CT-NAE-EEN Conference on Creation-care June 28-30, 2004

On June 28-30, 2004 an historic gathering of a select group of evangelical leaders came together at the Sandy Cove Christian Conference Center located at the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay to ponder more deeply how to care for all of Gods creation. Participants wrote a covenant at the conclusion of their time together, which you will find below.

Some of the presentations made at the conference are provided here, along with a gallery of photos and a page of texts from Scripture given to the participants before the conference upon which to reflect. In addition, we prepared a special issue of Creation Care magazine about the Sandy Cove experience, including presentations and devotions delivered at Sandy Cove, selected quotations from some of the discussion sessions, and an article by one of the participants reflecting on how the conference changed his perspective.

Presentations | Speakers | Scriptures | Photo Gallery | CC Mag

We are a gathering of evangelical Christians who provide institutional, pastoral, and intellectual leadership in a wide variety of life settings. We have come together at Sandy Cove, Maryland in order to pray, reflect, and learn together about our role as stewards of God's creation. We are convinced that God has moved among us in our time together over these three days.

We represent a variety of perspectives and varying levels of expertise about environmental issues. Some of us have given our entire lives to caring for all of God's creation, while for others the issue is a new one. For all of us, this meeting has resulted in a deepening of our concern about God's creation, a joyful sense of community, and a desire to work together on these issues in days ahead.

In reflecting on Scripture and on the pressing environmental problems that beset our world, we are persuaded that we must not evade our responsibility to care for God's creation. We recognize that there is much more we need to learn, and much more praying we need to do, but that we know enough to know that there is no turning back from engaging the threats to God's creation.

We feel called of God to covenant together to move the work of creation-care ahead in a variety of ways. Therefore:

We covenant together to make creation-care a permanent dimension of our Christian discipleship and to deepen our theological and biblical understanding of the issues involved.

We covenant together to draw upon the very best and most trustworthy resources that can help us understand the particular environmental challenges we face today, as well as promising solutions, as fully and accurately as possible.

We covenant together to share our growing knowledge and concern about these issues with other members of our constituencies.

We invite our brothers and sisters in Christ to engage with us the most pressing environmental questions of our day, such as health threats to families and the unborn, the negative effects of environmental degradation on the poor, God's endangered creatures, and the important current debate about human-induced climate change. We covenant together to engage the evangelical community in a discussion about the question of climate change with the goal of reaching a consensus statement on the subject in twelve months.

Our continuing goal is to motivate the evangelical community to fully engage environmental issues in a biblically faithful and humble manner, collaborating with those who share these concerns, that we might take our appropriate place in the healing of God's creation, and thus the advance of God's reign.

Signatories*

*Please Note: Institutional affiliation provided for information purposes only.
Signatories do so as individuals and not as representatives of their institutions.

Rev. Peter Borgdorff, Executive Director, Christian Reformed Church
Rev. Paul Cedar, Chair, Mission America
Rev. Richard Cizik, VP of Governmental Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals
Andy Crouch, Columnist, Christianity Today
Dr. Cal DeWitt, President, Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies
Rev. Barrett Duke, VP for Public Policy & Research, Southern Baptist Ethics Commission
Adrienne Gaines, News Editor, Charisma magazine
Dr. Dave Gushee, Professor, Union University
Rev. Ted Haggard, President, National Association of Evangelicals
Rev. Dave Holdren, General Superintendent, Wesleyan Church
Sir John Houghton, Chairman, John Ray Initiative
Dr. Cheryl Johns, Professor, Church of God Theological Seminary
Jennifer Jukanovich, Founder & Chairperson, The Vine
Rev. Jo Anne Lyon, Executive Director, World Hope
Dr. Ron Mahurin, VP for Campus Programs & Communications, Council for Christian Colleges and Universities
Rev. Dwight McKissic, Senior Pastor, Cornerstone Baptist Church
Rev. Brian McLaren, Emergent
David Neff, Editor, Christianity Today
Shelly Ngo, Dir. of Publications, World Vision
Michael Nyenhuis, President, MAP International
Rev. Paul Risser, Former President, FourSquare Church
Rev. Ron Sider, President, Evangelicals for Social Action
Mark Smith, Dir. of Disaster Response, World Relief
Dr. Howard Snyder, Prof., Asbury Seminary
Rev. Roy Taylor, Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church in America
Rev. Bob Wenz, VP of Natl. Ministries, National Association of Evangelicals
Bruce Wilkinson, VP of International Programs, World Vision
John Wilson, Editor, Books & Culture, Christianity Today
Rev. Jim Ball, Ex. Dir., Evangelical Environmental Network