Serve God, Save the Planet is written by J. Matthew Sleeth, a former emergency room doctor, ER director, and chief of medical staff. He writes primarily out of his experience in evangelical Christianity, which is reflected by many of the theological assertions in the book. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of the theology he espouses, I do think that his core tenets of tying the care of creation with our love and service of God and fellow humans and are sound.

Though it’s not an incredibly long book (~250 pages total) it does cover a lot of ground. There are 16 chapters in all, so rather than summarize each one I’ll simply hit some of the book’s high and low points and provide some general reflections:

High Points

Style & Format – Sleeth writes in a very readable style, making this a book that can definitely be enjoyed by anyone who has a basic background in Christianity. As I mentioned there are 16 chapters, only 10-15 pages each, and 5 helpful appendices including a workbook, an energy audit, and an environmental to-do list. I could definitely see this book being used as the basis of an ongoing discussion group using the included workbook questions as a starting point.

Global emphasis – An important consideration when talking about the environment is that many of those who suffer the greatest from the damage that is done to the earth live in poorer countries around the world. Sleeth provides global insight into the problems of pollution and overconsumption through both facts and figures as well as personal anecdotes from medical misisons trips.

Practical – This book definitely appeals to my practical side. Even though many of the examples Sleeth shares from his own life are far more drastic than most people will be ready to undertake initially, he does provide other, smaller suggestions that are more easily incorporated into every day living. So while his story of living in a house that is the size of his previous garage may seem like an unattainable goal for some (depending on the size of their garages), his suggestions to use compact flourescent light bulbs, plant vegetable gardens, and hang laundry outside to dry are all more easily incorporated.

Inclusive – I think that too often we focus simply on the actions that are beneficial or detrimental to the environment instead of focusing on the attitudes behind those actions. Sleeth addresses this by grounding creation care in love of God and love of neighbor. He discusses how our attitudes about child-rearing, population control, and even our modern, western fixation on fitness and medical wellbeing can have a large impact on the natural world.

A call to simpler living – I have a theological and spiritual appreciation for simple living. The Church of the Brethren, the denomination I am a part of, has historically emphasized simple living in community as how we are called to live out our faith as Christians. As I read this book, much of what Sleeth said resonated with me not only because of my interest in the environment, but also because I value the quest to seek out a simpler way of life in the midst of modern busyness. What he says about rampant consumerism, our sense of entitlement, and our ignorance of how disproportionately wealthy we are compared to the rest of the world is not new. However, it is something we need to be reminded of often since our commercial-driven media is constantly trying to make us forget.

Low Points

Theological & biblical issues – As I mentioned earlier the theology of the book is more on the evangelical side, and I found my theological hacklesraised by some of the assumptions he puts forth as facts (like some issues of biblical authorship) and some of his choices regarding biblical translations. He uses the King James Version, which in my opinion is based on outdated scholarship and is often contextually irrelevant in the 21st century, and the New Living Translation, which is more of a paraphrase, for many of his scriptural quotations. While I had no trouble reading around these issues and didn’t see them as affronts to my own beliefs, others who have less familiarity or are less comfortable with the diversity of Christian belief may find it more difficult to do so.

Too broad? – I know that just moments ago I praised how inclusive Sleeth is when dealing with the issue of environmental care, yet I wonder if he’s possibly a bit too broad in his approach. Let me explain. Many of the things he writes about do have an impact on the environment, yet some are much more tangential than others. For example, he has entire chapters on his thoughts about television, work patterns and sabbath rest, family dynamics and child rearing, and even a chapter on childhood misconceptions and Santa Claus! While there are no doubt some environmental implications to each of these, the way he writes about them sometimes seems to lack the emphasis I might have hoped for.

Anecdotes – While Sleeth is a very readable writer and a pretty good storyteller, I sometimes found his anecdotes to be a bit much. Almost every chapter seemed to have at least one story from his experiences as an emergency room doctor, a medical missions trip, or his family life. While these stories often serve to prove a point, other times they are a bit graphic and shocking. Maybe that’s what he was going for, turning our stomachs to turn our thought patterns. I’m sure others may appreciate these stories more than I did, so this one I might just chalk up to personal preference.

To Read or Not To Read

Over all I found this to be a very enjoyable and thought-provoking book. I would suggest it to anyone who has an interest in learning how care for the environment can be a natural outgrowth of Christian belief. I also think this would be an excellent read for Christians who might be having a hard time figuring out why so many other Christians are jumping on the environmental bandwagon. They may even find themselves jumping on too!

Those who are already theologically-grounded Christian environmentalists may enjoy reading about Sleeth’s personal lifestyle changes in light of his conviction for creation care. Though I can’t recommend all of his theological nuances, I think his overall reasoning is very sound and I found myself greatly appreciating how he portrays saving the planet to be a natural outgrowth of serving God.

Central to Baker’s model of so-called “girlfriend theology” is providing girls opportunities to share their stories and reflect theologically on those stories with other adolescent girls and older female mentors. The idea is that this will provide safe space for these young women to be “heard to speech” and give them a way to begin constructing their own theologies that are informed by their lived experiences.

Baker makes the critique that early feminists, in their attempt to re-define women’s place in society, often left their young daughters behind. While she herself is deeply informed by feminism she also draws on other branches that have grown out of western feminist theology. These include mujerista theology which draws on the experience of Latin American women, Asian-feminism, and womanist theology from the experience of African-American women. Baker asserts that these other forms of women’s emancipatory theology all do a better job of recognizing the role of young women in the theological process than traditional western feminism.

Baker’s model for engaging in girlfriend theology is a four-step process of “story theology” intended to be undertaken with a small group of adolescents and a couple of adult mentors. The way Baker describes it seems to presuppose that these mentors are women well-versed in both theological and feminist thought, so that they can help the young women to flesh out the thoughts and ideas that may arise. The first step of the process is hearing the story at hand. For each session one woman in the group is asked to prepare a story from her life to share that they find meaningful, but one they have not already shared and reflected on in other settings. It should also be a story without many overtly religious elements (such as a story of conversion) because that may potentially limit the depth of the conversation to be had. Some examples of stories Baker gives are the death of a childhood friend, a cherished memory of a “perfect day”, an experience of relating in a new way with an adult friend or family member, or another time when God seemed particularly close.

After the story has been shared the group enters into a time of sharing their “near” experiences. These include feelings, memories, and associations brought up by the story and noting key themes, symbols, and images that may arise. The group then moves to sharing “distant” experiences and exploring the meaning of the story. During this time theological themes, connections to biblical stories and Christian practices, and even echoes of other religious traditions may be brought into the conversation. This is the time when the question: “where is God in this story” is considered.

The fourth and final step is preparing to go forth from this time of storytelling and reflecting. The group discusses how they have been changed by the story and in what ways they will look at life a little differently now. They consider how the practice of their faith will be changed by what they have learned. Importantly, there is also recognition that different meanings may exist and they should leave space for those differences.

While I greatly appreciate what Baker has done with this book in providing a lengthy support of why it is important to engage in this sort of theological and spiritual formation exercise with young women, I had some difficulty relating to the book and method much of the time. Being a man, I often felt like an outsider looking in, even though this has not always been my experience with feminist-oriented texts. Despite Baker’s assertion early on that this method can be “translated” for groups other than adolescent girls, I think that the many ways she connects this method with feminism and its importance for young women makes it more difficult to make that translation.

I think that for adolescents this process would definitely work best in single-gender groups because of the complicated social dynamics that are at play during that time in live. For slightly older, more mature young adults, let’s say post-college age, I think that mixed-gender groups would be more acceptable. I recently had the opportunity to participate in an example session of this sort of story theology with a mixed age and gender group of fellow seminarians. Since we were a group that had an established relationship it was probably easier for us to enter into this activity than it would be for a group that did not have a preexisting relationship.

I like Baker’s use of story theology and appreciate her way of claiming this form of group theological reflection as one way to reach out to young women during a time in their lives when they are in need of safe and supportive ways to more deeply explore their own faith and spirituality. And while Baker only addresses how important this is for young women, I think it is just as important for young men. I found that her powerful support for why this is so important for women made it more difficult for me to imagine how it could be translated for men. Story theology is undoubtedly a viable way of engaging in group theological reflection in settings other than adolescent girls, however Baker’s girlfriend theology application is so well-supported by her feminist/womanist approach that translating her ideas to other settings seems very awkward.

To Read or Not to Read: Anyone who anticipates engaging in the ongoing spiritual formation of young women (as a Sunday-school teacher, youth group leader, pastor, etc.) should probably put Doing Girlfriend Theology on their reading list. While it would be most helpful to women who are seeking to take up this task,  anyone would probably find it to be a valuable resource for envisioning and providing ways to help adolescent girls grow spiritually and theologically. Otherwise, while some of the ideas covered in this book could be used more widely, if you are interested in reading more about story theology in general there are likely other books that would be more worthwhile and more easily applied in a broader range of settings.

Bass visits congregations of various “mainline” Protestant congregations across the United States and develops ten signposts of renewal that were present in those churches. These signposts range from discernment, contemplation, reflection, beauty, and more. Not every signpost was present in every church, but each church did have at least one of them. I appreciated the fact that in all ten of these chapters it never seemed that Bass was trying to portray a one-size-fits-all solution to living into these areas of ministry.

Throughout the book Bass uses the language of “tourists” and “pilgrims” to describe the involvement of individuals in these churches. She notes that in today’s highly mobile and transient society that people often become spiritual tourists, moving from one place to another but never becoming deeply involved. She likens these tourists to spiritual nomads, wandering about the desert of modern spirituality alone, often without direction or destination. She contrasts this depiction with that of the pilgrim. Both may be wanderers of a sort, but the pilgrim does so with a purpose and the intention of ultimately arriving at a meaningful destination. This metaphor of journeying is used throughout the book, both with regards to the experiences of the people the author meets in the process of researching and writing the book as well as the author’s own experience.

One of the reflections Bass shares near the end of the book is that most of these churches did not self-identify themselves as being “red” or “blue” politically. While many had a majority of Democrats, most sought to be more “purple,” finding a middle way in the midst of the political divisiveness that currently seems to plague our country. This was a refreshing counterpoint to what I perceived to be a fair amount of conservative-bashing earlier in the book. Bass seemed to be saying that while these churches were of the liberal or progressive persuasion theologically speaking, that did not necessarily mean that the political views of individual parishioners were universally liberal.

I think it would be fair to say that the main point of this book is to show that renewal and growth can take and is taking place in mainline Protestant churches, not just in Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Bass goes to great lengths to show that the churches discussed in this book are not such churches, often portraying them in opposition to these traditions. She also portrays these churches as being a new, better way of approaching older mainline Protestantism, a group she refers to on numerous occasions as the “frozen chosen.”

Since I am from a tradition that I feel does not qualify as part of the “mainline” Bass refers to or the Evangelicals and Pentecostals she opposes, I found myself in an awkward place as I tried to find perspective on this book. The denomination I am a part of, the Church of the Brethren, has a very wide ranging constituency, from far-left liberals to far-right conservative evangelicals. It is also a denomination largely made up of small congregations, much smaller than the average size of 300 persons of the churches in Bass’s study. Ultimately I found myself appreciating the book and finding good ideas in it, but never quite connecting with the context that it was written from or intended for.

To Read or Not to Read: Well, maybe. If you have an interest in how Christianity is changing to adapt to our increasingly post-Christendom, postmodern society, then probably so. But if you don’t have some familiarity with the context of mainline Protestantism then be forewarned that you may feel like somewhat of an outsider looking in at times. And don’t expect to find anything about the emergent church movement, the missional church, or any other renewal efforts taking place outside of mainline Protestantism. If you can get past these it’s an easy and relative enjoyable read that provides one vantage point on how Christianity is evolving in the 21st century.