16
INTERVIEW
JS What kinds of response did you
have when you went to Portugal to set
up A Rocha as a ‘missionary’?
A mixed response is the truth. We
had always been passionate about
seeing our friends and neighbours
and people in the parish becoming
Christians and people knew we had
that passion. There was a fear we
were abandoning that focus in favour
of what friends used to say was
‘preaching to the birds’. There was a
fear we were losing the plot. And there
was a deep suspicion of what had
become known as the ‘social gospel’
in the 1930s, which had seemed to
divert the church’s concern for people’s
salvation to a social reform movement.
There was concern we were launching
a kind of ecological reform movement
that would cause people to abandon
their concern for people’s salvation.
And it has taken a long time for that
fear to diminish.
LWPT8462 - Preach Magazine - Issue 2 v2.indd 16
JS I remember our periodic trips
back to England to visit supporting
churches. We’d always sing ‘How Great
Thou Art’ which was one of the only
songs around that mentioned nature.
Are there similarly few Bible passages
to choose from when preaching on the
environment?
I usually say to churches we visit
that I would like to continue the series
that they are currently doing. It is
always possible to show the creational
consequences of the gospel from any
passage of scripture and it is really
important that we don’t read into
scripture a particular cause we have,
however important. The job of a
preacher is to be subjected to the text,
and then to expound that text.
THERE WAS A FEAR WE WERE
ABANDONING THAT FOCUS IN
FAVOUR OF WHAT FRIENDS USED
TO SAY WAS ‘PREACHING TO THE
BIRDS’. THERE WAS A FEAR WE
WERE LOSING THE PLOT.
I love it when I’m not asked to propose
a passage; I like the discipline of
preaching on the passage I’m given. I
think this is a very important discipline
for anyone who works in a particular
area of interest, such as creation care
or the arts or finance or whatever it
should be, because it’s very dangerous
if we start riding out our hobby horses
and picking our favourite texts.
JS How important is it for church
leaders and preachers to have a
theology that acknowledges the
relationship between God and the
earth, and people and the earth as well
as between God and people?
What is important for church
leaders is to learn what God cares
about. And our task is to gain the
mind of Christ. As I’m persuaded that
Christ is the Lord of creation, that
redemption is as Colossians says, for
all things, and as Romans tells us, the
whole creation is being drawn into the
glorious freedom of the children of God,
therefore I think it is vitally important.
It is important because it relates to our
understanding of who God is, and our
‘ortho-doxy’: our true worship.
09/01/2015 14:36:07