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Last month, when I spoke at the Catalyst conference in Atlanta, I came across a study called “Beyond the Trend.” The premise is that while trends may govern the world, they don’t have to rule our lives. I could not agree more. For example, Christians should take advantage of the weekly gift of Sabbath rest.

In the report I found two trends to be of particular interest. One trend is that Christianity will continue to expand its definition of neighbor. Through the teachings of Jesus, our sphere of empathy is expanding to include not only people of all colors and races, but the entire cosmos–the natural world that God created and entrusted in our care. According to the report, protecting animals, habitats, mountains, and rivers is likely to get a wider Christian hearing in the coming decades.

The second trend relates to the spiritual dimension of technology. At the center of Christianity is the relationship of man and God. In recent years, this core has been expanded to include relationships between nature, man, and God. But a third-order relationship is also beginning to emerge: What is the proper relationship between technology, nature, man, and God? A Bluetooth connected to our ear is a millimeter away from an implant. How many hundreds of text messages does a person have to send a day to become distracted from family, relationships, and God? In the past, medical technologies have been used to restore function; will Christians draw a line at technologies that enhance function? Tomorrow there will be new inventions, and the day after even more. If God is absent from discussions on the ethics of emerging technologies, then who will provide our moral compass?

These are the kinds of questions we are asking ourselves at Blessed Earth, and the kinds of answers we want to continue exploring with you. Thank you for sharing the journey with us into this Brave New World — a world that can and should be centered on loving God and our neighbors by caring for His creation.

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See Beyond the Trend: A Review of Leadership Thought and Practices, Vol. 5, a Catalyst-Q Collaboration, 2009.

Matthew Sleeth serves as Blessed Earth’s Executive Director and resides with his wife, Nancy, in Wilmore, KY.

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