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You are here: Home / Articles / 6 Reasons Why Ecology Matters to the Church

6 Reasons Why Ecology Matters to the Church

July 28, 2014 by Howard Snyder Articles

2. Constant change. Every ecosystem is in flux, slowly or rapidly.

Tomorrow is different from today and yesterday, even if minutely. This gives rise to history.

Physical fact: All living creatures have a life cycle. Meanwhile the inert parts of creation also change due to time, weather and the action of living things. Tomorrow that beautiful mountain or seacoast will be slightly different.

Spiritual fact: As part of the created order, humans are constantly changing spiritually. Change may be gradual or sudden; perceptible or not. This fact derives from God himself, Triune Creator, who in one sense is changeless but yet is dynamic, full of transformative energy.

Spiritual-physical fact: We’re always changing both physically and spiritually—interactively between body, mind, spirit, will, other people, earth and its atmosphere and its creatures. Food or lack thereof affects your spirit as well as the earth and its creatures, from which food comes. Et cetera. This necessarily shapes how we understand “holistic” spirituality, communit and ministry.

3. Input > Throughput > Output

To be alive and thrive, every being and every ecosystem requires ongoing energy input.

The energy is processed, nourishing or otherwise affecting the organism or system (throughput). Work and waste result: always there is output.

Physical fact: Every living thing requires continuing energy inputs: food, water, air, solar energy (indirectly, if not directly). Energy is absorbed, used and discharged in some form. (Jesus commented on this.)

Spiritual fact: The same is true spiritually. Spiritual life also requires input, grows (or not) by throughput and produces output in ways healthy, unhealthy, destructive or innocuous. (Jesus commented on this, also.)

Spiritual-physical fact: All dimensions of our lives are constantly shaped by input, throughput and output, physically and spiritually—which means (among other things) economically, aesthetically, emotionally, socially and so on. A constant cycle: physical and spiritual inputs, throughputs, and outputs interacting.

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About Howard Snyder

Formerly professor of the history and theology of mission, Asbury Theological Seminary (1996-2006); now engaged in research and writing in Wilmore, Kentucky. Professor of Wesley Studies, Tyndale Seminary, Toronto, 2007-2012. Formerly taught and pastored in São Paulo, Brazil; Detroit, Michigan; and Chicago, Illinois.

Howard Snyder’s main interest is in the power and relevance of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom for the world today and tomorrow. He has written on a range of topics including church history, cultural trends, globalization, worldviews, evangelism, and various cultural issues.

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