The Gospel is Good News for All Creation

The celebration of Earth Day offers an opportunity to recognize that creation care—also called earthkeeping—has always been integral to International Ministries’ participation in the Mission of God.

Our mission statement says, “International Ministries…works cross-culturally to invite people to become disciples of Jesus Christ and to proclaim, through both word and deed, God’s reign of justice, peace, and abundant life for all creation.”

And, International Ministries’ document, Responding to the Call, states:
“The narrative of Scripture and, most especially, Jesus himself, reveal that God’s mission is nothing less than the healing, reconciliation, liberation, and salvation of all creation”   (2 Corinthians 5:19; Ephesians 1:9–10).

The gospel is good news not only for people and societies, but for creation itself.

Many IM Global Servants, past and present, have engaged creatively in creation care. They have helped, and continue to help, our partners become earthkeepers—good stewards of God’s creation.

• Richard Mann and his son Mike Mann helped rural farmers in Thailand practice sustainable agriculture and secure access to clean water. Mike continues this work with his wife, Becky, serving hill tribe people through education and sustainable development.
• Ed Noyes served for many years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He helped subsistence farmers adopt sustainable and productive agricultural methods.
• Rick and Anita Gutierrez teach health builders in South Africa to incorporate organic gardening, fruit tree cultivation, and poultry raising into daily life.
• Shigemi Tomita, an Associate Global Servant in Japan, teaches environmental ethics at Kanto Gakuin University.
• Ricardo Mayol founded RECONPAZ (the Continental Christian Network for Peace), a collaborative ecumenical network across Central America, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico. This network supports communities resisting ecological devastation caused by unregulated, extractive industries and promotes transformative practices such as rainwater harvesting.
• In Asia, a Global Servant developed a training-of-trainers manual for creation care. It is used to equip evangelists, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and lay leaders in indigenous churches. These mountainous communities face severe deforestation due to harmful farming practices. The training includes seven lessons specifically for Sunday school teachers.
• Alongside these trainings, villagers receive practical instruction in sustainable agriculture—an approach called “Farming God’s Way.”  They are rehabilitating forests and protecting watershed areas, recognizing this work as a mandate from God.
• Each village has also identified three endangered wildlife species to protect within designated conservation areas. As a result, wildlife populations are recovering, and additional species are returning.

At the same time, creation itself is groaning for healing and liberation. (Romans 8:18-21)

• In Bolivia, communities dependent on glacier melt for water are being forced to migrate as long-term climate changes reduce water availability.
• In Chile and Central America, rural water sources are drying up or becoming contaminated due to extractive industries and monoculture forestry plantations.
• In Mexico, underground water supplies are being depleted, limiting access to clean water for many.

For many of our ministry partners, creation care is not optional—it is central to their participation in God’s mission.

• In Cuba, every church I visited identified creation care as a priority, often expressed through community gardens.
• In parts of Central America, church members, pastors, and community leaders face persecution—even imprisonment and assassination—for their nonviolent resistance to environmental destruction enabled by governments and corporations.

Dr. David Wheeler, American Baptist pastor and Palmer Seminary professor, writes:
“All the activities and concerns of the Church—evangelism, discipleship, spiritual formation, and the pursuit of justice in all its forms—can only be practiced in the context of creation care.”

Too often, we treat creation as merely the stage setting for our mission. In reality, creation care and creation justice are callings in themselves, pursued for the glory of God.

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19)

Wheeler adds, “Creation as subject, creation as victim, creation as beneficiary of the grace of God in Christ! And therefore, our work of evangelization and doing justice will include all of God’s creation.” 

Wendell Berry says it all in a few words we need to hear:

“The ecological teaching of the Bible is simply inescapable: God made the world because he wanted it made. He thinks the world is good, and He loves it. It is His world; He has never relinquished the title to it. And He has never revoked the conditions…that oblige us to take excellent care of it. If God loves the world, how can any person of faith be excused for not loving it or justified in destroying it?” (Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community, pp. 96–98)

As we seek to understand our role more fully, we need to explore the depths of other “Great Commissions” found in Colossians 1:20, Mark 16:15, Genesis 1:26–28, and Psalm 24. Together, they reveal that the gospel is good news for all creation.

The field of virtue ethics also offers a helpful path forward. In his book, Earthkeeping and Character, Steven Bouma-Prediger identifies key virtues necessary for becoming faithful earthkeepers: wonder, humility, self-control, wisdom, justice, love, courage, and hope.

He suggests that before turning to policy or activism, we must cultivate these deeply rooted, biblical qualities of character. Rather than arguing directly with those who would justify harmful practices, we might instead ask: “What kind of person would want to do what they propose?” (pp. 2)

Such actions are unlikely to come from someone who regularly experiences wonder before God’s creation. My seminary professor and pastor, Edward Thornton, an avid birdwatcher, called this practice “benevolent watching.”

A recent study of people who practice daily awe and wonder found that they experience a shift in consciousness. A surprising effect in the group that practiced daily wonder was that they took less “selfie” photos!

In the end, it may come down to what—or whom—we worship and cherish most. As we cultivate lives marked by wonder, humility, and love, we begin to reflect the heart of the Creator who calls His creation “good.”

Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s.” 

From sustainable farming and community gardens to advocacy and courageous resistance, we see people joining in God’s mission of restoration across the planet.

May we be faithful earthkeepers proclaiming through both word and deed that the gospel is indeed good news for all creation.