Learning Growing & Prospering

The environmental movement and the church are having to deal with some of the same problems. These problems are stratagies that don't solve problems and hinder effectiveness.

Historically, environmentalists have been anti-technology and anti-growth, according to Mark Horwwitz, a New York editor. "They believe bikes are better than cars, open space is better than development, and less is better than more." As a result their leaders have focused on government regulations and laws that restrict and limit, which flies in the face of today's thinking. This environmental strategy has not worked in the past, nor will it work in the future. Since the year 2000, the 36 industrialized countries who are committed to reducing carbon emmission have not met even minimal goals, their emission have actually gone up - not down. According to Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, "even if every American SUV owner were to buy a hybrid tomorrow, it wouldn't come close to offsetting the environmental damage being perpetrated around the globe."

Rather than leading into the future, with a pro-growth, pro-technology, and pro-environment position that almost everyone would buy into, environmental leaders have chosen to "scold, limit and be doomssayers" at every turn.

Can I apply this lesson to the church? To succeed the Church needs to lead by supporting a pro-growth and a pro-opportunities approach instead of limiting, regulating, scolding, and casting clouds of doom on its listeners. I firmly believe that God will supply the opportunities if we will recongnize them and persue them.

Like Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, we need to advance a "Politics of Possibility" mentality. Their book seeks to create a new way to think about our problems.

Sometimes a fresh approace is not a bad thing!