Introduction and Creation

Hi Everybody,

My name is Paul Cannon and I am a Middler Mdiv student at Luther with a concentration in youth and family ministry. I'm 25 years old and am currently working as the program director in a collaborative youth ministry program called VIBE (an acronym for Value, Invest, Build, Equip). There are seven different churches that are a part of VIBE - all of them are ELCA churches in the St. Paul area. Collaboration has proven to be both very challenging and very rewarding. This summer I will be doing my CPE at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, finishing on Aug. 13th, and then promptly going to my wedding the next day on Aug. 14th! Please Pray for me!!!!

Well that's a little bit about myself, but I'm guessing that you are more interested in hearing about my initial thoughts on creation and faithful stewardship to that creation. First, I want to say a word about why I'm interested in this class. I grew up in the mountains of Park City, UT where I learned to ski and enjoy the beautiful creation that God has given us. I spent four summers working up in God's great north woods as well - one of those summers I was a canoe guide in the Boundary Waters between Canada and the US. For selfish reasons, I would like these beautiful areas of God's creation to still be around for me to enjoy and for future generations to enjoy.

Perhaps more importantly though, I think that caring for creation is an act of witnessing to our faith. God calls us to be stewards of the earth and because of this, our faith compels us to do just that. So yes, I want my children (hypothetical children that is) to be able to enjoy the outdoors someday, but my interest, and I think that all of our interest, should come from a sense of calling and vocation - not out of self-interest.

The reason that I am taking this class, is because I'm interested in how faith can be lived out in good stewardship towards the earth. As future pastors and church leaders, I think that faith is the thing that ought to drive us towards caring for the earth. As Mary Hess wrote in her syllabus for this class "I am not in this way implying that faith requires particular practices. Rather, I am suggesting that faith invites response, and that response is always embodied, always by Christian definitions of incarnational." I hope that as faithful Christians we learn to be good stewards of the amazing gift of creation that God has given us.