At Lutheran Outdoor Ministries sites, campers and leaders experience the breath-taking beauty of God’s creation — calm waters, quiet forests, emerald valleys, starlit skies, peaceful mountains. They pray, hike, sing, canoe, swim and study the Bible with an awareness that the spaces they inhabit and the creatures they encounter are formed by our Creator and cause for wonder. Lutherans believe God created humans in God’s image and granted them dominion over the natural world. Dominion, however, isn’t about power but about service.
As God’s image-bearers, we are called to care for the earth and its inhabitants as God would: with love, compassion, kindness and thoughtful stewardship. Lutheran Outdoor Ministries invite participants to discover what it means to be called by God to steward the earth and all its inhabitants. All creation points to our dependence on a Creator who calls us into relationship with each other and the world. Even amid great environmental challenges in our world, we can begin to view “creation’s eager longing” as a gracious invitation from our God, thanks to Lutheran Outdoor Ministries. And we know that when God calls, God also supplies what we need to fulfill that call.
A version of this text first appeared in the “Keeping the Earth” curriculum for Lutheran Outdoor Ministries, published by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Looking for a Lutheran Outdoor Ministries site? Check out all our camps here. Did we miss one? Email us at journi@elca.org.
