Shepherding Nature

With stories about species on the brink, this book explores the causes and consequences of conservation reliance and its implications.

How does God manage his entire creation? Has he had a plan, a theme, a metanarrative or something else which he follows that gives a unity to all of his efforts? Shepherds describes the relationship between the Creator and his creation, a relationship that is structurally integrated by the very core of who God is. There is a design within creation that radiates from his personal, unique being. What God created and how he manages it is a marvelous extension of who he is and how he acts. This relationship between God and his creation is not patterned only on his essence or being, but on his powerful and loving will and acts. Rather than a literary grid to which "theme" and "metanarrative" attempt to subject God's relationship with humanity, Shepherds recognizes that all of creation bears the eternal design emanating from God's very nature. Scripture is not a "story" about Israel or the church; it is not simply a story of redemption; it is a window into the eternal design by which God created reality and will eternally sustain that creation.

An engaging history of the Shepherding Movement, an influential and controversial expression of the charismatic renewal in the 1970s and 1980s. This neopentecostal movement, led by popular Bible teachers Ern Baxter, Don Basham, Bob Mumford, Derek Prince and Charles Simpson, became a house church movement in the United States. The Shepherding Movement is a case study of an attempt at renewing church structures. Many critics accused the movement of being authoritarian because of its emphasis on submission to a personal pastor or "shepherd" as they termed it.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains a complete record of the twelve messages given during the July 2023 semiannual training, held in Anaheim, California. The Key Statements on the following page embody and summarize the crucial truths and main burdens covered in these twelve messages. The Reports and Announcements section contains "An Update concerning Europe," a "Summer 2023 Mass Distribution Update," and important information concerning upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry plus a website link to information on similar events in Europe and Israel.

We live in an environment that is comprised of both natural and artificial objects. The former is comprised of Gods creations, which manifest themselves in all their varieties in a state of perfection, order, and beauty, while the latter consists of creations of man, which exhibit the frailties and imperfections common to humankind. No occupation brings a person closer to nature than that of a shepherd. It was these humble, earthbound workers who, according to the Gospel of St. Luke, heard good tidings of great joy and saw this thing which is come to pass when called upon to witness the birth of our Creator. Shepherds live amid nature, entirely removed from the artificial world that unfortunately tends to occupy our attention. Shepherds place themselves in a position to clearly see what we might call the first law of nature, which is obedience, followed by a second law, which is that everything in nature has a purpose, including our own mortal existence. This simple book sets forth some of the great lessons of nature with each lesson beginning with a poem, symbolic of the harmony and rhythm of nature itself, as witnessed by a modern-day herdsman.

A groundbreaking examination of the implications of synthetic biology for biodiversity conservation Nature almost everywhere survives on human terms. The distinction between what is natural and what is human-made, which has informed conservation for centuries, has become blurred. When scientists can reshape genes more or less at will, what does it mean to conserve nature? The tools of synthetic biology are changing the way we answer that question. Gene editing technology is already transforming the agriculture and biotechnology industries. What happens if synthetic biology is also used in conservation to control invasive species, fight wildlife disease, or even bring extinct species back from the dead? Conservation scientist Kent Redford and geographer Bill Adams turn to synthetic biology, ecological restoration, political ecology, and de-extinction studies and propose a thoroughly innovative vision for protecting nature.

At the root of virtually every crisis in the world today, you will find that the cause is related to a crisis of leadership. Into this vacuum of leadership the Lord is going to raise up a standard of the best leaders the world will have ever known—and they will emerge from the body of Christ. This book is about this "new breed of leader" that is now being prepared.