Book Review of Green Revolution (by John Murdock)

With Green Revolution, Ben Lowe, fresh from Wheaton College and now the co-coordinator of the Renewal student movement, brings a Millennial Generation perspective to the growing genre of creation care starter books. Readers of works like Serve God, Save the Planet, penned by Lowe’s friend and fellow eco-missionary Dr. Matthew Sleeth, will hear much that is familiar.  (Sleeth even provides an afterword.)  Lowe admits, “Very little—if anything—in these pages is truly original.”  Nevertheless, as C.S. Lewis said, “[I]f you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”  Lowe’s voice is original and worth hearing. 

Green Revolution is part ecological, theological, and political primer, part road warrior for the planet memoir, and part how-to book.  Perhaps Green Revolution tries to do too much, but a generation raised on fragmented communication will likely find the dozen self-supporting chapters and their associated one page vignettes (guest written Uplinks and Dispatches) to be easily digestible but with thought provoking passages that are sure to linger. 

Personally, Lowe’s image of the prodigal son stayed with me.  The “church today, like the prodigal son is returning [to creation care] for imperfect reasons” but “God welcomes us back with open arms of forgiveness and celebration.”  Lowe also weaves a powerful reconciliation theme into much of the work.  Lowe’s college adviser and Uplink contributor Fred Van Dyke notes, “As Ben began to realize that people need to be reconciled to God, to one another, to themselves and to the physical world around them, he began to understand why such a [creation care] ministry could have a vocational calling on one’s entire life.”  Lowe is true to that call as he writes with blunt honesty and hopeful enthusiasm.

Having practiced what he preaches by living simply in community, Lowe boldly proclaims a stewardship ethic that is more than just a nice hobby.  “The gospel is not revenue neutral, and it will often cost us time, money, or other resources to do the right thing.”  Doing the right thing can also open up avenues of witness to those who are environmentally minded but “rarely hear [Jesus Christ’s] name unless someone is cussing.”  The author’s accounts of working with mainstream greens reminds us of the evangelistic opportunities (and responsibilities) that come with caring for creation, a creation that includes beloved people for whom Christ died.

Although likely to resonate best with teens and twenty-somethings—those who like Lowe apparently have no memory of the agricultural “green revolution” and for whom Billy Joel’s Piano Man is now an “oldies song”—there is something here for people of every age.  Pastors especially would benefit from reading this fresh, transparent, and evangelically orthodox account written by a member of the generation that is often not sitting in their pews.  Healing the world and solidifying the church are not mutually exclusive goals.  Ben Lowe offers a holistic vision for creation care, one that does not place this task above other aspects of the Gospel, but rightly includes it in the work of bringing God’s shalom to all the earth.

John Murdock is a natural resources attorney in Washington D.C. You can read his blog at http://republicantreehugger.blogspot.com

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