October 30, 2000
___The conference was co-sponsored by the host church and the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, in cooperation with the Texas Tech University College of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources, the South Plains Food Bank and the Breedlove Dehydration Plant. ___Instead of focusing exclusively on the "dominion" model presented in the first chapter of Genesis, 21st century believers should embrace the "gardener" model of the next chapter, Sellers said. ___That model compels believers to be grateful, loving, respectful and trustworthy in their relationship to the created world, he observed. ___The creation of Adam from the same dust of the earth that God used to fashion other creatures teaches "the interconnectedness of all creation," Sellers noted. "We are brothers and sisters to all creation." ___Adam was charged with tilling and keeping the garden God planted. Sellers related this to the responsibility of "serving and guarding" God's creation. ___Instead of an "anthropocentric" approach that "limits the subject of lostness and foundness to human experience, we need hopeful words for all creation," he said. Christians need "a shift in our God-language," seeing the Creator as "Faithful Gardener" in addition to "Good Shepherd." ___Sellers acknowledged that while the Bible often compares God to a shepherd, it is more difficult to find examples of the "gardener" metaphor referring to God in Scripture. In searching for an example, however, he noticed that when Mary encountered the risen Christ outside his tomb, she initially mistook him for a gardener. ___That identification by Mary pointed to the truth that the work of Christ was to restore God's original purpose, Sellers observed. The atoning work of God in Christ was not only the salvation of human beings, but also the restoration of fallen creation. "Redemption has cosmic consequences." ___Other speakers at the conference focused on issues of agricultural research and rural community development. ___David Schmidly, president of Texas Tech University, noted that Texas is in jeopardy of losing the wide, open spaces and the family farms and ranches that once defined the state's character. ___"The sad truth is that Texas leads all other states in the loss of its rural land," Schmidly said. "Farmers and ranchers are the best stewards of the land. When they leave, the land suffers." ___Rather than looking to federal regulations as the answer, Schmidly suggested "empowering private landowners" and developing local plans for responsible conservation of resources. ___Kary Mathis, professor of agricultural economics at Texas Tech and director of the International Center for Arid and Semiarid Land Studies, expressed concern that the rural population is decreasing in number and increasing in age. ___The average age of a farm operator in Texas is about 57. Although the average in Lubbock County is slightly less (age 54), Mathis noted that 27 percent of the farm operators are over age 65. ___"Young people are not staying in rural areas. They are not going into production agriculture or agriculture-related business," Mathis said. ___State Rep. Warren Chisum of Pampa, chairman of the House Environmental Regulation Committee, spoke of the tension between the economic necessity of agricultural technology and the resultant potential harm to the environment. He made his point by quoting from Proverbs 14:4, "From the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest." ___"If you're going to have an ox, you're going to have a mess to clean up. But if you try farming without an ox, you're not going to get much farming done," Chisum observed. ___Likewise, technological innovations in agriculture can be a messy necessity, he said. "We have to have them, but we can make them run cleaner." ___ The Baptist Standard
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