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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}david-warners(1).jpg" style="width: 125px; height: 125px; float: right;" /><em>On January 31st, Au Sable will host a &#39;Missionary Earthkeeping&#39; conference to explore the connections with creation care and missions and development work. In connection with the conference, we are publishing the first of four posts by Dr. David Warners, Professor of Biology at Calvin College, on a framework for thinking about Christian environmental stewardship and its relationship to development. In Part 1, Warners explored&nbsp;<a href="http://ausable.org/news_and_resources/blog/the_five_themes_of_stewardship_by_david_warners#.UQbX2yf7KuI">five themes of Christian environmental stewardship</a>. In Part 2, he explores&nbsp;<a href="http://ausable.org/news_and_resources/blog/the_five_principles_of_environmental_stewardship#.UQgerCf7KuI">five principles that should guide our role as stewards</a>&nbsp;of God&#39;s creation. In Part 3, he discusses how creation fits within the <a href="/news_and_resources/blog/part_3_shalom_and_creation_by_david_warners#.UQmPlL80V8E">biblical vision of shalom</a>. In this last installment, Warners&nbsp;weaves together the reasons why development and stewardship are so critically intertwined.</em></p>
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	Just recently I heard a colleague say that her church has not been very involved in stewardship issues because they are an urban church and they are met with more pressing needs like crime and low income families. &nbsp;I suspect in many areas around the world this perspective may be voiced in similar fashion: &nbsp;We don&rsquo;t have time to get involved with stewardship because there are so many hungry and hurting people that demand our attention. &nbsp;Before I end this talk I want to offer three points in response to this type of thinking.</p>
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	My first response to this challenge is to simply report that God has commanded us to care for the Creation. &nbsp;This is a fundamental command, present before the Ten Commandments and is no more optional than they are. &nbsp;I simply see no evidence in the scriptures suggesting that when we focus on human needs we are absolved from caring for the broader creation. &nbsp;There is no support for a Biblically-based &lsquo;stewardship amnesty&rsquo;. &nbsp;I personally do not find this response completely satisfying, but there is an aspect of simple obedience here that we need to recognize. &nbsp;</p>
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	My second response is...</p>
