Creation Care and the Church

“The missionaries never taught us that!” exclaims one of the pastors, after I have introduced the importance of Creation Care within the Church. Another pastor responds to this and says, “This is true, but they did show us what to do and gave us good examples to follow.”

The subject of Creation Care is cause for lots of discussion at the Theological Seminary (STTR) of the Reformed Congregations in Wamena, Papua.

They are faced with many challenges: plastic waste that cannot be processed, more and more logging around villages for the building of new homes, population pressure causing a rise in the need for firewood, the expansion of roads bringing more outsiders into the area, erosion that's increasing, a decline in fertile soils, local people only using nature for economic growth, large companies seeking profit, gold panners contaminating the rivers with mercury, etc.

Everyone present during our discussion agrees that the Church has an important responsibility and should be more active concerning Creation Care. But they also note that many pastors within their denomination do not think this way and they wonder how they can help change this. They request Bible based materials on Creation Care which can help communicate its importance to all their pastors. Besides that, they also invite me to come and speak on Creation Care at their yearly church seminar. Their positive responses encourage me greatly and it is good to see how serious they are.