Many Christians who care about creation eventually feel isolated. They experience faith differently through nature, Scripture, gardening, travel, or organizations (like Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies), but struggle to bring those experiences back into their churches and communities. Tend helps Christians form spiritual community with others through shared practices, relationships, and simple rhythms that connect faith, community, and care for creation.
What happens when Christians care about creation but feel alone?
There is a specific kind of loneliness that many Christians experience when they begin caring deeply about creation. Someone has a transformative experience and suddenly starts seeing the world differently, but the people around them may not understand what changed.
This can happen after time in nature, reading Scripture with fresh eyes, gardening, hiking, or participating in a program focused on creation and discipleship. Creation no longer feels like background scenery. It becomes part of how people understand God, neighbor, and spiritual formation. But when they try to bring that perspective back into everyday church life, people often struggle to find language, practices, or community that reinforce it.
Over time, people begin carrying these convictions alone. What once felt vibrant and life-giving starts to feel difficult to sustain in isolation.
What challenge did Jon Terry and Au Sable identify?
After listening to a podcast about Tend, Jon Terry from Au Sable reached out to me. They are noticing this loneliness phenomenon as well, and they’re looking to do something about it.
Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies is a Christian organization that offers environmental education through immersive field study experiences. Based in Michigan, Au Sable brings together college students and others who want a hands-on way to study ecology, biology, conservation, and environmental science in the context of Christian faith.
As our conversation unfolded, Jon shared about this challenge that Au Sable has increasingly recognized. Students arrive at Au Sable and experience profound transformation. They engage Scripture and creation together in ways that expand their understanding of God’s work in the world. They begin imagining discipleship as something connected to all creation, not separated from it.
Then they return home.
They go back to college campuses where no one talks about these things. They return to churches where creation care may feel disconnected from spiritual formation. They struggle to explain what changed in them because the community around them often lacks shared language or practices for it.
Over time, that isolation can undo the deep learning they experienced at Au Sable. That’s because people are formed communally. We are shaped by shared habits, rhythms, and relationships. Without reinforcement, even meaningful transformation can slowly fade.
Why do people begin to unlearn what once transformed them?
Spiritual formation does not happen through information alone. We are shaped by habits, relationships, routines, and the communities we participate in every day. Christian author James K.A. Smith often says, “You are what you love,” arguing that our desires and identities are formed less by what we think and more by what we repeatedly practice.
That helps explain why meaningful spiritual experiences can fade when people return to environments that do not reinforce them.
Someone may experience a deep shift in how they see God and creation through time outdoors, Scripture, gardening, shared community, or a place like Au Sable. But when they return home, the rhythms shaping their daily life often pull in another direction. The practices that once reinforced wonder and attention are replaced by practices that pull faith back to where it used to be.
Over time, people can slowly drift away from what once felt transformative, not because the experience was shallow, but because human beings are deeply shaped by their environment. We become like the communities and habits that surround us.
That is why formation cannot remain merely personal. We need shared practices that help us remember who we are and what God is inviting us into together.
Why did Au Sable reach out to Tend?
This is exactly why Jon from Au Sable reached out to us at Tend. They want to help students carry learning forward from their time at Au Sable into their campuses and churches.
For Au Sable, this is a new frontier. How do you create rhythms that continue shaping students long after a field study semester or retreat ends?
That is where Tend became part of the conversation.
Tend is an initiative of Plant With Purpose designed to help people practice discipleship in ways that connect faith, community, and creation.
Jon wanted to explore what we have learned about building communities where spiritual practices are deeply embedded into everyday life. Tend offers a framework for that kind of ongoing formation. Through shared meals, Scripture, conversation, and hands-on Earthcare Activities, people begin reinforcing together what they might otherwise struggle to sustain alone.
What did we learn from each other?
I learned that it’s not just pastors and adults who care about incorporating creation care into our faith. Students are already asking these questions, and people like Jon at Au Sable are looking for answers. I was inspired by Au Sable’s dedication to continuous improvement and to ensuring their students’ hard-fought transformation lasts well beyond their time on site.
I was able to share with Jon some of the principles that we’ve learned through creating Tend. The importance of meals, prayer, and shared practices. The ways that groups naturally form together in different sizes and spaces. The rhythms of gathering that nurture friendships and anchor values.
What encouraged me most was realizing how widespread this longing actually is.
Organizations like Au Sable and Plant With Purpose are asking similar questions. How do we help people move beyond isolated moments of inspiration into lasting communal transformation? How do we create communities where the creation-wide gospel is practiced, embodied, and woven into daily life?
And that longing is not limited to students returning home from Au Sable. It is something many people are already carrying in their churches, neighborhoods, and friendships.
What if you have been carrying this alone too?
Au Sable students are not the only ones who are looking for ways to incorporate creation care into their faith. There are many Christians who have experienced some kind of awakening around creation and faith. It’s important that they are able to find a community that reinforces it.
Humans are built for shared formation. Our faith grows stronger when we practice it together. If that’s what you’re looking for, you don’t have to create it from scratch. If you’re a student, check out Au Sable and see if it’s right for you. If you are looking for a way to integrate faith and creation care into your everyday life, get involved by starting a Tend group.
How can you get started with Tend?
Getting started with Tend is easy. Create an account, identify a co-leader, gather a few people, and begin building rhythms of shared practice together.
Your transformative experience doesn’t have to fade into the background with everything else. With spiritual practices like Tend, you can nurture openness to community, Scripture, shared meals, and caring for creation as a normal part of your faith.
FAQ
Why do Christians who care about creation often feel alone?
Many churches and communities do not yet have shared practices or language around creation care and discipleship. Without communal reinforcement, people can feel isolated even when their convictions are meaningful and sincere.
What is Au Sable Institute?
Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies is a Christian environmental education organization that helps students study science, ecology, and creation through immersive field-based experiences rooted in faith.
Is Tend connected to Au Sable?
They are separate organizations, but they share a desire to help people practically integrate faith and creation care.
What is Tend?
Tend is an initiative of Plant With Purpose that helps people form small groups around Scripture, shared meals, and simple Earthcare Activities.
Do I need experience to start a Tend group?
No. Tend is designed to be simple, accessible, and low pressure. Groups begin with shared rhythms that help people grow in faith and community together.
