<p>
	<em><img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Restoration-Ecology-Celebration-200pxl.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 150px; float: right;" />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 <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, Warners explores five principles that should guide our role as stewards of God&#39;s creation. On right, Warners celebrates the completion of a restoration project with his &#39;Restoration Ecology&#39; students.</em></p>
<hr />
<p>
	To begin to elucidate some guidelines regarding how we should undertake our responsibility as stewards, I will identify five principles of creation care that emerge from the scriptures.</p>
<p>
	The first principle to keep before us is the recognition that God intends for his creation to flourish. &nbsp;Psalm 24:1 does not read, &ldquo;The earth is the Lord&rsquo;s and the &lsquo;scarcity&rsquo; thereof . . .&rdquo;. &nbsp;No, it is &lsquo;fullness&rsquo; that God intends. &nbsp;His desire is for a flourishing creation, one bursting at the seams with his creatures and their praise for him. &nbsp;Furthermore, the mandate, &ldquo;Be fruitful and increase in number . . .&rdquo; is not only given to human beings (Gen 1:28), but prior to this God uses the same words when he addresses the birds of the air and the fish of the sea on the fifth day of creation (Gen 1:20). &nbsp;God&rsquo;s desire is that creation will be fruitful, that it will flourish and that in so doing, it will be full of his praise. &nbsp;Contrast this image with that described in Hosea, where God&rsquo;s intention for his people and all of his creation is clearly not being met:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
	<em>There is no faithfulness, no love,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
	<em>No acknowledgment of God in the land.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
	<em>There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery;</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
	<em>They break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
	<em>Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away;</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
	<em>The beasts of the field and the birds of the air&nbsp;</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
	<em>and the fish of the sea are dying.&nbsp;</em>(Hosea 4:1-4)</p>
<p>
	The second guiding principle for how we should care for the creation comes from the first part of the cultural mandate mentioned above: &nbsp;&ldquo;God blessed them and said to them, &ldquo;Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.&rdquo; (Gen 1:28a) &nbsp;The Hebrew word for subdue here is kabash, which means to beat back, to bring under control and to make use of. &nbsp;God&rsquo;s intention is that we will be active participants in the creation, not distant observers of it. &nbsp;Therefore, we are expected to utilize the creation in appropriate ways &ndash; domesticating animals, cultivating crops, cutting trees to use as timber and for making cultural implements. &nbsp;In one sense the fruitful creation is a gift that God provides to us, so that we ourselves will be able to be fruitful and flourish.</p>
