WHY C3?
The escalating global industrialization and human population of the world has put an increased strain on the earth. There is a growing awareness that the changing climate driven by CO2 emissions is, and will have, a harmful impact on the ecological and economic infrastructure of the world. The world’s most vulnerable will be the first and most impacted by this climate change.The Western church is losing an entire generation of young people who have written the church off because of its unwillingness or timidity in facing the great existential challenge of our times. This generation is truly concerned the world they are inheriting will not sustain them and their children.No other religious group currently has more potential to effect change for good than the Christian community which comprises 31% of the world’s 7.8 billion people.Now is the time for the Christian community to live up to its calling –to be faithful stewards of the earth (Gen 1:26-28) and to love the most vulnerable people on the earth (Mat. 25:40, Luke 4:16-19; 14:12-14; 16:19-25).
Mobilizing Christians Again.
We Can Do This.
The Roman Empire gave way to Christianity not by the sword, but by love. The Romans were amazed the small Christian communities were taking better care of other people's orphans than the Romans took care of their own. Orphanages emerged not from the government, but from the Christian church. The same thing could be said of hospitals. Hospitals emerged from Christians collectively caring for the sick. Eventually universities sprouted up across Europe and North Africa because Christians believed loving God with the mind was a sacred calling. Orphanages. Hospitals. Universities. These are Christian creations. ( see Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity (New York: Harper One, 1996)).
Now it's time to do the same thing with creation. Just as the Christian community responded to a crisis with orphans, the sick and the uneducated, the Christian community must once again lead the way in our current crisis. One third of the world's population is Christian, but we must respond for the benefit of all creation. God is calling us to lead the way to a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable earth. It is the moment the world needs the church once again to lead the way in loving our neighbor in a selfless, Christ-like manner.
