ken wilson online

Carl Safina, the preeminent ocean conservationist alive today, and author of Song for the Blue Ocean will be speaking at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor this coming Sunday.  Why? Because he is the friend of sinners.  I met Carl in November of 2006 at a retreat bringing together top enviornmental scientists and a group of evangelical leaders.  It was an historic meeting inasmuch these two groups hadn’t done a lot of retreating together in the past.  We were asked by the organizers (Harvard and the National Association of Evangelicals) not to tell people where we were going, with whom, or why, because they didn’t want to draw media attention.  I think that was overkill, but it reveals the sense of nervousness surrounding the meeting.
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I stumbled into a concern for the environment.  It’s not something I sought out.  It was thrust upon me.  And my interest in this topic is fueled by my concern for the gospel, which has been getting a bad name of late.  For good reason.  Because we pastors have allowed the gospel to become polluted by political ideology. 
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Nine years ago today we were all breathing a sigh of relief about the Y2K disaster that didn’t materialize. Evangelicals more than most. Because for some reason many evangelicals and fundamentalists bought the idea that the world was headed for a techno-cataclysm.  Why would we be so alarmed by Y2K and so apathetic about the environmental crisis we are facing, including climate change?
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Just getting back from the arctic with various luminaries and a week’s worth of memories to unpack with family and friends. On day five we saw a rare sight at close range: three polar bears on the sea ice after taking a seal for food, with the arctic ivory gull flying around. It was a stunning sight. And a sight that is itself at risk because the ice is melting at a higher rate than expected. We sailed through areas normally shut off from the pack ice, but that’s all changing and it’s the reason polar bears have been placed on the endangered species list. Throughout the trip, I was meditating on Genesis, chapter one: the days of creation.
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Time arrived with this cover copy a while back: How to Win the War on Global Warming. Shall we confront a brutal fact in evangelical perspective? The thoughtful person on the outside of American Christianity looking in at its dominant form (evangelicalism) has every right to think: Evangelicals have been among the most dismissive of the effort to address global warming. If I am considering the Christian message, I should take this into account. If I support efforts to address climate change now for the sake of the vulnerable poor and future generations, I will be viewed as one of those environmental whackos by evangelicals. Life is stressful enough. I think I’ll get my spirituality on the golf course instead.
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I’ve been reflecting, meditating, prayerfully musing on the six days of creation in Genesis, chapter one–taking one day each day every day for three weeks now. Letting the words exert themselves on me. What powerful words they are. Like Day Five, using the Robert Alter translation: “And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with the swarm of living creatures and let fowl fly over the earth across the vault of the heavens.’ And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that crawls, which the water had swarmed forth of each kind and the winged fowl of each kind, and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas and let the fowl multiply in the earth.’ And it was evening and it was morning, fifth day.”
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My new grandson, Micah Timothy, that is. Born Saturday night, 18 minutes after arrival at the hospital. His dad, my son, had every father’s dream come true: driving the car with horn blasting and lights flashing because momma went from zero to fifty in the labor lane and caught everyone off guard. But now he’s here. The future, that is, with a name and a face. Outfitted, is he, for decades to come that many of us will not see. What are we doing to insure that the world he inherits isn’t too grim a place to inhabit? Not enough right now. Instead, many in my own wider faith tribe are acting as though this talk of looming distress is a load of boo-honkey. We’re betting against the facts, I humbly submit, wagering the likes of Micah’s future.
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That’s daughter Judy, the first confirmed purchaser of the book from a bookstore (Barnes & Noble at Union Square, in Manhattan.) I’m told by Thomas Nelson that this is the day the book will be found on the “new arrivals” table in all the Barnes and Noble stores nationwide. Not sure if that is the table in the front of the store or by the religion section. Either way, a fortunate selection as I’m not a well known writer. I think much credit is due the design team at Nelson, led by Greg Maclachlan who developed the cover of the book. Barnes & Noble has it on the display table for two weeks, I understand. If it sells well enough, they may extend the table time, which is what one wants.  If you wish to do me a favor, purchase it from a Barnes & Noble store sometime in the next two weeks. You could, for example, take the next two weeks off and travel to as many states as possible purchasing books from as many stores as possible. Or not. Having written it, I’d like it to sell more rather than less. I’m finding the whole book writing business much changed since the last book I wrote several years ago, before the Internet had such an impact.
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In one of my other lives, I serve as regional underseer of the Great Lakes Region of Vineyard Churches–about 114 churches in all. We had our regional conference in Cincinatti last week–hence my blogging silence. A wonderful time. We had nearly 200 more in attendance than our previous regional conference, always a good sign. The theme of the conference was 4Ward ’till Kingdom Come, because the theology of the kingdom is the treasure buried in the field of the Vineyard.
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Something wonderful is happening, driven by a sense of desperate need.  Secular scientists are recognizing the need to reach out to people of faith, especially people of evangelical faith, in order to bridge the cultural divide that is now hindering our capacity to respond in love and wisdom to the global environmental crisis.  And people of evangelical faith are open.  They are willing to engage people of science.  Because God is a myth busting God, and a God who likes to shake things up.  All this wonderful turbulence and cultural quaking left me sitting in a large meeting room at Ohio State University–excuse me, The Ohio State University–with about 15 scientists, professors of astronomy, environmental science, biology, mostly, and 15 evangelical pastors and leaders.  And I must say, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room with us.
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