This week, we spoke with Rev. Dr. Jeremy Summers of the Evangelical Environmental Network, who highlights how “creation care” connects Christian faith with climate action. He emphasizes that protecting the environment means protecting people, especially the poor and vulnerable most affected by pollution and climate change. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/evangelical-christians-taking-environmental-action-with-rev-dr-jeremy-summers/.
In Indiana, evangelical churches are finding new ways to live out their faith through environmental action. With support from the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), congregations are installing solar panels, planting native gardens, creating nature play areas for preschoolers, and even adding electric vehicle charging stations. This initiative, often referred to by Christians as “creation care,” positions environmental stewardship and climate action as a biblical responsibility.
EEN is a biblically-based ministry and the environmental arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, dedicated to mobilizing Christians around climate action. By collaborating with churches, universities, and seminaries, the organization offers education on how creation care is a collective mission among evangelicals. In Central Indiana, this has meant congregations and Christian universities working together on eco-friendly infrastructure and community events such as Indy Creation Fest, an Earth Day-like celebration that joyfully highlights humanity’s duty to conserve and steward the beauty God bestowed on us.
A central theme of EEN’s work is showing Christians that defending the poor and vulnerable also means addressing pollution — including from plastic, methane, and mercury — and climate change. Low-income communities often face the harshest impacts of extreme climate disasters, poor air quality, and contaminated water. By making this connection clear, EEN reframes environmentalism as an act of justice and compassion for humanity, aligning climate action with evangelical priorities. Their programs highlight not only environmental threats but also human health risks, from asthma linked to air pollution to the dangers of unsafe drinking water.
Creation care is still a growing movement and remains a minority position within American evangelicalism. Some believers continue to prioritize human welfare over environmental stewardship without recognizing that the two are inseparable. Historically, evangelicals have been among the groups least likely to regard climate change as urgent and express wariness about climate science. While the visible progress in Indiana is promising, it remains only a small step in the broader effort to normalize creation care across the evangelical community.
Nonetheless, by centering their approach on shared religious values, EEN helps evangelical Christians see climate action not as a burden, but as a natural extension of their mission to honor God and all of creation.
Rev. Dr. Jeremy Summers, the Director of Church and Community Engagement at EEN, emphasizes that caring for the environment and caring for people are one in the same. He works with churches, universities, and local communities to connect biblical principles with climate action, advancing the creation care movement within evangelical circles. Within these spaces, he urges Christians to understand that protecting ecosystems is necessary to protect the people who live in them, especially those from marginalized groups who suffer most from pollution, climate change, and environmental injustice.
For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/evangelical-christians-taking-environmental-action-with-rev-dr-jeremy-summers/.
ETHAN: I’m Ethan Elkind, and you’re listening to Climate Break. Climate solutions in a hurry. Today’s proposal: persuading evangelical Christians to embrace climate action as a way to care for the poor and vulnerable communities most harmed by climate change.
We spoke with Reverend Dr. Jeremy Summers, the Director of Church and Community Engagement at the Evangelical Environmental Network.
REV. SUMMERS: We believe that God reconciles all of creation. That all creation belongs to Jesus. We see this in scripture and it also fulfills the greatest commandment to love God and to love what God loves. So for instance, it's hard to love a child with asthma when you're filling their lungs with pollution.
ETHAN: The Evangelical Environmental Network, or EEN, equips Christians with resources to advocate for environmental action. Their programs highlight not only the ecological threats of climate disasters and extreme weather, but also the human health impacts from climate pollution like methane and plastic.
REV. SUMMERS: For EEN, when we talk about creation care, a lot of things that we talk about is caring for the environment — land conservation, clean water. But we also talk about, in addition to just the environment, caring about the people that are in that environment as well, and how those are so interconnected.
ETHAN: Through education initiatives and community engagement, EEN teaches Christians that the call to defend the poor and marginalized includes fighting against climate change and pollution, which often hit these communities the hardest.
REV. SUMMERS: We believe that you can see the science and so forth that pollution hurts the poor the most. And as Christians, we're called to care for the poor and the less powerful.
ETHAN: To learn more about the Evangelical Environmental Network, check out ClimateBreak.org.