A few years ago, I was writing a chapter for a book on world mission today.1 The book examined contemporary contexts for mission, including urbanisation, migration, interfaith and economic disparity, alongside my own contribution on ‘environment as a context for mission’. I had a problem with writing that chapter and I have the same problem now with ‘preaching today’.
Environmental issues form a huge part of today’s context. The fundamental threats to life on earth are in many ways the ‘super context’ above all others. Some scientists describe our era as ‘the Anthropocene’ because our impact is geological in scope. Humans now form 36% of the biomass of mammals on earth, and animals for human use (farming, clothing, pets) another 60%, meaning only 4% remains for the total biomass of all wild mammals.2 Putting it another way, since 1970 68% of wildlife populations on earth has disappeared:3 over two thirds of wildlife populations within my lifetime.
Yet emphasising how serious today’s ecological crisis is misses the point. We should be preaching about creation care regardless of the statistics. As I argued in that chapter, the environment is not just the context, it is essential to the content of mission, and of preaching. Some people argue that preaching today should be no different from preaching at any time since Jesus’ resurrection! We preach Christ and Him crucified. We preach the gospel regardless of the context. In one sense, that’s true, but it misses two key points.
