Environmental missions : planting churches and trees / Lowell Bliss. [print]

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Three ways missionaries clear the polluted air -- What is environmental missions? -- William Carey, an environmental missionary -- Profile of an environmental missions field -- Old Testament basis: a mandate to bless -- New Testament basis: Jesus the reconciler -- Environmental missions and the future of creation -- Praxis: Bible in one hand, shovel in another -- Sin as unfaithful stewardship -- The environmental missionary's gospel: a new story for a new man -- Prayer: mining for worship and wisdom -- Topics in environmental missions -- Epilogue.

Environmental Missions defines an emerging category in missions, one that takes seriously both the mandate to evangelize the world and the responsibility of caring for God's good earth. Lowell Bliss was a traditional church planting missionary in India when his best Hindu friend there died of malaria. This was just one of the events that led him to reexamine the politically charged term "environment", understanding it now as simply "that which surrounds those we love, those for whom Jesus died". In other words, the church is called to reach not only vulnerable people but the space in which they live and breathe. Pointing to the narrative of Scripture and the history of missions, Bliss shows us that the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for the whole creation, that we must unite two traditionally separate endeavors to fulfill the entirety of God's commission, and that the challenge of the environmental crises of our day is also one of our greatest opportunities to read the least reached with the love of Christ. (back cover).