THE ECOLOGICAL PASTOR: Toward a New Paradigm of Pastoral Ministry at the Dawn of the Anthropocene by James Roger Amadon Divinity School of Duke University Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry in the Divinity School of Duke University 2019 ABSTRACT THE ECOLOGICAL PASTOR: Toward a New Paradigm of Pastoral Ministry at the Dawn of the Anthropocene by James Roger Amadon Divinity School of Duke University An abstract of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry in the Divinity School of Duke University 2019 Copyright by James Roger Amadon 2019 Abstract Humans are becoming increasingly aware of the widespread destruction that modern, industrial society has brought upon the earth, as well as the need for a radical shift in human perception and action in order to avoid catastrophic consequences and to foster the healing of the earth. Instead of leading this shift by embodying God’s love for creation and bearing witness to God’s work of new creation in Jesus Christ, the Church has been mired in modern theological, philosophical, and ecclesial frameworks that prevent it from perceiving creation correctly and acting in creation redemptively. Pastors have played a key role in the Church’s modern captivity and must play a key role in its reform. To that end, this thesis offers a new paradigm of pastoral ministry – the Ecological Pastor – that enables pastors to diagnose what has gone wrong, emboldens them to confront those errors, empowers them to change people’s perceptual framework, and encourages them to create new models of congregational ministry and mission. Chapter 1 establishes the need for a new paradigm by comparing the leadership of Moses in Israel’s journey out of Egypt with the call for pastors to guide their churches out of modernity’s destructive worldview and practices. Chapter 2 provides the paradigm’s foundation by bringing together the worldviews of arcadian ecology and contemporary agrarianism with an eco-agrarian reading of biblical leadership. Chapter 3 shows how pastors embody the paradigm through the perceptual practices of contemplative ecology and the emerging model of Watershed Discipleship. Chapter 4 explores how ecological pastors can lead their congregations through the requisite cultural change utilizing the philosophy of vi Adaptive Leadership and concludes with some provisional reflections on key practices ecological pastors can employ in each stage of the transformational process. The thesis is intended as a starting point; more will need to be done to refine and expand what an ecological pastor looks like in theory and practice. vii Dedication To my children, Mary, Luke, and Theodore: May you experience and contribute to creation’s healing. And to Emily: Thank you for making this possible. viii Acknowledgements This thesis comes from my attempt to find hope in a time of increasing despair. Every day we learn more and more about the destructive effects of our rapacious, unsustainable, and unbiblical way of life. The personal, social, and ecological costs are mounting, and for the most part the Church is on the sidelines, waging less important battles and wondering why so many people are leaving institutional faith. This has weighed heavy on me in my work as a pastor and now as the director of an organization, Circlewood, committed to “Re-forming faith from the ground up.” The good news is that we are also learning more and more about the Bible’s ecological perspective, and Christians from diverse traditions are exploring what it means to reform the faith into a more creation-centric direction. I am grateful to the scholars, writers, and practitioners who are laying out a new path for us to follow; my own discipleship has certainly been radically reshaped by the work of these reformers and pioneers. This thesis is my contribution to the movement; we need wise and courageous pastoral leaders to help bring about the kind of cultural change that reform requires. Though in many ways a solitary activity, writing this thesis has been a revelation of all the ways my life is connected to others. I am thankful for the people of Highland Covenant Church who supported me when I started the Doctor of Ministry program. That support continued when I transition to Circlewood; the board not only encouraged me in my research and writing but saw it as part of what Circlewood is trying to do. I am particularly grateful to board member Louise Conner, who helped edit multiple drafts. Special thanks goes to my advisor, Dr. Norman Wirzba, for his willingness to meet with me during my campus visits and his wise direction in the shaping of this thesis. You will ix also see the influence his writing has had on me in the numerous footnotes that reference his work. Finally, I cannot thank my family enough. I am grateful for my parents, David and Iris Amadon, who have encouraged my curious nature and supported my seeking and searching. I am thankful for the support of my wonderful in-laws, Mike and Kathy Holmgren, without whom I would not have been able to say yes to this program. My children are endless sources of delight to me, and I have been humbled by their patience during my absences and their interest in what I have been working on. Most of all, I am thankful for my wife and partner, Emily. Her unshakeable encouragement, even while she was carrying more of the load at home, has sustained and taught me throughout. As I said in the dedication, this would not be possible without her. x Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………........vi Dedication………………………………………………………………………..........viii Acknowledgements…..……………………….........……………………………….…..ix Chapter 1: The Need and Call for a New Paradigm.........…………....………...………..1 1.1 The Call of Moses and the Future of Creation 1.2 The Modern Wilderness and the Great Work 1.3 The Call for Reform 1.4 The Need for a New Paradigm Chapter 2: Preparing the Soil…………....……………...........................................……..29 2.1 The Ecological Revolution 2.2 Contemporary Agrarianism 2.3 Eco-Agrarian Leadership in the Bible’s Metanarrative Chapter 3: Establishing Roots....…...................................................…..……...................76 3.1 Contemplation of Creation Defined and Described 3.2 Practicing Contemplation of Creation 3.3 Watershed Discipleship 3.4 The Ecological Pastor as Integrated Person Chapter 4: Bearing Fruit..................................................................................................110 4.1 Cultivating Cultural Change 4.2 Adaptive Leadership 4.3 First Fruits Bibliography……………………....…………………………………………………....142 Biography……………………………………………………………………………....147 xi CHAPTER ONE: THE NEED AND CALL FOR A NEW PARADIGM “We do not need merely good leaders but entirely different conceptions of leadership.”1 In light of the crisis brought on by the degradation and destruction of the earth at the hands of humanity, pastors are faced with an urgent question: “Can there be a healthy church on a sick planet?”2 Pastors who seek an answer to that question are faced with a problem: current paradigms and practices of vocational ministry are mired in the same theological, cultural and philosophical frameworks that created and perpetuate the crisis. To lead the church in and through this precarious moment in history requires a new paradigm that enables pastors to diagnose what has gone wrong, emboldens them to confront those errors, empowers them to change people’s perceptual framework, and encourages them to create new models for congregational ministry and mission. We start this forward-focused work by looking back at a similar moment of crisis in biblical history. The story of Moses provides a compelling analogy for pastors who lead congregations enmeshed within a globalized culture of unfettered power and consumption that has literally spread Pharaonic destruction across the entire planet.3 1.1 The Call of Moses and the Future of Creation The poetic opening of Genesis tells the story of the original creation and God’s intention for it to grow and mature.4 This intention is thwarted when human beings, made 1 Arthur Boers, Servants and Fools: A Biblical Theology of Leadership (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2015), 78. 2 Howard A. Snyder and Joel Scandrett, Salvation Means Creation Healed: The Ecology of Sin and Grace (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2011), xiii. 3 “In a context where one might think about ‘sustainable creation,’ this text is urgent.” Walter Brueggemann, The Book of Exodus, The New Interpreter’s Bible 1 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 684. 4 The interpretation of Scripture in this thesis is informed by recent scholarship that restores creation to its central place and role in the Bible and in Christian thought and practice. For a representative sample of biblical scholarship that includes an extensive bibliography see Richard Bauckham, The Bible and Ecology: 1 in God’s image to partner with God in the care and development of creation, reject their vocation. This rejection begins to unravel creation’s life-giving connections between God, humans, and the non-human world; before long, the entire earth is corrupt and “full of violence” (Gn 6:11).5 Only God’s partnership with Noah keeps the original creation intact and moving forward, followed by God’s promise to Abraham, Sarah, and their descendants to form a people who will partner with God to recover what has been lost and heal what has been broken. As Genesis gives way to Exodus, however, we find God’s people languishing in the slave fields of Egypt. After seeing their misery and hearing their cries, God decides to come down “to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8). God’s strategic plan continues to include human beings, this time in the person of Moses, a fugitive from Egypt living a quiet, pastoral life in Midian.