orthodoxy.” “We don't see this work as of our own initiative. What we see ourselves doing is responding to what God is already doing.” End Times Theology and Ecological Responsibility “We don't treat anything else in life that way. We don't treat our bodies that way. We don't treat our children that way.” “It has been biblically Orthodox from the very beginning to care for God's world.” “It's not because we're Christian, it's because we've not been Christian enough.” Political Identity vs. Christian Witness “We see these issues first and foremost through our political lenses instead of through our theological biblical Christian lenses.” “These issues transcend any particular political ideology or party.” “They're moral issues, they're faith issues, they're spiritual issues, and for us, they're an integral matter of our Christian discipleship and witness.” How A Rocha Helps Churches Avoid Partisan Pitfalls “We try to say, all right, what does God call us to do as people, as his image bearers in the world today?” “Let's do a stream cleanup together.” “You kind of learn as you go… and before you know it, you look back and you realize, oh gosh, how far I have come.” Discipleship and Environmental Stewardship “The longer I'm in this work, the more I'm learning how to care for creation and help others do the same.” “The closer I grow to Christ too, and the more I find myself being conformed into what the Bible calls us to be.” “It's not always an easy journey, but it's a really good and life-giving and sanctifying journey.” Mark's Personal Reflection: Replanting His Garden “It has utterly changed the way that I now look out the kitchen window.” “Just that small change has given me a better sense of life, a better sense of creation… a better sense of the importance of having a world that you can meditate on.” Ben Lowe's Formative Experiences in Singapore and the Black Hills “We'd sort through the catch with them and they'd give us the things that they couldn't sell.” “Being able to step out into a national forest and breathe the air… reminds me that… there is still so much good in this world worth protecting.” Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary.

In this replay from Summer 2024, BibleWorm continues our summer series on Creation Care with Psalm 65 and special attention to the water. This psalm brings together scenes of prayer and silence, of humans and of nature, and of a God who is the orientation point for all of it. It made us wonder: What if we could see ourselves, for a moment, as almost like a sibling to the water? Both of us oriented toward God, both of us in relationship to God, both calmed by God when we inevitably become a source of chaos? And it made us wonder: if we could quiet ourselves enough to offer silence as praise – if we could quiet our minds, and the voices of scarcity and acquisitiveness around us – what else in creation could be heard? What would it say – to us, and to our Maker? 

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” ~Genesis 1:26 in The Message We continue our summer worship series this week, Creation Care, with a passage we find near the end of the book of Job. As you may recall, Job suffers unimaginable losses and must endure three friends who try to “help” by giving advice. Finally, God weighs in with a fiery account of creation and Job's (and our) place in it. On Sunday morning, I will explore how God's challenge to Job encourages us to view God's creative power differently.

In this replay from Summer 2024, BibleWorm continues on in our summer series on creation care with Job 38:1-38 in which God speaks to Job from the whirlwind, reminding Job of the beauty, grandeur, and complexity of nature that is beyond human understanding. Where humans were said to have “dominion” over the world in Genesis 1, in Job 38 humans seem almost irrelevant—God guides the constellations; God nurtures the sea; God sends the lightning bolts on their courses, and they respond, “Here I am.” This text invites us to lean into our not-knowing, to relinquish our supposed mastery of the universe to revel in its complex beauty. More than that, it reminds us that, in a world often marked by suffering, we are not alone. There is a whole world before us and around us, alive with responsiveness to God. Truly a balm for the soul.

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” ~Genesis 1:26 This week, we begin our second summer worship series, Created to Care. We begin at the beginning with the first account of how God created the world in Genesis 1:1-2:4. The first chapter of Genesis presents an orderly account of creation. Beginning on Sunday morning, God speaks something new into existence. However, it isn't until Friday afternoon that God creates human beings who reflect God's nature. Why wait until then? Perhaps it is because human beings will be responsible for caring for everything else that God created. On Sunday, we will explore what it means to be “created to care.”

In this replay from Summer 2024, BibleWorm begins our summer series on Creation Care with “the” Creation text, Genesis 1. For such a familiar text, it sure did open up a lot of questions for us. How should we think about our place so late in the proverbial line-up – what does it mean to us that God has already issued a commandment directly to the animals before we are here; that we are created on Friday afternoon as everyone is closing up shop for the Sabbath, instead of a busy Monday morning? And as we try to inhabit what it is to be created “in the image” of God, how might God's disposition toward the created in the 5 ½ days before we arrived help us find our way?

Rev Jacynthia Murphy is of Māori descent and serves in a Pākehā parish. In this conversation with Rev Silvia Purdie and the Field Notes hosts she discusses her indigenous perspective on faith and her passionate environmentalism. She is one of the women featured in “Awhi Mai Awhi Atu: Women in Creation Care,” edited by Silvia (Philip Garside Publishing, 2022). Silvia is a counsellor and pastoral theologian who offers training for environmental sustainability and is communicates extensively about the mental health impacts of the climate crisis.

There is little in life with more direct environmental impact than food - how and what we produce, where we source it and how it gets there, how we prepare it and what we do with the waste. How do we balance sometimes competing factors and make food choices that honour God and the world he loves and has tasked us to look after?Food is a passion for Jasmine Kwong. As a creation care advocate for OMF International and a Catalyst for Creation Care for the Lausanne Movement, she also cares deeply about creation. In this engaging and grace-filled conversation she shares from the wisdom she has gleaned and encourages all of us to consider our daily bread (and fish ceviche, mango and so on!) in light of our relationship with God and the wider creation.

Jesus left a legacy of stories, and as Luke ends and we reread Acts and the Epistles, we remember his disciples spread his teachings and established the church by telling his and their stories over and over. During worship this Eastertide season, we have the gift of hearing members of the congregation reflect on the practices that flow from our congregational covenant. Those 11 practices, along with the covenant, were affirmed by the congregation 10 years ago. We invite you to listen deeply to these reflections, and to engage with what you both read and hear. Are these practices still a good fit for SMC in 2025? Do these practices ground our collective sense of mission in the world? Today we hear from Morlin Elias on Creation Care, and Laura Schlabach on Justice for Oppressed Peoples.Stories begin at minute marker 6:55​​​Acts 15.1-18ResourcesSMC Congregational Covenant and Practices, written and affirmed by the congregation in 2015, and re-affirmed in our annual covenanting service every Pentecost.Poem read:   https://www.thefreelibrary.com/My+Son+Throws+a+Blanket+Over+My+Daughter.-a0776923256Mennonite Action: https://www.mennoniteaction.org/"Letter to my newborn son" - https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/15/letter-to-my-newborn-son/Image by Matheus Bertelli on pexels

The new Pope, Leo XIV, has worked with interfaith environmental networks and there's hope around the world that he may follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Pope Francis and bring issues of the environment and climate change to the forefront of his agenda. Also, autism spectrum disorder is now diagnosed in about 1 in 31 children in the United States, a rise of 70 percent in just four years according to the CDC. In addition to better awareness and changing diagnostic tools, growing scientific evidence also points to the role of exposure to toxic chemicals especially during early development in the rising prevalence of autism. And the American oystercatcher is a conservation success story thanks in part to efforts to educate the public and protect their ground nests from unaware beachgoers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this conversation, we welcome fan favorite, Byron Borger, back to the podcast. Along with host Daniel Johnson, they discuss the importance of reading as an embodied experience, the significance of seasonal reading aligned with the liturgical calendar, and the recent resurgence of work and faith materials. He emphasizes the challenges college graduates face transitioning into the workforce and the importance of integrating faith into their work lives. The podcast also highlights various books that can aid in this transition and the necessity of community support for maintaining faith post-college. In this conversation, Byron discusses the importance of balancing vocation and rest, the beauty of nature as explored through literature, and the need for community engagement in environmental care. They highlight books that inspire readers to appreciate creation, engage in ecological restoration, and reflect on personal narratives through memoirs. The discussion emphasizes the interconnectedness of faith, nature, and personal growth, encouraging listeners to explore these themes in their own lives.We encourage you to purchase your books at Heartsandminds Bookstore. Learn more about them here = https://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/ List of books:After College by Erica Young Reitz (2025, InterVarsity Press)Serious Dreams: Bold Ideas for the Rest of Your Life edited by Byron Borger (2015, Square Halo Books)The Call: Finding and Fulfilling God's Purpose for Your Life by Os Guinness (2003, Thomas Nelson)Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good by Steven Garber (2014, IVP Books)Why Your Work Matters: How God Uses Our Everyday Vocations to Transform Us, Our Neighbors, and the World by Tom Nelson (2025, Made to Flourish)Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work by Timothy Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf (2012, Dutton)The Sacredness of Secular Work: Four Ways Your Job Matters for Eternity by Jordan Raynor (2025, WaterBrook)Go Forth: God's Purpose for Your Work by Redeemer City to City (2025, Redeemer City to City)Birds in the Sky and Fish in the Sea by Matthew Dickerson (2025, Square Halo Books)Refugee of Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth by Deborah Rienstra (2025, Fortress Press)Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as a Spiritual Practice by Belden Lane (2015, Oxford University Press)Reconciliation in a Michigan Watershed: Restoring Kenoshae by Gail Hefner and David Warners (2025, Michigan State University Press)Beyond Stewardship: New Approaches to Creation Care edited by David Warners (2025, Calvin College Press)The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found by Frank Bruni (2022, Avid Reader Press)Mr. Oweita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart by Carol Wall (2014, G.P. Putnam's Sons)God Struck: Seven Women and Their Religious Conversions by Kelsey Osgood (2025, HarperOne)Chapters:00:00 The Embodied Experience of Reading04:29 Seasonal Reading and the Church Calendar09:54 Navigating Work and Faith16:50 Books for Transitioning Graduates24:13 The Importance of Community in Transition27:04 The Balance of Work and Rest28:01 Exploring Nature Through Literature30:16 Creating Habitats and Healing the Earth31:42 Wilderness as a Spiritual Practice36:09 Community Engagement and Environmental Stewardship42:23 Reconciliation Ecology and Creation Care43:30 Memoirs and Personal Stories52:25 Summer Reading Recommendations

In this episode, speaker Rev. Caleb Cray Haynes shares a message at Grace Capital City's Annual Creation Care Sunday. Rev Haynes is a speaker, writer, and advocate on issues of environmental justice for the church at large. For more information on Rev. Haynes' many wonderful contributions, please visit www. calebcrayhaynes.com . For more information on how to get involved with our Creation Care Justice Ministry at GCC, please visit gracecapitalcity.com/justice. 

This Sunday, we're celebrating Earth Day by reflecting on and reimagining our relationship with the land. After their escape from slavery and bondage, the Israelites are given the opportunity to build new economies that run counter to the Imperial Domination System they had seen within the Egyptian Kingdom. Against this social background, the wilderness narrative reveals the struggle of a people charged with cultivating a radically different way of living in community on the land. www.TheLoftLA.org

UPDATED:Now... 'all shall be well' sounds great, but it is sometimes truly hard to believe! In this series, we're looking at some anxiety-producing topics through Julian of Norwich's lens of faith, hope, and love.Today, Julia interviews Ron Schmidt, whose passion for creation care (especially about achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions) is filled with conviction, curiosity, and hope. Listen in as one of our sages talks about his passion for the earth, his concern about climate change, and why he believes that working towards an impossible and an important goal is both life-giving and the best use of who God made him to be.Ron grew up in a working-class family in Milwaukee and graduated with his MBA and BBA with an accounting major from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. While beginning his career in public accounting, during which time he obtained his CPA, Ron eventually moved into banking. In 1983, Ron relocated to Columbus to join Bank One, which, ultimately, became JPMorgan Chase. After retirement in 2009, Ron joined Vineyard Columbus, graduating from Vineyard Institute in 2014. Only recently (2024) did he become actively involved in creation care. Ron is married and has four adult children and four grandchildren. You can contact Ron at: ron.creationcare@gmail.com.Julian of Norwich lived in the Middle Ages through the Black Plague and is one of the church's most recognized mystics.  She wrote the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love, in which we find her well known reflection: Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly hold me in the Faith ... and that ... I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in ... that ‘all manner of thing shall be well'. Interested in getting involved in Creation Care at Vineyard Columbus?Contact: jenney.rice@vineyardcoluumbus.orgPraxis / Redemptive Quest: https://journal.praxis.co/redemptive-quests-652259149ed8Following Jesus in a Warming World: https://bookstore.vineyardcolumbus.org/reads/p/following-jesus-in-a-warming-world-a-christian-call-to-climate-action?rq=following%20jesus%20in%20a%20warming%20world

Now... 'all shall be well' sounds great, but it is sometimes truly hard to believe! In this series, we're looking at some anxiety-producing topics through Julian of Norwich's lens of faith, hope, and love.Today, Julia interviews Ron Schmidt, whose passion for creation care (especially about achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions) is filled with conviction, curiosity, and hope. Listen in as one of our sages talks about his passion for the earth, his concern about climate change, and why he believes that working towards an impossible and an important goal is both life-giving and the best use of who God made him to be.Ron grew up in a working-class family in Milwaukee and graduated with his MBA and BBA with an accounting major from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. While beginning his career in public accounting, during which time he obtained his CPA, Ron eventually moved into banking. In 1983, Ron relocated to Columbus to join Bank One, which, ultimately, became JPMorgan Chase. After retirement in 2009, Ron joined Vineyard Columbus, graduating from Vineyard Institute in 2014. Only recently (2024) did he become actively involved in creation care. Ron is married and has four adult children and four grandchildren. You can contact Ron at: ron.creationcare@gmail.com.Julian of Norwich lived in the Middle Ages through the Black Plague and is one of the church's most recognized mystics.  She wrote the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love, in which we find her well known reflection: Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly hold me in the Faith ... and that ... I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in ... that ‘all manner of thing shall be well'. Interested in getting involved in Creation Care at Vineyard Columbus?Contact: jenney.rice@vineyardcoluumbus.orgPraxis / Redemptive Quest: https://journal.praxis.co/redemptive-quests-652259149ed8Following Jesus in a Warming World: https://bookstore.vineyardcolumbus.org/reads/p/following-jesus-in-a-warming-world-a-christian-call-to-climate-action?rq=following%20jesus%20in%20a%20warming%20world

In this final episode of the Lent Podcast, youth leader Cole Jones and Youth Ministry Director C.J. Lord discuss the recent OG Youth Mission Trip to Costa Rica in partnership with Asociación Ministerial Maná (Manna Ministerial Association). They discuss the trip, the Christian faith of the people in Costa Rica, and where they are finding Hope

In this episode, youth leader Vivian Mus and Youth Ministry Director C.J. Lord discuss where they are finding Hope

In this episode, youth leader Ashley DeLange and Youth Ministry Assistant Hanna Cain discuss where they are finding Hope

In this episode Forrest, along with Christine Sine, talk with Ruth Valerio—a British author, speaker, and activist who is passionate about both social justice and environmental justice. In this conversation, Ruth shares her journey of faith and environmental awareness, emphasizing the interconnectedness of humanity and nature. She discusses the importance of earth care as an important element of faith practice, advocating for simplicity and sustainable living as essential responses to the climate crisis. Ruth encourages faith communities to mobilize for environmental action, highlighting the potential for collective impact. Importantly, she also exhorts us not to try to do more than is ours to do when it comes to making a difference in the world. Ruth Valerio's website, including list of publications and resourcesChristine Sine's website, including publications and resourcesLiturgical Rebels podcastKeywords: Earth care, social justice, simplicity, community activism, earth advocacy, creation care, church mobilization, climate crisis, sustainability, Embrace the Middle East, A Rocha, Tear Fund Find us on our website: Earthkeepers Support the Earthkeepers podcast Check out the Ecological Disciple

Should Christians care about the ecological crises that we face? Should climate change be a concern for believers? Many Christians still view their faith as primarily a “spiritual” matter that has little to do with the “physical” world in which they live. Our guest is Steven Bouma-Prediger, who contends that protecting and restoring our planet is an essential practice for Christians. Steve has studied the Bible and understands what it teaches about this earthly life. He has written extensively about how humans are called, in the words of Genesis 2:15, to “work and take care of” the world in which we live. He is troubled by how too few Christians see this as a crucial part of Christian discipleship.Scroll down to learn more about Dr. Steven Bouma-Prediger. Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite app!Thanks for listening!Please share this podcast with your friends. Your hosts are Dr. Bob Robinson and David Loughney. Go to re-integrate.org for further resources on reintegrating all of life with God's mission. Steven Bouma-Prediger, Ph.D.Dr. Steven Bouma-Prediger is Professor of Religion at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he has also served as the chairperson of the Department of Religion and as the associate dean for teaching and learning. He also oversees the Environmental Studies minor. In addition, Steve teaches in Belize and New Zealand for the Creation Care Study Program. His latest book is Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping Is an Essential Christian Practice (from Baker Academic).Among his previous books are Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring a Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic and For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care, and (co-authored with Brian J. Walsh) Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement.His books can be purchased from independent bookseller Byron Borger at Hearts & Minds Bookstore. Get full access to Bob Robinson's Substack at bobrobinsonre.substack.com/subscribe

LENT Podcast X the OG Youth 2025 // Episode 1In this episode, Youth Director C.J. Lord and Youth Ministry Assistant Hanna Cain discuss where they are finding Hope

LENT Podcast X the OG Youth 2025 // PREVIEW EpisodeIn what may be one of the best mashups of all [OGUMC Podcast] time, the Oak Grove Youth are leading the Podcast this Lent as we look at where they are finding Hope

As always, Earthkeepers is on the lookout for stories of faith communities who are creating new, imaginative ways to integrate creation care into the values and practices of faith life. In episode 121 for example, we spoke with folks at the Rainier Avenue Church about their urban community garden and their creation care study group. In this episode, Forrest talks with Matt and Mary Anne Ryan about their church's efforts to engage in social justice by growing fresh produce for their community's foodbank. Their faith community—called Vineyard Christian Fellowship, located just north of Chicago—has converted a large part of their property into what they call the Vineyard Farm. In that context, Matt and Mary Anne are pioneering some great new ideas in community-based earth care.  Evanston GrowsEvanston Vineyard Christian FellowshipVineyard FarmVineyard Farm Photos and VidsKeywords: Evanston Grows, Vineyard Church, food insecurity, community farming, environmental justice, volunteer opportunities, creation care, sustainable practices, church initiatives, local produce, nature, environmental stewardship, church, community, creation care, theology, sustainability, future generations, partnership, small beginningsFind us on our website: Earthkeepers Support the Earthkeepers podcast Check out the Ecological Disciple

As you might know, this podcast is committed to helping communities think creatively and boldly about ways they might care for the places where they live. In this episode, Forrest chats with three people—Rachel, Logan, and Celize—about the ways in which Rainier Avenue Church—an urban faith community in Seattle—is trying to actively integrate earth care and faith practice. Among other things, these folks have been seeking to learn and grow in their understanding of earthkeeping through a multi-week group discussion. Notably, all of their themed sessions are oriented both around readings, but also on episodes of this podcast. We love that idea, of course—and appreciate the creative, community building experimentation that it represents. Here then are Rachel, Logan, and Celize discussing how they have been promoting creation care thinking—and action—in their urban Seattle neighborhood.Rainier Avenue ChurchTakeawaysCommunity living fosters deeper connections and support.Eco-theology bridges the gap between faith and environmental care.Oral storytelling enhances understanding of scripture.Sustainability is a journey that evolves over time.Gardening connects individuals to their heritage and community.Church communities can be catalysts for environmental awareness.Diverse experiences enrich discussions on earth care.Scripture reveals a strong connection to creation care.Healthy soil is fundamental to human health.Community engagement is essential for fostering relationships. The use of different lenses impacts our understanding of scripture.Creation care is often overlooked in church discussions.The gospel should encompass restoration of all creation, not just souls.Awareness of environmental degradation can lead to a sense of hopelessness.Churches need to take ownership of their impact on the environment.Social justice and environmental justice are interconnected.Community engagement is essential for meaningful impact.Love of place fosters deeper connections within communities.Younger generations seek tangible connections between faith and real-world issues.Hope exists in grassroots movements and indigenous teachings.Keywords:community, eco-theology, environmental justice, earth care, communal living, sustainability, social justice, gardening, faith, scripture, creation care, environmental justice, church responsibility, social justice, community engagement, faith praxis, ecological theology, hope, interconnection, love of placeFind us on our website: Earthkeepers Support the Earthkeepers podcast Check out the Ecological Disciple