EVANGELICALS TO SAVE THE PLANET

It’s a new year. A time when ministries are making out their calendars and venturing into new areas. Some are sending missionaries into the harvest fields of the world. Others are building orphanages in Third World countries. Still others are launching discipleship groups. And then there are those that are pushing socialist’s agendas and global warming.

Recycling the Gospel?

I received a packet today from the National Association of Evangelicals. It included a striking, full-color brochure, two DVDs, a personalized letter and a sharp booklet. It certainly got my attention.

Of course, the organization’s marketing budget was probably fairly healthy. With everybody cutting back on expenses this packet was over the top impressive.

According to the NAE’s website, it has 30 million members within 60 denominations in about 45,000 churches. Wow, am I impressed!

This is the same NAE, by the way, whose former present, Ted Haggard, resigned after his moral failure with a homosexual prostitute. Lately he’s been on "Oprah,
“Larry King” and HBO aired a documentary, “The Trials of Ted Haggard” about his life produced by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of none other than Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But I digress…Let’s get back to the striking, full-color brochure.

Do you know what the NAE’s agenda is this year? “Winning 1 million souls for Christ,” you ask? No. “Equipping the saints for the work of the ministry?”

No. “Feeding the poor, clothing the naked and taking care of orphans and widows?” No. It’s none of those things.

The agenda, according to current president Leith Anderson, is, drum roll please…. “creation care.” That’s right, global warming and saving the planet from its inhabitants. Anderson is senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn. As president of the NAE he is leading his network of 45,000 churches with the “Re-vision Project.” To buttress their efforts, Anderson has been endorsed by the Harvard Medical School. Sounds pretty important, doesn’t it? Anyway, the NAE is recommending that I and other pastors focus you on creation care, energy saving strategies and global warming issues. I kid you not!

In the packet was a letter saying, “Over the past few years many evangelicals have renewed their interest in caring for God’s creation.” Is that right? Maybe I am so disconnected down here in South Florida that I have missed the real issues facing the Church of Jesus Christ. Is it true? Have many evangelicals renewed their interest in environmental issues? The letter continues, “Creation care means nothing more than believing that the biblical principle of stewardship should apply to the environment. We want evangelicals to say, ‘My Father created the earth and in doing all things for the glory of God, I will take care of it until His return.’”

Folks, I had to read this letter twice. Do you mean that a 30 million-member Christian organization has embraced global warming issues as something that must be “re-visioned” in churches across America? Is this the Christian leadership we expect within the Body of Christ? Think about this. Of all the issues facing our nation with people losing their homes, jobs, terrorism, out of control spending in Washington, and financial strains put on marriages and families, is global warming the best we can come up with?

This is why I’m having such a tough time dealing with the lack of real leadership within the Body of Christ. How much Kool-Aid are we going to drink? Jesus said, “I will build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail.” Jesus spent His life preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Since when did global warming become a central cause of the Church of Christ?

This reminds me of the ever-increasing Hollywood propaganda entertainment movies like Wall-E and Happy Feet. Both of these kid-oriented movies portray humans destroying the earth through pollution. And, after all, none of that would have occurred if we were just responsible citizens that paid attention to global warming and the environment.

In a January 2009 U. S. Senate Minority Report more than 650 international scientists took issue with the man-made global warming claims and are challenging promoter Al Gore.

According to Nobel Prize winner for physics, Ivar Giaever, “I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” Another award winning physicist Dr. Will Happer, professor at the Department of Physics at Princeton University says “Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science.” Happer has published over 200 scientific papers. The list of opposing scientist goes on and on.

This NAE letter goes on to say, “We have been given the unique opportunity to partner with the Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment for a project that unites world-renowned evangelicals and scientists in their care for creation.” Well, if the “world-renowned evangelicals” and “scientists” have bought into this then I guess we should too right? Not so fast! Let’s think about this for a minute.

One of the signers of the re-vision letter was Pastor Ken Wilson from the 650-member Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, Mich. I don’t know him at all and he’s probably a nice guy but that’s not the issue here. The issue is providing Christian leadership during times of national crisis. My only question for the good people of Michigan is how is the global warming propaganda working right now? I just checked the temperature showing a low of 9 degrees and highs in the 20s. Are you guys really buying this stuff as vital to re-vision your churches?

I remember John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard churches and his popular book “Power Evangelism.” He’s gone on to be with the Lord now but his book is still available. In the book he taught about releasing God’s mighty power through signs and wonders. I wonder what Wimber would think about the movement he pioneered embracing the “think green” school of evangelicalism. Anyway, the creation care network is presenting “The ReVision” Project and wants me to make a commitment to preach on the following per their letter:

• Preach a sermon on creation care and stewardship. (They gave me some cliff notes in the handbook.)

• Join the Energy Star Challenge for Churches. (Basically this means changing to energy saving light bulbs, water-saving toilets, insulating your attic, planting trees and weather stripping your windows.)

• Encourage a Sunday School class or small group to make creation care its focus.

Folks, is “creation care” what you want me and other pastors to teach and preach about? Is this the Gospel of Kingdom? Was the Holy Ghost involved in this decision to re-vision the Church? Sure, I believe in biblical stewardship but is biblical stewardship about pollution control and global warming? Give me a break. To me this is nothing more than more socialists’ propaganda and a great distraction to my fellow servants of Christ. No wonder the Church has no voice in this nation.

Let’s get back to that striking, full-color brochure. I wonder what it cost to produce, print and mail this packet to every church in America and where the money came from to do it. Did it come from a government grant funded by American taxpayers? Maybe it came from the 30 million members of the NAE. Did the members agree that this should be the main focus of the Church? The NAE is really into pastor surveys. Was the importance of global warming one of them?

As an added bonus the packet contained a DVD called “God and Global Warming” and a “Creation Care for Pastors” handbook, printed on recycled paper of course. Their hope is I will air it on the big screens this Sunday morning or during a mid-week service.

I know I don’t have the credibility of Harvard’s backing or 30 million ministry partners but something doesn’t seem right to me here. Is it just me or is there something wrong with this picture? What do you think? What’s the mission of the Church? Save souls or save the planet?

Leaders, I’m thinking we need to cut this stuff out. What do you think? It’s time for another great awakening and a revolution of righteousness in this country. Amen, Maranatha.

Source: JonasClark.com