Author: Martha Lyle Ford
I grew up “in the country” near a small town an hour from Memphis, raised in a house surrounded by agriculture fields, woodlots and pastures, and in the First United Methodist Church of the county seat town, in the midst of an extended family with Methodist ministers on both sides of my family tree. Mine was what now is referred to as “an outdoor childhood,” which, loosely translated, means we children were often told to “go outside and play” or “don’t come in until dark.” Grounded in a childhood spent outdoors and a family tradition of attending an old-fashioned camp meeting for 10-days in summer, worshipping in an open-air tabernacle set in a secluded woods, I have always had a connection to creation and a sense of the intersection of my Christian faith and nature.
As a young adult in the early 1990s, I was inspired to attend divinity school after reading an article in which Dr. Sallie McFague made the connection between nature/the environment/creation and Creator in a way that resonated deep within me. I had never read or heard anything like it and, though I did not see myself pursing ordained ministry, I knew I was being called to think and learn more about this connection and its place in my Christian discipleship.
A summer spent in ministry in Eastern Kentucky with communities grappling with the physical, financial, and environmental traumas resulting from mountaintop removal and strip mining brought into clear focus the intersections of the Gospel, the environment, and the poor. I began to see clearly the importance of ministry at this intersection. And I began to experience a sense of urgency around this meeting of the Creation story and the Beatitudes, of Matthew 25 and the Greatest Commandment. I was passionate about the call to the work but didn’t know anyone who was “doing” what we now know as Creation Care and could not find a job within the church in this area of ministry.
And so, after receiving a Master of Divinity degree, I spent 15 years working outside the church with secular conservation and environmental non-profits, organizations engaged in natural resource conservation and environmental education. All the while, I sought colleagues, conferences, and materials making the connection between Creator, creation, and discipleship, knowing in my bones that we Christians and the church need to be leading efforts to honor all life on earth, and knowing in my soul that this is work I am called to do.
I finally reached a point in my professional life where I knew I had to do my work using the language of my faith—“creation,” “Creator God,” “stewardship”—and helping others see and act on God’s call to us to “tend and keep” the Garden (Genesis 2:15). I secured several small, inconsistent contracts to work on “religious environmentalism.” Still, I longed for a vocational opportunity within the church that would allow me to respond to and fully live out the ministry that God was calling me to undertake.
Over the years, open to God’s leading and through seeking and finding opportunities, I have become a Climate Reality presenter, a certified EarthKeeper, a trained “Life Around the Table” facilitator, a doctoral candidate in “Land, Food, and Faith Formation,” and a commissioned UMC EarthKeeper. I have attended, helped fund, organized, and presented at numerous Creation Care conferences. All of these have expanded my knowledge, introduced me to fellow disciples in the work, and confirmed over and over again my call to care for creation in and through the church. I am grateful for each of these and seek to do more and help others live into their calls “for such a time as this.”
I have been inspired and guided by Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman’s words: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
God is calling individuals, making us “come alive” for the ministry of caring for creation. I believe those individuals, the world, the church, and creation need for those calls to be recognized and resourced. Thanks be to God for all who are leading the church in loving and honoring God by loving and honoring that which God created and which God called “good.”
